January 2021 Entry
One month into 2021. Felt long.
MISC=========================
- I knew of JoAnn's Fudge a long time ago, but it was brought up to me recently in a stream. So I ordered some for myself as a Christmas gift. They arrived at the beginning of the new year (01.06). They're great and thick and delicious. Ordered peanut butter and rocky road. Been eating a small slab of one as a snack for streams to make it last. As of typing this (02.04), they're almost done.
- Got the new crown put in place (01.12). It was a busy day for them. Busiest I had ever seen them. The new crown felt fine, just sensitive to cold drinks. Went in a couple of weeks later to get another one that fit better (01.26). Honestly felt very similar, but they liked it better, ha.
- Took me a while to figure out how to spend a $5 credit I had on Amazon. It was limited to certain items sold by Amazon. Nothing on my wish list was available to use it on. I ended up looking at boxers and socks, but the ones I wanted were either on back order or not my size. Then I randomly searched for Snoopy clothing and found a nice baseball shirt that the credit could be used on. Fits nicely (01.13).
- Now I own a Sonic shirt (01.16).
- I had some issues sleeping for a good week this month. It was the week of playing Trials of Mana. I did have to take some NyQuil to help for a few nights and ensure I got 10 hours of sleep each time. It ended at least (01.18) and sleep is kind of back to normal.
- A friend from college has asked a few times to hang out. Usually I was busy streaming or had things to do. I apologized for always turning him down and actually hammered out a day that would work for both of us. He chose a couple of places to go to, but that didn't work well with the day. So I chose Korean Noodle House, which he was also familiar with. We finally met to catch up and enjoy a great dinner (01.19). Hugs are good, hugs are good. Nice to see him doing well and just talking to anyone in general. And it was good to see Korean Noodle House still succeeding during the pandemic. I was excited to see the familiar faces that have been there since day one.
- Every now and then, I get the urge to watch YouTube videos of choreography I used to know (01.21). I figured this would be a good way to do some type of weekly exercise. Unfortunately, I haven't kept up with that. Maybe it came at the wrong time, ha. I'm still doing my morning stretches consistently.
- TWIX Cookies & Creme ice cream bars are delicious (01.26). It had been a few months that I had ice cream and was really craving it. I wasn't looking for anything in particular when I went to the gas station, but I knew I wanted it to be an ice cream bar. And that's when I saw them. Never had a TWIX Cookies & Creme ice cream bar. The only ones they had remaining were Right ones otherwise I would have bought a Left as well. But those things are yummy.
- Picked up a copy of Batman: Soul of the Dragon (01.26) and watched it a few days later (01.29). I was excited for this one because of the setting and theme, but I was actually disappointed by it.
- Found out I could not use our printer (01.27). Reason being was that it was tied to a subscription to HER. I had printed something since inheriting it, but I suppose that subscription ran out. Tried setting it up myself, but ran into difficulties. The online chat wasn't helpful so I ended up calling them. The person on the other end of the line was very helpful and was able to help sign me up for the cheapest subscription.
- Prime Movies Round 10 was crazy. It was mainly because a good number of the choices became unavailable. The biggest plus was that I watched the entire trilogy of The Expendables. The second was my favorite out of the three. The Grand Heist and Instant Family were also my favorites for the batch. Round 11 is up. I am contemplating if I want to change things up once we hit one year, but we'll see.
WRESTLING=====================
- It has now been over a year since I was at a mass gathering. That last event was the Royal Rumble 2020.
- The Royal Rumble 2021 was so much fun (01.31). Great action, cool surprises, etc.
H.E.R.=========================
- Renamed this section to H.E.R. since these will be stories from that time. If work became a thing again, I'll probably make another section for it.
I do want to try something with this section with recalling stuff from the Houston Escape Room. I think mentioning a negative thing instead of trying to only tell positive stories might be good. It would help to get it out there and not keep holding onto them. I know I've mentioned them in the past, but the good times wouldn't be as good if there weren't any bad times.
And I think I'll start with a big general overall thing. One thing that bothered me were the family/friends that always said they would come, but never did. You had 6 years to come see me do something I was very proud of and that you would really enjoy. Offering discounts and even coming in for free didn't work for some as they were too busy. That's understandable...but you had 6 years to carve 2 hours out of your day to visit and experience what we did and did so well.
Thank you to the friends and family that did come out. Those were some of my favorite sessions because I got to see you participate in something I helped create. Thank you so much.
GAMES=========================
- Aviary Attorney: Definitive Edition (01.01)
This was very interesting. I thought there would be more to the trial aspects, but it definitely was story heavy outside of it. Didn't know there were multiple endings. I got one and watched the rest on YouTube. Going for the rest would have taken another playthrough because there were things sprinkled throughout that could have been different dialogue-wise.
