April 2021 Entry
At times I felt April was a long month. Looking back at it, it also felt like it zoomed by. And apologies for the lateness of this entry.
MISC=========================
- I learned that I can't have Fanta anymore (04.03). Very disappointing as my options for drinks are slowly narrowing down to only water.
- Because of health issues that started last month, I was regularly drinking sleeping medicine to help me sleep, but I wanted to stop taking it (04.13). That first night took a long time for me to fall asleep. The second night, not so much, but the third night was tough again. I started to take the sleeping medicine again, but with smaller doses than before.
- Finally followed up with the cardiologist I started seeing at the end of last month. They called saying that they could schedule me to come in for a stress test on the 18th, but I asked if I could come in the next day. So I had scheduled to go the next day (04.15). I went in, waited a few minutes in the waiting room, was brought into one of the offices to get all the normal tests (heart rate, temperature, etc), waited a little longer, then was brought into the room for the stress test. Stripped down to my shorts, had the wires and cables connected on me, got on the treadmill, and waited to start. Then the doctor came in and asked a few questions with one of them being how often do I exercise. When I said I didn't, he decided to not continue with the test. At that point, it had been over an hour being there. I think everyone except the doctor realized my mood changed. They took off all the wires, I got dressed, and was brought back to another office. My mom joined as they explained they didn't want to risk me passing out from the stress test especially since I wasn't exercising regularly. They opted to do a nuclear test, but needed to submit another EKG to the insurance to approve it. As they were getting ready to do that, I asked for a few minutes because I was not in the mood at that time. Talked to my mom for a bit before having the nurse come back in to do the EKG. The nurse asked if I was okay and I straight up said "no." She could tell in my tone as well that I wasn't in the mood. As we were leaving and waiting for final words from the staff, I refused to make eye contact with anyone. The staff did apologize for any inconvenience they might have caused. I looked at them, bowed, and then we left.
They were the ones that suggested doing the stress test. They were the ones that said it was okay to come in to do it. They were the ones that decided to no longer do it after finding out I didn't exercise regularly.
While I was glad they were looking out for me not passing out, this was a big waste of time. This could have been easily avoided had they asked that question over the phone. Or they could have asked that when they originally wanted to do the stress test. Even then, if the stress test was too stressful, I could have stopped. That's the point of the stress test, to see how much I can take. Not to make me pass out. I don't think the doctor realized how stressed I was about the whole situation and how he might have possibly made things worse.
We did go back one more time a week later to do a sonogram of my heart. That visit went smoother. Had to get more blood taken afterward as well as get a prescription of vitamin D pills, which I take once a week now. But there has been no update on going in for the nuclear test as of typing this (05.10). The doctor also said there was something in the sonogram he was worried about...but didn't say what it was. Even the appointment reports don't state what it is...
My mom has already scheduled a check up with her cardiologist. This has been the second time within a couple of years that I have been dissatisfied with a doctor. Last time was with the ENT. There are similarities with how those doctors were and how they treated me (as if they don't recognize me, etc). At least with this cardiologist, the staff was good. Here's hoping seeing my mom's cardiologist works out better. In the end. I want to figure out what's going on.
- Saw a friend from high school who I'm still in contact with (04.21). Went to eat at Lopez. Finally got his physical copy of Captain Toad. He's been in the loop of the medical stuff that's been going on lately and has been acting as a third opinion for things. It was good catching up with him especially after all the stuff we've both been through lately.
- Got my copies of Yes, I am Sana (04.21). I knew I wanted to buy one of them, but I pulled the trigger and got both. The main content in the photobooks are the same, but the random card and postcards were different. Even though I had seen some of the photos, the ones I didn't see amazed me. Definitely had a few times that I stopped on longer than other pages, ha.
- Friends and ex-friends have been popping up in dreams lately. One involved dating someone
(04.23). Thing is that I woke up multiple times from the dream, but the dream continued when I would fall asleep again. That rarely happens.
- So I've been getting cuts on my legs for years. I wouldn't know where they came from because I wouldn't notice them until I see I'm bleeding there. But the cuts would be around the same spot no matter which leg it was. But I finally realized why (04.26). It's from bumping into the corner of my bed's metal frame. Mystery solved.
- Round 13 of movies is in the books. My favorites this time were The Hot Flashes, Who Gets The Dog, and Detective Chinatown. And of course the Back to the Future trilogy was fun to rewatch.
https://twitter.com/ArnellragasA/status/1377606684026097667
WRESTLING=====================
- Both nights of NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver were fantastic (04.07-04.08). Of course NXT delivered. They always do.
