March 2021 Entry
March...
MISC=========================
- My cousin had texted me about hanging out (03.02). She was taking one of her new puppies to a vet that was near my place so we made the arrangement for her to hang out. She also agreed to play a game with me on stream. She said she would just sit in the back while I streamed, but I convinced her to play. Afterwards, we just spent time catching up. Asked lots of questions and learned stuff that we didn't know. It was a wonderful bonding moment.
- Ordered a bunch of snacks (03.02). Ate one bag of chips per day and the cereal whenever I hand a hankering (finished 04.10). Hadn't had these chips in a long time and the cereal was so delicious.
- After my cousin came over to hang out, we made plans for me to go to her place and hang out with her and her husband (03.12). About an hour drive to get there, but I knew that from going there many years ago. We went to eat ramen, take a hike on a trail (got to look at animals and enjoy the sun), played with their new puppies, ate some ice cream, and of course talked a bunch and bond. Such a good day.
- Shout to KrispyChicky who started streaming (03.13). Krispy is Agent PQ from HER. She had asked for some help setting up stuff as she was prepping for weeks before her first stream. For anyone reading this, please follow her on Twitch. She's someone I look at as family.
- Didn't know a shirt for Just Shapes & Beats existed so I bought it (03.27).
- Prime Movies Round 12 is in the books making it one year of watching free movies. Had a lot of favorites in this batch, but my top 3 have to be Chick Fight, What If, and CHI-RAQ. Had to end it with a solid favorite that still holds up, The Truman Show. I'm still planning to watch more movies after a year of doing this, but I'm only going to watch 12 now instead of 16.
WRESTLING=====================
- Lashely became WWE Champion (03.01). Well deserved. Absolutely earned.
- And Fastlane was a fun PPV (03.21). Good matches all around.
H.E.R.========================
- This story is about my favorite interview I ever conducted. At HER, I was at one point the Lead Training Facilitator. Even on the tail end before that when I was a Senior Facilitator, I was sitting in and then helping conduct interviews. I enjoyed them. Have plenty of horror stories from bad interviews. I would say the majority were okay. Only a few were very memorable for better or for worse.
For this one, I was still doing interviews along-side Agent Majordomo. He had made the interview process at first and then I helped refine it to what I used for many years. Other than the normal set up of the table and cubes (we had comfortable and expensive cubes), we also printed out the resumes of those we would interview. I normally would glance at them quickly taking in anything interesting outside of what you'd expect from a regular resume. That way I can ask them about it during the round of miscellaneous questions we might have had.
The interview was normal. Nothing spectacular and not bad. Just good, which most interviews should at least be. When it came time to ask anything extra, I double checked her resume. There was something that I saw beforehand and remembered after looking again. I asked her about her Nigerian society she was a part of. Her face brightened up and she had the biggest smile as she was telling us about it. Her energy was higher and she was visibly more excited. And that's when I knew I wanted to hire her. I mentioned it to Agent Majordomo. If she gets happy and energetic about something she was so passionate about, imagine how she would be if she enjoyed working with us. Shortly later, we hired her and Agent Ca$h was born.
I forget when and why, but I did tell her about why I hired her. This story is something I shared over the years and have even told to others outside of the company because it was my favorite interview and one of my best hires ever. Miss you, Agent Ca$h.
GAMES=========================
- Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle | Battle Circuit (03.01)
- Untitled Goose Game (co-op w/mangostick15) (03.02)
Playing this again with my cousin was so fun. Definitely is a lot easier with 2 geese than with one goose.
- Demo Showcase 58 (03.04)
Made an alternate profile for when I tried the Age of Calamity demo. I had contacted Nintendo online to make sure if playing the full game and going backwards to the demo would overwrite it. They weren't sure and I couldn't find an answer online. So for any future games that I've played the full game of and then I play the demo, I will make a new profile to avoid any data overwriting.
- Pyra/Mythra (03.04)
Using Pyra/Mythra was really fun. I preferred Pyra over Mythra. But they are probably in my top 5 favorites of the DLC fighters.
