Tuesday, December 14, 2021

November 2021 Entry

November 2021 Entry: 


November was a heck of a month. 


MISC========================= 

- Bought Chicken Range thanks to viewers hitting our third community challenge goal (11.02). I did wish it was $20 like it normally was for a couple years. Had to get it while I could find it. 


- Follower emotes became active for more streamers (11.02). I had already asked my cousin to create them ever since they were a thing to just wait for them to be used outside of Discord. And I'm glad others are using them especially to rate demos during Demo Showcases along with me. 


- Power outage occurred (11.03). It stuck for a long time because I ate my dinner by a battery powered lamp just like during the winter outage. If I waited for about another half hour, I wouldn't have had to eat cold chicken in the dark. 

- My N64 controllers arrived (11.04). It feels great and weighty. 


- I tweeted "one step forward" for some reason (11.06). I couldn't remember at first, but it was after talking to Agent Blue about something important. 

- Got my Metroid Dread posters (11.10). I missed out on the initial batch, but made sure to get them the second time I saw them available. 


- After being in IceTokki's stream where she made pretzels, I checked Amazon for pretzel type snacks to buy. Ended up finding Snyder's of Hanover Pretzel Pieces Hot Buffalo Wing flavor (11.16). First taste was surprising. Took a while to start to like them. I have two more bags left. 
 

- Ended up going to Angela Song Art's stream after one of mine. It had been a while since I had stopped by and I mentioned I had bought some of her old art. Got to look for what else she had available and saw she had shirts. Found a few designs I liked and ordered 2 shirts that arrived about a week later (11.18). Great stuff. I'll keep my eye out if she puts any other designs up. 


- I knew that Jamie and Xander were coming into town for their wedding. A week prior I was invited to the wedding, but it was still unknown when the day would be. I had to miss the wedding due to scheduling, but was able to join for the game gathering a few days later (11.20). Met some new people, saw a few friends I had not seen in a while, and we all had a good time playing a bunch of games (Strider 2, Jackbox, IceCool, Bomberman, etc) and had some good talks. Great night. 
 

- Haven't had a haircut in two years (11.23). 

- My Black Friday purchase was New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (11.23). It was half off and I had my $5 coupon to take care of shipping. I was baffled when I received an odd set of notifications of when the game was being delivered, ha. Check the Twitter link. 


- For Round 20 of free Prime Video content, I decided to rewatch the Flame of Recca series. It was fun to relive after decades, but I was more critical of it this time. Mainly because there were things I didn't notice when I was younger. But doing this has made me want to do more series in the future instead of just a batch of movies. 


WRESTLING========================= 

- AEW Full Gear 2021 was really fun (11.13). Great matches all around. 


- Survivor Series 2021 was also great (11.21). I got the majority of my predictions wrong, but it was a solid PPV. PS: I'm okay getting predictions wrong as long as I enjoy the show. 


H.E.R.========================= 

- Because it's the holiday season, here's a short story about the first holiday party at HER (and a little more). I was in charge of activities and had Agent PQ help me out. I basically recreated a gameshow format I used to do with friends at holiday parties. I took the best of the best games and had the HER team and guests play them. They didn't all go according to plan, but I'm sure it set the tone for what to expect from me for the next few years and to see how the team reacted to doing silly things like that in general. First year; games. Second year; award show. Third year; voting award show. Fourth year, The Scarlet Spy (my favorite). Sixth year; Family Feud. 

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this in previous blog entries, but I always looked forward to these holiday events as it was fun and nerve-wracking for me to put together. However, seeing the staff and guests relax and laugh was very rewarding. I was actually very disappointed to have not been asked to set things up again in our 5th year, but was glad to be asked for our last one. 

GAMES========================= 

- I knew of Ravva and the Cyclops Curse for a while now thanks to Voxgizer (Debonair Vox). I always mentioned to him and the developers that I'll play it once it's on the Switch. It came out in September and I just needed to figure out when to play it. And I finally did (11.01). Played through it 3 times and even had a really good run on my last one. 


Based on stats, I would have been 3rd overall in speedruns. But I was actually first place in consoles. Debonair and the other time was for PC. So I had the first place speedrun world record on consoles for Ravva...for 29 days. GToTheNextLevel was interested in the game as well after hearing both Debonair and I talk about it. Eventually he played it. He beat a total of 5 times I think. He actually could have beaten my run with his fourth run, but got caught up a few times. But watching him on his last run I was nervous, but also excited. And then it happened. Congratulations to him. Will I try to get it back? Not anytime soon, but I'll make that attempt at least once. 


- Demo Showcase 75 (11.03) 

- Played our first Genesis game off Nintendo Switch Online with Gunstar Heroes (11.04). Never played it before, but I knew what it looked like and knew that lots of people liked it. It's good. Definitely enjoyed it. But the 100 minute challenge, not worth it, ha. I did it though. 


- Vigor is not a bad free-to-play shooter (11.05). I enjoyed it, but I'm not the best at shooters in general. Plus it didn't hook me to want to keep playing more than I did. 


- Replayed Streets of Rage 4 with the Mr. X Nightmare DLC (11.07-11.08). I liked the new characters added to use, especially Estelle and Shiva. Survival Mode was really fun too. Thanks to Rannchan and GToTheNextLevel for playing a few rounds with me. Part of me wants to go back to keep playing Survival to build everyone's stats, but it's very rare that I play games off stream anymore. Plus if I return to a game, I think of a reason to stream it, but this wouldn't be the case for this. 