- Wrestlemania 37 was so good (04.10-04.11). To be back in front of a live audience of that capacity, you couldn't help but appreciate what they were doing. Nothing like that energy and emotion you get from a crowd.
H.E.R.========================
- There was this group I was facilitating while training who became Agent Obsidian. The organizer of the group had been to HER before, but this time she was here with a new group of coworkers. The group was loud in the lobby so I had to raise my voice in a kind way with a smile on my face to get their attention. It's a volume I've used when getting rowdy teams to listen. They then calmed down as we brought them to the briefing area. Back then, the briefing area had tons of items on the shelves and sometimes groups would take things and play with them. One popular item was a Star Wars Clone Trooper helmet. It was never a shock to see anyone put it on. But as I was explaining the rules, one of them put it on. With a smile on my face, I walked over and took it off and everyone laughed...except the organizer. Anyways, we carried on and eventually got them into Mo's Safehouse for their session.
I don't remember if the team escaped or not, but they had a fun time. I remember sitting on the windowsill by the door as they were leaving and the organizer asked if there was a manager around. I replied with "I'm the manager in charge," which is what I was told to say when there weren't any actual managers on site. At that time I was Lead Training Facilitator I believe. She said nevermind and left. I recall talking to Agent Obsidian letting her know of how the organizer was during the session. She also agreed that she seemed like she wasn't having a good time and that she was actually being rough with some of the props. We mentioned how she tossed things to the floor that were "done" even though some were fragile. If I didn't ask Agent Obsidian to tell her to be careful with some of the items, I did. Because she should have known already since she had been to HER before.
The next day, the manager pulled me into a private meeting. He and the owner got an email from the organizer from the group about how I treated her group. How I yelled at them, how I took off the Clone Trooper helmet, etc. They mentioned that they already refunded her group, asked that I write an apology email, and didn't want to hear my side of the story. I was not cool with that, but I complied. After that, I also got a phone call from the owner reiterating similar things and that he was disappointed. I half-heartedly wrote an apology email draft and sent it to the manager and owner. The owner replied with something along the lines of it being generic and that "you know what you did, you yelled at them." To which I replied "now you're asking me to lie. I did not yell at them at all." Either I added my side of the story to the email or the manager pulled me aside privately again and I was able to tell him what really happened. I raised my voice to a level they've heard me use multiple times. I kindly took off the Clone Trooper helmet, which was funny to everyone except the organizer. I talked about the organizer's mood, her attitude, how she handled the props in the room, and that she asked to speak to a manager, but didn't want to when she realized I was in charge that night. After hearing that, I believe he spoke to the owner over the phone. Then he apologized to me and said I didn't have to write the apology email anymore. The owner called me again and also apologized.
During all that, I was also talking to Agent Obsidian about what was going on. I don't remember if she was also pulled aside by the manager or if she spoke to the owner, but I wanted to make sure she knew what was going on. She knew what went on, she was there to see it.
While I was glad I didn't have to write an apology letter anymore, the refund was already sent. And even though things were cleared up, I really was disappointed with how I was treated. Were there instances in the past that might have made them think I was capable of yelling at the team, maybe. But I would have expected that in year 1 or year 2 of working there. I had changed a lot during my 6 years there, but this was a negative moment that sticks with me. It really did cement for me that I need to hear multiple sides of the story before making decisions on this or similar matters at work or in life.
GAMES=========================
- Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle | Captain Commando (04.01)
- Demo Showcase 60 (04.02)
A good crop of demos. A shame that the AVICII demo was mostly muted. It was fun. Getting to play The Wonderful 101 after its original Wii U release was satisfying. Made me realize how crazy and fun it was back in the day.
- Nightshade (04.04)
Getting to play Nightshade after seeing reviews from it years ago, what a crazy game. I don't think I would have dug it back in the day. I can appreciate it now for what it was trying to do. Wish I could have 100% it, but didn't know that a factor of something I did early on would have affected that outcome.
- Apex Legends (04.05)
Cool to finally try Apex out. It wasn't as bad as a lot of people have said, but that might be because it was my first time with nothing to compare it to. It sure did take up a lot of space on the Switch though at 30GB+, which was the main reason I pushed it ahead of the line for free-to-play games.
- KUNAI (04.06)
Such a fun game. Combat was good, traversal was smooth, and it all flowed well. Unfortunately, it did have some missable treasures. Granted those were all money chests, but I technically didn't 100% it even though I did everything else. And...this game is the reason I won't be doing streams over 8 hours anymore. The last hour was almost exclusively fighting the final boss. Combine the twitch reflexes necessary to beat it and that I was low on energy...I was visibly shaking. That hasn't happened since...Star Fox 64. So I need to better regulate stream times. A game that can be beaten in 9-10 hours minimum, those will have to be split into 2 streams from now on.