- Eliminator Boat Duel (03.05)
- The Elder Scrolls: Blades (03.06)
This was fun. I'm usually hesitant when playing free-to-play games. We've been burned before, ha. And this was also my first time playing an Elder Scrolls game in any form. It wasn't bad. You could see I was getting into it.
- Super Mario 3D All-Stars | Super Mario Galaxy (03.08-03.10)
Galaxy was amazing to replay after so many years. The music, the levels, everything. I didn't think I'd get all 120 stars, but that still doesn't count as complete as there is a second play as Luigi that unlocks a little more. Will I play Galaxy again as Luigi? For now, no. I considered playing it the month after, but thought to move on. I most likely wouldn't mind playing it one year later or on the off hand we get Galaxy 2 released. Then I'd play as Luigi a month prior.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (03.10)
- supershigi - The Natural Playboy (03.11)
- Flowlines VS (03.13)
Not a bad puzzle game. I think I would have finished it were I not extremely tired.
- Collection of Mana | Trials of Mana (03.15)
Finally beat this game after removing myself from it. And it wasn't easy. I think we died 5 times to the final boss. It really sucks to be very excited to play this multiple times only to be glad it's over. Hopefully I won't feel this way with the 3D remake.
- Space Otter Charlie (03.18)
Sponsored by The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild. It was a fun game. However, the glitches that came from the post game to try and 100% it were bad. I took some time to email the developers with time stamps to show them what happened. I did get thanked for the bug findings, but I don't know if they're working on a patch or not. But I've completed it so there isn't a reason for me to go back to it.
- Demo Showcase 59 (03.19)
Portions of playing the Just Dance 2021 demo were muted as expected. I was glad it had 2 songs to try instead of 1 like in previous demos.
- Jumping Joe & Friends (03.20-03.21)
This got split into 2 parts because our internet went out for over 5 hours. Sucks that it happened because the second part was finished in 90 minutes.
- Neo Cab (03.22)
This was a favorite from Demo Showcase 34. It was scheduled multiple times for 2020. As it got farther and farther pushed, I decided to play it on the year anniversary of playing the demo. It was worth the wait because it was great. And there's a reason to play it again because of all the characters you can pick up as well as how you react to them. Next year?
- Flatland Prologue (03.24)
Sponsored by QUByte Interactive. This was a short prequel to Vol. 1. And by short, I mean really short. It only took close to 90 minutes to do it all. That was too short so I did it a second time. Didn't feel this game was necessary.
Sadly this was the last sponsored stream I got from them as of now. They used to DM me every month with a new code for another new game. They're still releasing more games so I hope they'll reach back some day with another fun game.
- HALF DEAD (w/Firewalker56) (03.25)
Another guest on stream, but only voice. Firewalker56 was there when I played the demo so I thought it would be fun playing it with him. It went on longer than we thought, but we could not finish it. While he was doing the bulk of the work, it was very helpful. He was drawing maps on his end when there weren't maps. But that last stage (which was the next to last stage I think), was tough. But it was fun great playing with him.
- amiibo (03.26, 03.28)
Got Banjo, Terry, and Byleth. However, there was a shipping error for the stores and they got as more Byleth amiibo instead of Banjo. So I had to go back a couple days later when it finally arrived. This was also supposed to be the same day the Monster Hunter Rise amiibo were released, but those got delayed (got them in April).
- Lost Lands: Dark Overlord | VIEWER'S CHOICE (03.27)
Winner of the last Viewer's Choice Vote (exclusive to Discord). I personally haven't played a point-and-click find-the-image type game in a long time. I did my fair share of brute forcing and had to look up answers a few times. But there is also a second and third game available so I might get around to those in the future. Broken record for this blog entry already, but maybe next year?
- Cadence of Hyrule | Aria (03.29)
This was impossible (for me). I didn't realize Aria was a one-hit run. I tried my best, but died so many times in mere seconds. You only get half a heart and hearts, fairies, or potions won't refill it. Not only are enemies a threat, but so is moving off beat. Yes, you can die by trying to move. I turned that off and it was a little more manageable, but still difficult. Took 2 hours just to get through and beat one dungeon boss. That was enough for me.