- Slayin 2 was fun (11.10-11.11). A favorite from a previous Demo Showcase. We beat it the first stream and made some goals for the second stream to "complete" it. Not 100% of everything as we still had to buy all the weapons (would have needed a third stream to do), but at least to collect everything else and complete all the challenges. Shout out to the viewers for our second hype train ever. Unexpected, but appreciated. 


- The 3rd community challenge was Chicken Range (11.13). Worst game I've played this year, hands down. The motion controls were horrible especially with the rifle peripheral. Even outside the rifle, the motion controls are bad. We beat it and I'll never have to play it again, ha. Save your money and time and never play this. 


- Played The Silver Case 2425 | The Silver Case for the first time (11.15-11.17). I said more curse words in 3 days than I have in 3+ years, ha. I still find it interesting for others to react when I do say bad words on the stream. But they were hooked and confused as much as I was with the story. Boo for my camera freezing in the last stream. Definitely looking forward to playing the prequel next month. 


- Demo Showcase 76 was a unique one (11.19). I knew why as the set of demos were laid out. I had played Graceful Explosion Machine previously. It was actually my first eShop game I bought on the Switch. And Metroid Dread was already purchased and scheduled to be played in December. The demo did get me excited to play it though. 


- Much like Streets of Rage 4, we returned to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity with the Expansion Pass DLC (11.21-11.25). Had an issue at the beginning where the DLC wasn't activated even though I bought it. But I had it downloaded prior to changing to the OLED model so I had to redownload it again. We ended up getting all the characters and beat the additional story and collected all the memory quests. I wanted to also try and collect all the treasures and Koroks I missed last time, but time wouldn't be on our side. Had I maybe not gone for treasures, I might have been able to collect the last 2 Koroks that were in the base game's last stage, which is a long chapter obviously. That is something else I would like to go back and finish (treasures and Koroks, all quests...probably not). I'm definitely okay having another reason to return to Age of Calamity. 
 

- Our second free-to-play game of the month was Rogue Company (11.28). Another shooter, but different to Vigor. I liked this one more. 


- Sin & Punishment was our first N64 game off of Nintendo Switch Online (11.29). Much like Gunstar Heroes, I knew of this game. Unlike Gunstar Heroes, I actually played this on the Wii U Virtual Console. For about an hour...didn't get far. I got farther this time, but hit a wall with one boss sequence and was there for more than an hour. And we still had another chapter or two left...and I had no motivation to go further. I said it in the stream; I see why people like it, but I don't like it. 

Cheers for the 3rd hype train on stream. Thank you to those that contributed. 


ETC========================= 

- HOT - Age of Violence (MV) 

- SES - Dreams Come True (MV) 

- HOT - The Promise of HOT (MV) 

- TWICE - Scientist (MV) 

Very fun song. I liked their outfits and performances for this one. 

- Ryujin - Therefore I Am (Studio Choom) 

Ryujin, you are so damn cool. 

- Jang WooHyuk - Tonight (MV) 

- Happy Birthday, BoA (11.05) 

- Happy Birthday, Momo (11.09) 

- The latter end of November...was not great. I don't really recall when things started happening, but I had started to lose more sleep than I had mentioned in previous entries. But I noticed my heart stuff slowly creeping back. I didn't know what set that off, but at one point I thought the 6 months of exercising were reset. Previous arm pain has gone away mostly, but there was one day it was pretty bad. 

Not only that, but my best friend was coming to town for Thanksgiving weekend and was having her daughter baptized. I definitely was going to that and even warmed up to the invite of going to the renaissance fair the day before. She wasn't responding to texts for a while, but eventually let me know that she unfortunately got COVID. So she didn't even get to spend Thanksgiving out of town. That added to my stress. She's doing better now as of typing this (12.14). 

It really has been rough. And as of typing this, I've been better. Unfortunately other things have happened. Everything fluctuates. Sometimes it's more obvious and sometimes I don't even remember anything is wrong. Pretty much take it day by day. 

That's a wrap on November 2021. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind. 


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 

Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, November 14, 2021

October 2021 Entry

October 2021 Entry: 


October felt short and long. Does that make sense? And as I was posting this, I realized the link for last month's entry also is labeled August. Can't fix it either, d'oh. 

MISC========================= 

- Still having days where I lose sleep. Other than my normal methods that help me fall asleep, I have started thinking of ranking random things. Lately it's been ranking TWICE songs. I've been able to lock in the top 5, but the rest is when I keep nodding off as I'm trying to remember all their songs. 

- Got my Collector's Edition Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom (10.02). Such a good game. I now own 2 copies of the game as I previously bought it. I still remember not being able to get the game in person at a Best Buy and do price matching, but was able to get the price matched online. 


- Bought a bunch of fortune cookies and Misfortune Cookies for stream purposes (10.03). They are now channel point redemptions with the Misfortune Cookies being specific for when we streamed Little Misfortune. 


- I mentioned in my last entry that I was apparently still able to receive unemployment even though the program had ended. I received a file to continue doing it and I did. When I went to claim for those two weeks, I received a message to call TWC (10.04). I was met with a very kind and patient customer service worker named Tracy. She explained the issue as others were mistakenly receiving the files too. Furthermore, she said I had to re-register and explained the process (which was a lot) while answering all my questions. At the end of that conversation, she asked if I wanted her to help me register on the spot, which I opted to do. It wasn't smooth as she had issues with her computer to the point that she had to call me back after getting that resolved. The whole call was about 2 hours long. Throughout it, Tracy was fun and entertaining and provided me with laughs and a strong impression of how much she cared. I was registered and did my job searches that were required. 