- Demo Showcase 55 (01.03)
- Crash Team Racing Nitro-Feuled was free to play for a week so I needed to add it to the schedule (01.04). I was not great at it, ha. Shout out to polly58033 for playing with me the majority of the time.
- The Immortal...my goodness (01.06). I knew of this game from Game Informer doing a video many years ago on the Genesis version. It's not a good game. Definitely needed a guide for it. I don't recommend it, but if you have a choice, perhaps go for the Genesis version.
- Island Saver is a fun FPS tied to recycling (01.07). I do think it was pretty good for all ages. It's not violent, it's colorful, it functions like other FPS games, and you get hours of gameplay for free.
- Saw these Super Mario 3D All-Stars coins on sale for half off (01.08). They're nice.
- Finally started Super Mario 3D All-Stars with Super Mario 64 (01.09-01.10). My skills have diminished after 20+ years. We did get all 120 stars within 2 streams (originally planned for 3). Despite not performing at my peak, I did things faster than expected. Still great.
- 2048 Battles (01.13)
- Back to the Collection of Mana with Trials of Mana/Seiken Densetsu 3 (01.15-01.18). This was originally planned for 3 streams at 8 hours each. Based on an FAQ I was using (which was not good but the most recommended), I was towards the end. However, there was a difficulty spike. Those happened here and there, but nothing overly daunting. I really thought we would wrap it up in that 4th extra stream, but 2 screens over was a boss that was too strong. Leveling up off stream for 2 hours in between each stream wasn't enough. Spent 7 hours to gain 8 levels (I tried facing him each level gained) to beat the boss and it was...frustrating. There isn't much left (a few more boss fights) and I probably could have kept adding extra streams, but I was burnt out and needed to step away. So I'll return to it in February and be done with it. It might be done in one short stream, but I still reserved 3 days for it in case there is another level spike for possibly the last boss. The original plan of playing through this game 3 times with the different pairings is no longer happening. March will be the start of the 3D Remake of Trials of Mana.
- Twitch Recap (01.15)
- Demo Showcase 56 (01.20)
- Party Treats was a game I got for free because of an ownership discount (01.21). I would not have paid for this. I suggest you don't either.
- Panzer Dragoon: Remake was not that great to be honest (01.23). I enjoyed what I played of it, but it was too short and there really weren't any reasons to play it multiple times other than the extra options (God mode, etc). It was a little disappointing.
- Bust A Move/Groove is still my favorite rhythm game. Never looked for merchandise outside of the games and soundtracks. But now I own a shirt for it (01.23). And because of this, I think I know which series I want to complete collecting now that I have finished collecting the Ace Attorney games.
- Skybolt Zack was my favorite demo from June of 2020 (01.25). I didn't think I wouldn't be able to beat it, but I couldn't. The latter levels get tough and I ended up mostly beating the easier path of the map. I did go back and was able to unlock and beat most of the first world. But the "easier" boss still had bottomless pits and multiple phases (checked a video). I could only get to the second phase. I got further little by little, but there were times that I'd have a case of the yips and would lose faster.
- Blackjack Hands was sponsored by QUByte Interactive (01.27). We had played Poker Hands on stream before and it was interesting. I like Blackjack more in general, but this was over really fast and not as challenging.
- Started playing the DLC for Cadence of Hyrule (01.28). We used Shadow Link this time. It did take a while to get back into the flow, but it's great returning to this game. Not only that, the new tracks are great (can't wait to hear the rest in subsequent plays). We also got our (at the time) 3rd largest party to come into the stream (20-25) thanks to RaptorKitchen for sending fresh eyes my way.
- Never played Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (01.30). It is definitely tougher than the original. Still enjoyed it. The added plus were the 3 parties that showed up with our largest party ever (47 from SolaceAndDread) and our new third largest (27). We also hit 550 followers at the very end of the stream, which was a great milestone. We never gained an extra 50 followers in such a short amount of time. We did lose a follower minutes after the stream and 2 more within the following 24 hours, but oh well.
ETC=========================
- yukaDD - Superhero (feat. Momo)
- ITZY - Not Shy & WANNABE (BTS Performance)
- ITZY - Performance Practice: End of 2020 (Seoul Music Awards)
- January was an odd one. I feel it was fine overall, but the streaming part was rough at points. Nothing else comes to mind for the month other than my crush on Ryujin has grown, ha. She's the absolute coolest. I started watching some older variety/reality shows ITZY has been on to catch up on what I've missed. But other than that...nothing much to note.
- That's a wrap on January 2021. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
