July 2022 Entry:
I'm typing this while I have COVID. The bright side is that the symptoms have gone down significantly. Still positive though.
MISC=========================
- Went to get a CT scan (07.01). Maily to see the comparison a year later. When I got there, I was brought to the back waiting room, I was told that there was an issue with the machine so there might be a longer wait. The person in front of me was the last person to use it and that's when issues started happening. About an hour later with brief checks on the status, they let us know that a technician was on the way, but didn't know how long it would take to fix. So we opted to reschedule. The person in front of me joked about how they broke the machine, I jokingly got upset about how she broke it, ha. We laughed and wished the best for each other.
While they said they'd call when the machine was fixed, I called about 3 days later and set it up. They called a week after, but I stuck with the date I already booked (07.22). Went out and remembered they said they would keep my paperwork for next time. But they couldn't find it. So I became silly and acted upset, but they can tell I was joking. As I was almost done filling out the new paperwork, they found the old one, ha. Again, acted silly about it and we all had a good laugh. Still had to wait as there were quite a few people ahead of me and they were falling behind. Scan went well and anything found was to be discussed at the next scheduled ENT meeting next month.
- I saw a few people in my IG stories trying out this app called NGL. It allowed followers to ask random questions or say random things. Normally I don't try out stuff like that, but I figured why not. I was disappointed with it overall. Mainly because I wasn't having lots of messages to reply to. Not only that, but a few were repeated as there was also a random generator for people to use if they couldn't come up with their own questions/messages. And I also learned that the app sends a few themselves. I discovered that because I was in the middle of prepping one and taking my time with it and all of a sudden I had a new message in my inbox. By that time, no one could have sent me one because prior IG stories with the link had expired. Outside of my replies having the link, I only prompted to use it once a week (5x in July). After that, I knew I was done. Had more people said anything, I would have kept going.
- Money In The Bank was so fun (07.02). It's hard not to enjoy the MITB matches, but it was solid all around.
- I finished my rewatch of season one of Invincible Youth (07.03). I'm still surprised with how much I forgot about the show despite it being over a decade old. A lot of what I felt was summarized in the linked tweet thread. But it had always been a show I wanted to rewatch, but just kept pushing it back. Glad to have finally done it. I've only seen a few episodes of the second season. So my eventual rewatch will be brand new. Still don't know when, but I'm actually thinking about next year.
- Helped my dad with some painting outside (07.04). HOA has gotten on us about how some of the bricks looked discolored and they happen to be the bricks near the top of our two-story home. I was to climb the ladder all the way up, but halfway, it was too high and shaky. So despite still coming off surgery a couple months ago, my dad went up. He did a lot and I mainly held the ladder and assisted with other things. And it was hot. It wasn't in the 100s how it had been in previous weeks, but it was still in the 90s. But we got the majority of it done within a couple of hours. Unfortunately my iPod touch I had been using suffered from the heat. It now has a tendency of turning on/off on its own. At one point, it was okay, but I have started to reorganize my entire iTunes (which has been a slow process since the new PC in February) to go back to using the 2 nanos I have.
- For the first time in Fitness Boxing 2, I got all perfects (07.06). Granted the exercises were kind of easy, but I never select which ones I do so it's always random. A few days later, I got all perfects again.
- Went to eat at Jinya with Rannchan after being on her stream (07.09). Nothing like good food and good company.
- Got to get the amiibo from Rannchan as well (07.10). She found them at a convention, but it was a while before we could meet again. Crazy that Pikachu was new as I feel unless it's a new release, any older amiibo I find now will be used. Also got a button and G threw in an Asha sticker.
- The next day, I went to Japaneiros for dinner with friends (07.10). It's been a few years since I saw one of them and the other two I saw last time we went to Japaneiros. Another good food with good company situation.
- An aunt was staying with us for the day as the a/c in her home was being worked on (07.12). I actually learned something new about her and what's been going on recently and...it was a punch to the gut. All I can hope is that she'll be okay.
- Unlocked the special lanes for bowling in Nintendo Switch Sports (07.16). Out of all the sports, that definitely varies things up and makes me not just aim at the same spot and swing full power. And unfortunately, I have decided to take Nintendo Switch Sports off the exercise schedule. While I realized you don't have to move much early on, I wanted to keep doing it. But outside of the special lanes and waiting for golf to release, there's not much that keeps you going other than getting more outfit variants etc.
- Finally completed the entire skill tree in Ring Fit Adventures (07.19). That was the next tangible goal and it felt good to reach. Next will be finishing the second story mode, which is only 3 more chapters. And since Nintendo Switch Sports was removed from rotation, Ring Fit Adventures is now on the same rotation as Fitness Boxing.
- Went to pre-order Bayonetta and Bayonetta 3 (07.19). I had to wait as there was a family ahead of me so I actually looked around. Didn't see any games, but I remembered someone posting about a GameStop exclusive Bayonetta BloodyFate Funko set. And there it was. Took it in my hand as I went to the manager who was awesome and remembered me from long ago. I already knew I could use my $5 off coupon, but he mentioned that there was a deal going on in-store where if you buy a tote, anything in it will get X percent off as well. He tried it and I basically used the coupon on the bag. But the Bayonetta set went from $40 to $27. Other than the bag, it was an all Bayonetta purchase.