Unfortunately it was all for naught. As I went to file for that two weeks, I was asked to call TWC again (10.19). The person on the other line (I forget his name) understood what was going on and answered my questions thoroughly. In the end, it was determined that there was no more unemployment for me to collect. Tracy had thought I was still able to receive some, but this person confirmed it was over. He did say if there was a possibility of me being eligible for another unemployment program and that I'd be contacted about it, but there was no guarantee. And that is how my story and collection of unemployment ended. 


- Ordered a Pocky & Rocky shirt (10.05). Can't recall seeing any Pocky & Rocky merchandise ever so I had to get the shirt. 
 

- 10 years on Twitter (10.05) 

- I received an email about my upcoming Metroid Dread amiibo order saying that part of the payment wasn't accepted. So I called up GameStop and received another round of great customer service. This time it was Alexis from GameStop (10.06). It didn't take long for her to figure out what was wrong and provide an answer. But the fact that she asked me what my weekend plans were and we talked for a few minutes about our gaming history was a surprise. Great customer service is always appreciated no matter what profession it comes from. 


- Went to pick up my copy of Metroid Dread (10.08, 10.09). I received a call the day before per usual and I asked if they had copies of the Collector's Edition and was told if I was there early, I'd get one. The store opens at 11AM normally so I decided to get there half an hour early. I didn't expect a line, ha. While waiting in line, I learned that other things other than Dread and the OLED were being released. Plus I only learned recently that this store was big in card collecting. Most people in line were there for the new Pokemon card set. This was the first time since the Switch originally came out that I waited in line for any game. I was there for about half an hour and the line moved smoothly allowing only 2 sets of customers at a time. When I finally got inside, they still had 2 copies of the Collector's Edition for Metroid Dread, yay. The next day, my shipment for the Metroid Dread amiibo arrived. Everything Metroid Dread related is so dang good. 


- My Switch OLED arrived in the mail (10.08). I only opened it up that first day since I had plans, but I started to transfer everything the next day. However, I made a mistake. Called up Nintendo's customer service and it took a while to get a solution. Thankfully I was informed one way would have wiped and deleted my account so I'm glad I didn't do that. But basically I had to move all my save data one at a time and that took a long time (10.09-10.10). But I also went the extra mile to download everything in the exact order so that the thumbnails matched my original Switch (10.10-10.11). Unnecessary, but I wanted to do it. In the end, not everything could be transferred over such as demos and free-to-play games that have been delisted and a few titles that were straight up non-transferable. 


- A highschool friend was in town for her birthday (10.08). Not only that, but a mutual friend from streaming came to visit making her the second person I've met through streaming. We first went to eat bun bo hue. Next we went to the hotel they were staying at and played Bargain Quest (very fun board game). I was also gifted a bunch of snacks. We then went to find a place to eat for dinner. Had to change our choice a few times and ended up at a small sushi place (recommended by my friend's brother who joined us). We couldn't find it at first since it was in a building with other small food places around. But it was a good way to end the night. And that was the first time I had been out in such a crowded place where lots of people weren't wearing masks. 

I did hang out with all of them (plus their younger brother) again a couple days later to eat dim sum. Been years since I had dim sum. Always good stuff. And it was was good to see all of them one last time before they left town. 


- Went for a cleaning at the dentist (10.13). I ended up getting sick that day. Not sure if it was in correlation to the dentist or the Jack In The Box I ate afterwards. It was a bad stomach bug that I needed a couple of days to recover from. 


- Finally got back to doing some Ring Fit (10.19). Friends coming into town and getting sick made this the longest gap of time I had not done an exercise session. 15 days is a long time. 

- Injustice was good to watch (10.19). Really liked the liberties they took from the original story of the game. Kept it fresh and surprising. Highly recommend it. 


- You can now officially post to Instagram from a desktop (10.21). That was something I've been wanting ever since officially using Instagram. However, I noticed something odd a few days later (10.24). Posting videos from desktop actually cuts off about half a second even if you had not edited it. So it's back to emailing myself to post from my phone. 

- New wrestling shirts (10.27). Been a while since I bought any. 


- Round 19 done. My top 3 were Attack the Block, Coherence, and Zombeavers. It was also great watching Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture after so many years. 


- Glad to have received my Genesis controllers (10.29). Part of me was wondering if they would arrive on time before streaming my first Genesis NSO game. 
 

WRESTLING========================= 

- Leaving this part empty as I can't remember what happened and nothing popped up while looking at highlights to type this out. 

H.E.R.========================= 

- I caught up with the owner of HER (10.30). It  was good to see him and to share stories. I had a reason to speak with him and it turned out well. That's all I'll say about that at this time. 

But to tie that with a story/memory, Agent Raynor was always reachable to speak to if necessary. It was great to have him come visit us when he could, but he would schedule any extra time for anyone that needed/wanted to talk to him. One thing he used to do was schedule time with new hires to talk with them for a good 30-60 minutes. Whether it be a long walk around the building on a slow day or to grab a snack or nothing special, he would take the time to form a bond with them since he wasn't always around. I think the last person he was able to do that with was with Agent Ocean with whom I think they actually played basketball together while talking. I do think those that didn't get that opportunity missed out. 