- The Ignition Factor (03.30)
Never played a game where I was a firefighter. I didn't really get it at first, but I got into it and had fun with it. It was silly, broke the fourth wall, poked fun at itself, etc. Definitely wouldn't have played this were it not free on the SNES app.
ETC=========================
- MOMO Performance Project Behind
- Utada Hikaru - One Last Kiss (MV)
- ITZY YEJI - River (Artist of the Month)
- So a few health things happened this month. After visiting my cousin, I felt very tired the next day. Never felt that fatigued in a long time. Then I started to notice other symptoms related to COVID. Getting massages helped, but the fact that I was relying on them every day was worrisome with everything else. I spoke with a friend who is a nurse as well as my mom and they suggested I get a COVID test. Took a while to find a place to schedule one the next day, but finally did (03.16). It was only 20-25 minutes away. Actually had a little trouble finding it as it was behind the building with very small signs pointing to where it is. Minutes later, we were done and I went back home. The next day, the results were negative.
While feeling fatigued and other symptoms started going away, something new popped up. I was having trouble sleeping flat on my back. If I did, it would be very hard to breathe. On my side, not so bad. Mentioned it to my mom and she insisted to keep doing massages before sleeping so I would be more relaxed. My dad wanted me to drink the sleeping aide he uses to help him sleep, which was a sleeping medicine. I didn't do that as I worried about my breathing if I did fall asleep. And that worsened things as I became incredibly anxious about it. I did learn that being reclined while sleeping helped. Got an extra pillow so I wouldn't be flat on my back. Thing is, if I lay down while watching a movie or playing a game,I was okay as my mind was distracted. After a couple of days, I became hyper aware of my breathing in general where I kept thinking about it (minus streaming). So watching videos or other distractions didn't help as much or at all anymore. Anxiety got worse as the night drew near and I was worried about falling asleep. It got so bad that my mom suggested going to an emergency center and so I did (03.22). We already planned to go the next day, but it was too much at the time. My parents drove me to the nearby emergency center (went there 6 years ago). They had to wait in the car as I was there from 11PM-2AM. Got an EKG, blood drawn, x-ray, and another COVID test (just in case). I thankfully remembered I had not finished listening to a New Day podcast episode so listening to that while waiting for doctors and nurses to come by during that time was very helpful. Everything came back negative, but the doctor suggested seeing a cardiologist if things persisted, which they did. We went home, I drank some of the sleeping medicine, and went to sleep. For about a month I drank the sleeping medicine as I really needed it.
We did go to a cardiologist (03.31). They did another EKG and asked more questions. I also got weighed for the first time in over a year. I thought I was 10-15 pounds heavier, but it was only 4, which was very surprising (all in the gut). While they found nothing new, they suggested an ultrasound and a stress test in case there was something wrong with my heart that may be linked with not being able to breathe while lying flat on my back.
And as of typing this (04.14), those tests had to be rescheduled. I have been feeling better in general and have attempted to sleep without the medicine (lost more sleep that way), but I want to slowly get back to being able to sleep normally again. The one thing I forgot to mention was not feeling great overall. My anxiety was at an all time high and simply breathing was an issue. I did have a heart-to-heart with my mom during all this as she was very worried why all of these were happening. We talked about our relationship, the winter storm, me being lonely, losing my job, and so much stuff. It felt good to finally have that out there as our communication is now more open. And while the health issues have been less and less as the month went on (and into April), I do have to watch myself. Exercise is out of the question for now, singing is tougher, not being able to drink certain drinks anymore, cutting back on certain foods, and monitoring what I do on a regular basis is...things haven't been normal in a long time.
So many health things came up at once. It was stressful and draining. It made the month feel longer than it was. I am okay, I'm worried, and I'm lonely.
- That's a wrap on March 2021. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