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (04.08-04.12)
I had so much fun replaying Super Mario 3D World. Still shocked that we 100% completed it. But it was so satisfying to do after so many years. Following that up with 100% Bowser's Fury was phenomenal. While Bowser's Fury was short, everything about it was done so well. It was a great mesh of 3D World on Odyssey. Highly recommend both of them.
- Monster Hunter Rise amiibo (04.10)
Even though I had all 3 reserved, they were delayed. The store wasn't even sure what was going on. Got 2 of them and had to wait a few more days to get the last one. But these are superb amiibo with awesome detail. I thought Magnamalo would be bigger, but it's still a beefy boy.
- Indie World Showcase (04.14)
- Cooking Tycoons - 3 in 1 Bundle (04.14)
I had 2 out of the 3 for free, Burger Chef and Pizza Bar Tycoon. Food Truck Tycoon was on sale so I purchased it with the DLC. But I gave each one a solid 90 minutes. They were what I thought they would be, but I had fun trying them out.
- Trials of Mana (Angela + Duran, Hawkeye) (04.16-04.20)
I really enjoyed the 3D remake of Trials of Mana. Almost everything was improved upon. It played well, it hit the "nostalgia" note for the SNES version, and the combat was fun and satisfying. There were a few downsides with obvious pop-in and some audio glitches, but they were small blemishes on an otherwise wonderful experience. Plus we did all the extra stuff to unlock New Game Plus and even beat the secret boss slime. I do plan to play it again in the future to play as the other 3 characters (and possibly a 3rd time for the final pairing), but that's most likely going to be on the one year anniversary of this playthrough. As much as I enjoyed this remake, I needed to take a break from the Mana games in general.
- The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (04.21)
Very excited to finally play these. Part of me is heavily considering playing it in auto mode the entire time. Like I will attempt to figure things out, but then switch to auto to see whether I was correct or not. While I haven't reserved the US version yet, I did pre-order the Japanese version. And I don't plan to play it day-one. I kind of need to know how long the game/s will be and then plan from there.
- Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (04.21)
Got my physical copy from my friend when I met him for lunch. We both got the digital one on sale and he no longer needed the actual cartridge. He sold it to me for $10. Still saved more than half with it and the digital copy.
- Demo Showcase 61 (04.22)
- Batman: The Enemy Within (04.24-04.25)
A year after playing Batman - The Telltale Series, we played the sequel. Since we were all kind and compassionate in the first game, I decided to be a jerk in this one. Even though we were a jerk, we didn't let anyone die. It was really tough making those decisions. The story was really good though. Very much like the first game, I kept wanting to see more. Highly recommend either playing it yourself (because you can make your own decisions) or watching my playthrough of it.
- Mini Trains (04.27)
This game does not take an hour to beat, ha. It's unique for sure, but it was deceptively difficult. Those watching started helping out. And Reversed2 and KrispyChicky made guest appearances via Discord to tell me how to do one puzzle that they were trying to do themselves, ha. Definitely memorable.
- Cadence of Hyrule | Frederick (04.28)
Unlike our Aria playthrough, we actually beat the game as Frederick. His challenge of needing rupees to stay alive was interesting. It was more of a factor at the start, but once we had a lot we only had to worry about not losing our hearts like normal. Despite it being our fastest run ever, it wasn't as easy since we only found one bottle to rely on for extra health. Next month, an Impa run.
- The Peace Keepers (04.29)
This was not a good brawler. With most of the beat-em-ups we played, we usually beat it with every character. 2 out of 6 was enough. They did do an interesting thing with having multiple paths and different endings. But it's just not a good game. Found out afterwards that they also took out almost all of the music. There's maybe 3 in the US version, but 24-28 in the Japanese version. They also changed all the super moves. Can't believe they did that.
ETC=========================
- YEJI - River
Yeji is definitely my second favorite member in ITZY. This and other things lately have solidified that.
- WENDY - Like Water (MV)
- WENDY - When This Rain Stops (MV)
To no one's surprise, Wendy's solo album is absolutely incredible. I really hope she gets to do more solo songs in the future.
- TWICE - Kura Kura (MV)
- ITZY - Mafia In the morning (MV)
A great song. For me, I always feel it ends too soon. However, I really like it. Been learning the choreography in my chair.
- Heck of a month. Loaded with health stuff and loaded with long running streams. For those reading this, I will say that I have been feeling better. As of typing this (05.15), I have actually been able to sleep flat on my back for a little over a week now.
- That's a wrap on April 2021. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
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