GAMES========================= 

- Played through all of the Contra Anniversary Collection (10.01-10.17). It was interesting to see the differences for each game that I never played and to relive the ones I had and do more. Like I never got all the endings to Hard Corps and I never beat the NES Contra without the Konami code until now. Contratober (coined by Rannchan) was really fun. 


- Rannchan played Agent A: An agent in disguise on her stream after watching me play part of it (10.02). It was cool watching her go through it. I even gave her hints when needed similar to how I used to at HER. Glad she enjoyed it and we both want a sequel. 


- Sora being the last fighter for Smash was the perfect bookend (10.05). While I'm not high on Kingdom Hearts (only played the first game), his reveal gave me goosebumps. And like with every Smash character that gets revealed, I tried him out (10.19). He's too floaty for my liking, but I like how they interpreted him. 


- At the end of Contratober, it was fitting to play Blazing Chrome (10.18). I got a physical copy a long time ago, but never got around to it. It's not perfect, but it is fun to play. 


- Demo Showcase 74 (10.20) 

- PAC-MAN 99 for stream 599 (10.21). Prior to PAC-MAN 99 being a thing, we played Tetris 99 for every 99th numbered stream. PAC-MAN 99 is very fun. And and and...I got 1st place! The goal was to break the top 25, then top 10, then top 5. Then it happened, ha. Shout out to those that played with me. Can't wait to continue this new tradition. 


- IdolDays was voted on for stream 600 (10.22). I really enjoyed this visual novel. Thank goodness for a fast-forward feature to allow getting all endings easy. Outside of the game, it was disappointing to have a low turnout for the stream. Sure, the milestone of 600 streams may not be as interesting as an anniversary stream to some, it is to me as it shows how much time I've put into this. Of course any time anyone chooses to spend in my streams is appreciated. 


- The second half of October was dedicated to games with the word Little. Little Nightmares Complete Edition was first (10.24-10.25). I had seen lots of people stream the game so I remembered quite a few things that happened. However, I don't recall seeing anyone stream the DLC. All that was new to me. I did correctly predict how the DLC ended once something happened towards the end. 
 

- Little Nightmares II was next (10.27, 10.30). I had not watched anyone play it so I didn't know what to expect outside of the demo. Definitely more refined than the first. To me, it was creepier too. 2 blemishes for these streams though. One was that I had to delay finishing the game due to harsh winds knocking out our power 4 times. At first I was going to keep the few parts that I was able to stream, but decided to scrap them and play through chapter 4 and stop where the first stream ended. The second bad thing was that one hat was not attainable through any alternate means because it was a pre-purchase item. Minus that one item, I 100% the game. 


- I knew of it, but I actually hit the 100 shelf limit on Twitch playlists (10.27). I'm slowly going through and deleting un-needed playlists. And by slowly, I mean I only removed about 5. For example, all 3 games of the Phoenix Wright Trilogy don't need their own playlists anymore and just need the big one for the entire trilogy. But I also need to change links in spreadsheets that use those old and soon-to-be unusable playlist links. 

- Upgraded my Switch online subscription to the Expansion Pak (10.29). I am very excited to play through the Genesis and N64 games. I already figured out how to fit them into the stream schedule. I understand why many are upset about the price, but I do know I'm a rare customer. It's not that I'm a fan of Nintendo. I do think the price is too high. It actually hit the highest I would have considered paying, ha. A few things though. I don't pay for many monthly services/subscriptions. Plus, I play at least 2 games off the NSO service already. If the games were at their original retail price or even at a discounted price, I get my money's worth. Again, I get why others might not like it, it's fine for me. 


- Ended the Little portion of October with Little Misfortune (10.31). My cousin recommended it for me earlier in the year and this was an appropriate time to play it. Myself and chat really enjoyed the dark humor and how out there the dialogue and visuals got at times, ha. And thankfully we got the true ending in one shot. I thought it would have needed subsequent playthroughs because you technically can't find one sprinkle spot regardless, but that one choice counts for both no matter which you choose. Were the game shorter, I would have streamed the other dialogue/choice options, but I ended up watching them on YouTube. 


ETC========================= 

- ONCE + TWICE 6th Anniversary 

- ITZY - WANNABE (MV Japanese ver.) 

That's a wrap on October 2021. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind. 


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 

Posted by at No comments:

Monday, October 18, 2021

September 2021 Entry

September 2021 Entry: 


Didn't sleep much this month. Apologies for a late post too because as of typing this (10.16), I was sick the last few days. The draft with links and everything was all ready before then. 


PS: I seem to have strayed from doing this at some point, but I'm adding any purchases to the MISC section. 

MISC=========================

- Thanks to those that remembered. It was actually the first time in a long time I didn't hang out with anyone (most were busy). But a 2 hour drive singing was very therapeutic. 

- Another car trip to do a few things (09.04). First was to go to a different GameStop to pick up a copy of Little Nightmares II that was on sale. On the way back, I went to a place I discovered a couple days ago called Sugar Rush. There was lots of good stuff on their online menu. I was surprised that it was a small shop. Apparently they had been open since 2017. I got a Choco Oreo as a for-sure flavor I would like and then a Strawberry Crunch per the recommendation of the worker. Both were really good and not super sweet so I could eat a lot of it at a time. And finally, got some deliveries from Limited Run Games. 


- These OREO Brownies are very rich and thick (09.05). As of typing this (10.16), I still have one, but I'm saving it for another day. 
 

- While looking to get my annual gift for collection purposes, I ended up getting a wonderful import deal (09.07). The latest collection I want to collect are all the Bust A Move/Groove games. I already own US Bust A Groove 2 and Dance Summit 2001. I was only looking for the Japanese Bust A Move 2 because it is the cheaper out of the series, but ended up finding an import store on eBay that had a deal for both Japanese versions of Bust A Move and the Japanese version of Parappa The Rapper. Basically I got all 3 games for the price of one. And I know I stumbled upon it by chance. I had a few other choices where they had Bust A Move 2, but I remembered that it comes with a green jewel case. Most sellers didn't have that. And that is how I found that store and I'm so glad I did. Not only did I get the game I wanted, but I got another game from the collection and more, yay. 


- There was a point where descriptions for Twitch highlights got wonky. So old stuff with links come out odd looking, spacing and paragraphs were not good, etc. I don't know when I started doing this, but I went back and put my "going live" posts (minus hashtags and links) into the VOD descriptions and finished it halfway through the month (09.16). Since then, I've been putting them in there. 

- Had my shortest Ring Fit session (09.16). It was 16 minutes and 2 seconds. 50 seconds less from my previous time. If I recall, it was 2-3 stages and 2 boss fights. So it was a short session, but not an easy one. 

- I had an issue logging into my My Nintendo account (09.20). The 2FA was turned on and I couldn't get it to work no matter how much I tried. So I ended up calling customer service. It wasn't a long call and they resolved my issue by turning off 2FA from their end leaving me with the option to log in and turn it back on if I wanted to. But the stand out was the customer service agent, Lilly. While she was checking on her end for something, she asked me what game I was planning to play next. That surprised me. At the time it was Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove. She asked what it was since she never heard of it. After I explained what it was, she mentioned the kind of games she played. I remarked how I never had been asked that any previous times I called Nintendo customer support and thanked her for that and her help as it really was a high point and one of the easiest customer support calls I've had. Thanks, Lilly.  

- Speaking of customer service, I had to call TWC about my unemployment status (09.19). I thought I wasn't eligible, but it seemed like I was since I was sent the same file I've been receiving every 2 weeks. This story continues in October. 

- After some talk on stream and messaging off stream, I made a trade with GToTheNextLevel for his Mega Yarn Yoshi (09.22). It was one I would look for every now-and-then, but knew it was higher than what I'd like to pay for it. But yay for trading locally with friends. 


- 200 posts on Instagram (09.25). This set of hundred was all over the place in terms of engagement. Some games that I thought would gain lots of views/likes didn't while other random ones did. Oh well. It continues. More interaction please outside of me deleting posts asking to DM them for collaborations etc. 
 

WRESTLING=========================

- All Out...wow (09.05). Punk is back, Ruby Soho debuts, and the double surprise debuts of Adam Cole and Brian Danielson. Insane. 


- And new WWE Champion...Big E (09.13)! 


- One of the best things going on in wrestling; the InDex Wedding (09.14). When they first started the silliness, I really wanted it to happen. At some point I realized Dexter Lumis' first words we would hear him say in NXT would be "I do." It did not disappoint. 


- Extreme Rules 2021 (09.27) was fun. got 100% of my predictions correct. Lots of good stuff this month in wrestling. 
 

H.E.R.=========================

- A positive memory from my time at H.E.R. was when they threw me a surprise birthday. We had been doing it for all members of the staff, but I honestly did not expect one for me because I always request the day off on my birthday. I've been doing that for as long as I can remember working. It happened the day before and I was asked to do a quick meeting with management at the time to set up a new way to show new trainees how to use our booking system. Agents Majordomo and Yeti set us up to talk in our staff room and underneath our security monitor, which in hindsight was smart so I wouldn't casually look up to possibly see the staff running around to set things up. I forget how long we were talking, but it had to have been 10-15 minutes and in between sessions with another one not pending until later. We came up with a plan for recording the process of using the booking system and (I think) were going to start recording. Got up and started walking out of the staff room, but that's when the staff came in with a cake and cheering etc. I was very much caught off guard and very surprised. Everyone got their hugs and we ate the cookies & cream ice cream cake that was at some point figured out was my favorite. If I remember, Agent Majordomo might have said out loud "what's everyone's favorite flavor of ice cream" and everyone answered, ha. The one big thing that sticks out from that is that Agent PQ was there. She was on leave of absence from work due to school I believe. And if I remember correctly, she was the first person that entered for the surprise and was the one holding the cake. I'll never forget the surprise, but I'll never forget that Agent PQ was there for me. 

GAMES=========================

- Best Friend Forever was really good (09.01). I liked how the dog you adopt is very much active while you're talking to any of your suitors and that you have a goal for it as well; to graduate from dog school. One thing I would hope could be improved on for a future release is that there was more interaction between your dog and our partner. Other than the dog possibly pooping or running after something while talking, that only matters to the dog. I would like to play this game again, most likely as a community challenge and for chat to control all the choices outside of picking the same dog and partner I chose. 

This was also the day of the Twitch black out. I didn't post that I was going live outside of my Discord and anyone that has notifications on for the app. Hence no photos for finishing the game even though I took them. 


- Demo Showcase 72 is the first Demo Showcase to be split into multiple parts (09.03). I forget if it was due to the internet dropping or the power going out. I'm surprised we've gone that long without that happening. 
 

- Ninja JaJaMaru-kun (09.05) 

- Rocket League (09.06) 

- I had been wanting to replay Arcade Archives SUNSET RIDERS for the longest time (09.08). I can't even remember the last time I played it (arcade or SNES), but I downloaded it right away and kept having to push it back on the schedule. Super fun. 
 

- And this trio of games was something I had been looking forward to for a while as well; Mom Hid My Game! + Hide & Dance! + Mom Hid My Game! 2 (09.09). It was fun replaying the first game. Hide & Dance was challenging and had some really good songs. Wouldn't mind trying multiplayer. And the sequel to the first game was more of the same and even had a tease to making a third game in this series. I'd be down for that. 


- Because of the Sunset Riders stream, GToTheNextLevel was inspired to do a western game stream (09.09). He played different versions of Sunset Riders and even mentioned playing Wild Guns. I casually asked if I could join and he agreed. So I was on voice chat with him as we ran through Wild Guns on the SNES Switch app. Good stuff. Thanks for having me on as a last minute guest. 
  

- No More Heroes III...absolutely amazing (09.11-09.13). Usually when I beat a game, I type a summary within the 2000 character post limit. I wrote close to 10000 for this one. I tried to keep it short, but there was so much I wanted to talk about. The story...my goodness. It's shocking and gives you more motivation than necessary. The combat is the smoothest and fluid in the series. The skill tree and add-ons are good additions. The clothing you can acquire is fantastic. There is a lot to do and a lot to collect, which I almost was able to do within the 3 streams. Any negatives were knit-picky. A wonderful way to bookend the series. And as of playing and finishing the game, No More Heroes III is my game of the year. 


- The Almost Gone  was a favorite from Demo Showcase 54. Got it on sale for 80% off and needed a day to play it (09.17). I was surprised to see chat be as invested as they were. Very clever puzzles. The story is not a happy one and the ending could fall flat for some, but I think it was intentional to not have something definitive to go with the overall mood the story had been going through. 
 

- Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove was voted on as the game Discord wanted me to replay (09.19-09.21). Specifically played through Shovel of Hope, Plague of Shadows, and Specter of Torment since King of Cards and Showdown were streamed a couple of years ago. The biggest downside to the whole series was a poor performance of Plague of Shadows. Had I not done bad, I know I would have 100% like the other two. Regardless, they all hold up well. 


- Demo Showcase 73 (09.23) 

- Last free game I got for free (ownership discount) from Qubic Games that I own; Coffee Crisis (09.24). Very, very tough even on easy. Mainly because there can be around 20 enemies on screen at one time and they're all going after you. 
 

- And our last Nakana.io game I got for free (ownership discount) that I owned; Journey of the Broken Circle (09.26). Another game I was surprised to see the chat be invested in. The characters might be shapes and inanimate objects, but they went through a very real and very relatable story. Thumbs up. 


- Psycho Dream was our SNES game of the month (09.27). It was a short, but decent action platformer. The main reason I chose Psycho Dream and Ninja JajaMaru-kun for this month was because they were both Japanese exclusive titles. 


- Escape First 2 was the 3 year stream anniversary (09.29). The actual anniversary date is the 28th. Per usual, I had a guest and it was KrispyChicky. We played Escape First 2 coming off of playing Escape First last year with WhoaEmGee. The escape rooms weren't so great this time around. Some puzzles were interesting, but some things they did were baffling. It definitely brought a lot of memorable moments like when Krispy guessed a password and then we solved the puzzle for that password 10-15 minutes later. I'm glad to have her be my guest to suffer along with me, ha. 

Two surprising things happened afterwards. One, got my first hype train. I figured it would have been possible to celebrate the anniversary. We got to level 3 and it was fantastic. Thanks to all that contributed to that. Two, we pretty much did a Just Chatting stream for 2 hours after finishing the game. It has happened a few times where the game is done and I'm ending the stream and chat wants to talk, but never this long. They asked questions and we shared answers/stories. I hope those that listened understand a little more of how and why I do things for the stream. 

Thank you to all that showed up for the anniversary stream. Best one so far. 


ETC=========================

- ITZY - LOCO (MV) 

- ITZY - SWIPE (MV) 

I actually prefer SWIPE over LOCO. It did take me a while to like LOCO itself. Plus SWIPE is the first time one of their b-sides get me right away. 

- TWICE - The Feels (MV) 

Wasn't sure how I would feel about their first English single, but I'm enjoying it a lot. 

- Got 4 hours of sleep (09.25). It wasn't the only night I lacked sleep this month (and beyond) and I know why. Reaching my mid-life crisis. I've mentioned it to a few friends, but yeah...it's something I think about a lot. I'm not where I want to be in many aspects of my life. Please help me. 

- That's a wrap on September 2021. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind. 


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 

Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, September 16, 2021

August 2021 Entry

August 2021 Entry


August...felt off.

MISC=========================

- For the first time, I accidentally skipped a stretching session in Ring Fit (08.02). Nothing bad happens from it. I'll just remember forever and ever now, ha.  

- Ordered a batch of Cracker Jack boxes for a snack (08.03). I can't remember the last time I had it for a snack. It's still good. The only downside was that 2 boxes had them all melted together so it wasn't easy to eat. 


- Here's where I describe something vague that happened between myself and my parents (08.05). Not to get into the details, but one yelled at me for not doing something that I've explained for years we don't need to do and then the other yelled at me for not standing up for myself even though they didn't know I had been for years. Was it a minor thing? Yes, but it is unnecessary to do. In the end, to keep the peace, I'll have to cave in when they continuously ask for me to do this thing. 

- My car is now making a horrible buzzing noise when you use the power locks (08.08). I looked up what it was as others pointed out what it was. I'm actually surprised we haven't fixed it yet. It still shocks me every time the sound goes off. 

- Batman: The Long Halloween Part Two was good (08.10, 08.15). I think I preferred the first one more. This one was more of waiting for the reveal to finally happen. The Blue Beetle short was amazing. 


- Reached posting 100 clips on Instagram (08.14). Shout to the DELTARUNE and FFIX clips for getting over a hundred views each. 


- And the car is paid off (08.16). Honestly forgot what year model the car was and how long I have been paying, but it's a 2015 model. So that long, ha. 

- Round 17 of movies is in the books. My favorites were Burlesque, The Adventurers, and The Wrestler (which I saw in the theatres). I did hesitate on doing Round 18 as I had an idea to do something different, but that'll happen for Round 20 in November. 
 

WRESTLING=========================

- It's clobberin' time! CM Punk has returned to the world of wrestling in AEW (08.20). The rumors were always there and it seemed obvious that it was going to happen, but I wasn't going to believe until I saw it with my own eyes. And wow, that reception was amazing. Welcome back. 


- Summerslam was insane (08.21). Fun matches and awesome returns. 


- NXT TakeOver 36 was of course great like every TakeOver is (08.22). 

H.E.R.=========================

- So here's a recent story. Myself and Agent Ocean set up a meeting with the realtor for our last location we had (08.05). Prior to that, he and I spoke of seeing if it was doable to take that space back. Our sign was still there and it was still for rent. I went on a random day to get the phone number of the realtor to make sure and then called a few days later to set up the meeting. They had tried offering to see the other spaces in that area, but I let them know I wanted to see that specific spot. 

Fast forward to the actual day, we met with someone else that I was not in contact with. He was at one of the different spots, but met us at the escape room location. At this point we had not mentioned what business we were going to bring nor that we worked there before. As we were being shown around the escape room space, he asked what we were going to do and I said a content creator space (streaming, videos, music, etc). But we saw how much was gone. The realtor explained that they had to remove a lot of the props because other people that viewed the space kept playing with them, ha. But yeah...so much was gone. 

The realtor showed us the other spaces which were actually very nice. Of course the price varied due to the sizes, but they were all in that same area that we could walk to them. We asked to see the escape room space again. As we went through the rooms again, we started messing with a few of the props that were still there and "solved" one of them to his amazement. It was at that time that Agent Ocean and I were whispering about whether we should say who we are. The realtor was checking on things while we were looking around and we asked him to join us in what was Dark Side of the Moon. 

That's where we told him that we used to work at HER. Agent Ocean being the manager of that location and me being Personnel Manager at the other one, but I was moved to that location. He was shocked. We pointed out how the wiring and how any of the remaining parts of the room functioned since he and another worker didn't know how to get things to work. We then told him how we wanted to see how the place looked to see what was left to work with. We shared a few stories of how we kept hoping we'd be able to come back, how much we loved the job, our time with the company, interacting with customers, and ultimately how sad we were that we didn't get a proper end. He was moved. We asked if any other businesses had ever ended and if they tried returning, which he did so it wasn't an impossible scenario. He said he would relay what he said to his superior and that we'd move forward with the conversation with all involved via email. 

Agent Ocean and I talked for a bit afterwards and made a small game plan such as what rooms we would keep and bring back and what props we'd need to buy etc. Then we split. Earlier in the day, I felt very anxious with the pretense that the dream could end this day. Not only that, it rained really hard on my way there. But we left that meeting feeling really good and thinking we had a chance. 

Not to get too much into the rest of the details, but the emails were...not great. It mainly came down to rent and what they wanted was too high and what we offered was not responded to. We got ghosted, which is incredibly unprofessional of them especially since we had worked with them prior. So...the dream is on pause. I say that because I do want to try one final time in the beginning of 2022. 

GAMES=========================

- One last round with Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle with Warriors of Fate (08.01). That was an interesting one with the multiple endings. Definitely enjoyed playing all of them. Some stood out more, but it's hard not to have fun with a fun beat 'em up.


- Demo Showcase 70 (08.03) 

- Clu Clu Land was our NES game of the month (08.04). It's not great, but I only chose to play it because the SNES game of the month also starts with "CL" and that's it, ha. I also didn't use an ability that was introduced in the demo roll of the game, ha. 


- Picked up a physical copy of WHAT THE GOLF? (08.04). It was a favorite from Demo Showcase 68 in July. Always prefer physical copies if they're available. It is currently scheduled to play in December. 


- New Zelda stuff (08.06). 


- My international copy of Naruhodo Legends Collection arrived (08.06). I still find it odd that I didn't choose to play The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles right away and that I still don't know when I want to play it. Maybe early 2022. 


- Spellbreak was our free-to-play game of the month (08.07). I knew what it was prior so I knew what I was getting into. Best match was actually the first one where I had my most kills. However, the highlight was from a new follower who offered a challenge, which was $10 per kill. I took them up on the offer, but thought they meant for one match. They actually accumulated all my kills for about half an hour, which was about 10. And they lived up to their word and made the donation. I double checked to make sure it was real and it was. Definitely won't forget that. 
 

- New Metroid shirts (08.10). Not only were they great designs, but I wanted to make sure I had enough different Metroid shirts for when we play Dread. 


- Agent A: A puzzle in disguise was a good game (08.09). It was a favorite from Demo Showcase 62 in May. I wanted to specifically play it on this day because it was my first day of training at HER. While I really enjoyed the game, my mood might not have reflected it about halfway through. That was due to one puzzle in chapter 3 that involved setting lights in a certain pattern. The thing is I had placed the pieces in as I was finding them and it would only show the reverse of the pattern I made rather than the one I needed to create. And I couldn't remove the pieces. I looked at multiple videos online and saw everyone was getting the same answer and thought that might have been for the mobile version only. But after about half an hour of trying, I just tried that answer and it worked. I double checked the VOD after to see if that actual pattern ever showed up for me and if I might have missed. It didn't. So that time wasted on the last puzzle I needed to do for that chapter soured my mood for the rest of the stream. It's a well put-together game and I highly recommend it. Try the demo if you want to find out if it's for you. 


- No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle was great to replay (08.11-08.13). It wasn't my favorite of the series back then, but I have a better appreciation of it now. The third stream was mainly only the BJ5 game to unlock the last difficulty and earning money to buy the rest of the clothes (don't know where the 1 shirt I was missing was). Unfortunately other collectibles are missable so it wouldn't have been 100% regardless. Again, my appreciation for this game is more positive now. 


- Classic Games Collection Vol. 1 was okay (08.15). Went through all 5 games fast against the computer. Thankfully there were a few people in chat that could play tic-tac-toe against me, ha. 


- Solitaire Deluxe Bundle - 3 in 1 (Freecell, Klondike, Spider) was free from an ownership discount as well (08.16). I said this on stream; Freecell can go to hell, Klondike I like, and Spider I like her. Plus, I was very surprised with the turnout for solitaire, ha. Thank you to everyone that showed up and helped out at times. 


- Free-to-play game of the month was RPG Maker MV Player (08.18). And wow, that was memorable, ha. Tried 10 user generated RPGs and they ranged from pretty good to not finished to what the heck. The most memorable had to be Cars 4...based on the movie Cars...and it was...bad, ha. 
 

- Demo Showcase 71 had one developer show up (08.19). It was for the last demo; Regina & Mac. It was a 3D platformer, but pretty basic. It functioned and it caught the interest of others in chat. While it wasn't my favorite of the batch, I do have it for a possible community channel thing in the future. 
 

- The second community challenge goal unlocked a Mario Kart 8 Deluxe stream (08.21). Lots of people were excited for it. I also went out of my way to contact others that haven't been in the streams for a while. Also had Discord vote on what day to play. Then the day before it, I was retweeting the images from the Mario Kart 8 Twitter contest I won where I got flags, a spiny shell trophy and a 3D print of my Mii on a kart. 

The turnout was a little lackluster. While some people showed up and I met a few new people, a large number of those that said they would be there didn't show up. The one thing I was worried about was the lack of viewers being involved. I did think of things to do when no one was around (200cc, ghosts, driving with the ring-con). Unfortunately my camera froze for the first time with this camera and I didn't realize for a while. Thankfully it was just for the last 90 minutes, which did end with a great group of friends to race against. Thank you to all that chipped in points toward the community challenge and super thanks to those that showed up to play. 


- Grimvalor was a favorite from Demo Showcase 57 back in February (08.23-08.24). I really like it. Fast combat, customizable stat building, and it's overall fast-paced. It made going back to 100% all the maps smooth. We almost 100% the entire game, but the last 2 things I was missing were weapons that needed to be bought with certain shards that would just require hours of beating up random enemies to earn. It would have been nice, but I was very satisfied with what I got out of it. 


- Akuto Showdown (08.26) 

- Got my copy of No More Heroes III (08.27). Until I played it in September, I tried my best to avoid any and all spoilers. And of course stayed out of a few streams that played it. Was it worth the wait? 


- We played Infini during a Demo Showcase, but we already owned the game for free due to an ownership discount. It was only a matter of time until we played it (08.28). Even though I knew it was odd with some very creative puzzles, it was still full of surprises and got even stranger, ha. Didn't beat it, but did enough. 
 

- Claymates was our SNES game of the month (08.30). It was part of the last batch of new SNES games on NSO that were all odd. This was recommended to me by G saying it's pretty decent. When he showed up in the stream though "oh, this doesn't hold up so much," ha. It was an odd one for sure. Cool clay things, but there could have been more of that. Cut out the in between level puzzle sequences and refine the stages and clay forms. You can pass on this one. 
 

ETC=========================

- HYO - Second (MV) 
Such a fun song. I learned the chorus of the dance. And HyoYeon looked great in the music video. Hard to not like things my favorite SNSD member does. 


- Red Velvet - Queendom (MV) 
Queendom is a good song. It's not my favorite out of their main songs, but I was just excited to have new music from all five members. 


- Jessica - Can't Sleep 

- I started having arm pain. Specifically in my right arm. I don't remember the exact date I started getting them, but I might have hyperextended it with my poor posture sitting at my desk. I do know it made it tougher to do things, but oddly it hurt more when at rest. I would take pain medicine, massage it, and not be active with it and the pain would come and go like every other day. But one night, I remember tossing and turning and really feeling like I pulled something as the pain kept me awake all night. Around this time I skipped my first scheduled session of Ring Fit (08.22). Did that for a few more days and also stopped my nightly push-ups. It has persisted into September, but has been better as I've been doing Ring Fit again. As of typing this (09.16), the arm pain has gone down a lot. The inflammations are completely gone and normal motions and actions aren't accompanied by pain. There is still some minor pain so I'm still being careful with it, but it's definitely way more manageable from when it initially started. 

- That's a wrap on August 2021. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind. 


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)