- More amiibo (07.27). This time courtesy of G who had been holding onto them from a couple of conventions. The Mario is a little faded around the belly, minor details. But I do think it's crazy that both Diddy Kong amiibo were found back-to-back.
- Round 28 in the books. Out of the two, I enjoyed Killing Bites more. Nothing like crazy fights and putting some actual animal facts in it to have it make sense. Happy Sugar Life was super surprising. I will always say that they did a wonderful job with the imagery, but it is not for everyone. Tons of trigger warnings. Plus I had an early prediction that a character would die and it happened.
- SummerSlam, my goodness (07.30). Outside of the matches being fun, the returns of Bayley, Dakota Kai, and Io Shirai (now Iyo Sky) was an awesome surprise to start things off. And of course the chaos of the main event, who could have predicted any of that. The tractor era of wrestling is so fun, ha.
- Ordered GOD EATER 3 (07.31). It's been on my wish list since 2019. But it was a gift for myself for doing something cool this month that will be mentioned later in this blog entry.
H.E.R.========================
- I couldn't think of a story this time, but I watched this video with Neil Patrick Harris on Hot Ones. One of the questions (video is time stamped) and he is asked about escape rooms. I absolutely agree with his answer too. I do not like escape rooms where there is a puzzle or element that does not fit the narrative. Thankfully I haven't been to many that do that, but I recall one specifically.
The room had a jail/murdererer theme. Everything was good and the props were fine (I was told not to touch the real sharp implements mounted on the wall...don't have real sharp objects in your escape rooms), and we did escape in time. However, the one big thing that stood out was a table that was enclosed in a bubble and two players could put their arms in from alternate sides to move tiles in a defined order. That made no sense at all in the room. Every little thing made sense for being in this room except for that. It felt as if the owners thought it was cool, bought it, and just stuck it into one of their rooms. If they had it make sense like we were arranging a plan or creating a device that the killer used then sure. Nope. Put these random blocks in some proper order.
Have we been guilty of something similar? I can say that only Mo's Safehouse maybe had a few things that were out of place, but retroactively we made the best sense of it at least. Why was there a puzzle behind a picture? The picture itself made sense in the room. But definitely every room after, everything had a reason for being in the room and weren't questioned by customers.
GAMES=========================
- BIT.TRIP VOID marks the last of the BIT.TRIP series alphabetically (07.02). It was great replaying all of them. I still wish I was able to beat RUNNER, but that's okay.
- Demo Showcase 93 (07.03)
- Pinball ended up having a good turn out (07.05). Lots of good chat about pinball in general with some pinball people. I also was able to remember an old NES pinball game I liked called Rock 'n Ball.
- Forgone was the favorite from Demo Showcase 73 (07.07-07.08). Got it on sale for 60% off. I really liked it and got both endings. Super close to 100% it, but those time trials were tough. The downside is that I will have the memory of how the first stream ended. If you watch the VOD, their names don't appear, but you will hear me read out their comments for the most part. At least one had been to the streams before and the other wasn't a follower, but they were being disrespectful even when we went to another stream. I did sit on the thought of banning them for a few days before doing it. It still bothered me so I did.
- Finally went to Rannchan's stream to play Best Friend Forever (07.09). We had to keep pushing it back because of COVID and sickness in general. But I'm so glad it happened. Not only did she pick a different dog and a different person to date, but it made me want to replay it as well. As of now, I think returning to the game annually to pick different options will be fun. That does mean 6 years total...but I'd rather do that instead of running through the rest back-to-back. And if I happen not to do that anymore, oh well.
- Bayonetta 3 finally has a release date (07.13). Mentioned it already that I pre-ordered it and the newly physical version of the first game. The plan is to do what I did with No More Heroes and play each one sequentially a month starting with October.
- Returned to The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles with part 2: Resolve (07.11-07.18). Using the 2-1 schedule really worked out as I never felt tired and worn out with the voice acting, which only was straining a couple of times. The continuation from the first game was fantastic and ended well. I definitely see how this became lots of fans' favorite in the series. I still have a ton of nostalgia for the original trilogy, but I can safely say that The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is above the Apollo trilogy for me. Feel free to go back and watch my entire playthrough of the whole The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles because that's about 90 hours of voice acting on my end.
- MLB The Show 22 became the latest Game Trial available (07.20). Squeezed it into the schedule as it also had been a while since I played a Game Trial on stream. The game was great. Everything worked well. If you are a diehard for graphics then you might want to get it on another system. Otherwise, it functions well.
- Trove was our free-to-play game of the month (07.21). It will also have an unfortunate memory attached to it as someone that was cool at first said something very racist. I didn't read that out loud (thankfully I still go with reading before reading aloud) so you won't hear it in the VOD.
- Pocky & Rocky Reshrined was wonderful (07.23). It was very faithful to the originals, but looked so dang good. It was also very difficult like the originals. But I did decide to make it a one-off as I thought there would have been reason to play through as each individual character, but there wasn't. So I ended up playing the story mode twice (normal and then easy) as well as unlocking the last playable character. Big thumbs up, but beware of the difficulty. And for those that were there...FORUNTE, ha.
- Cellular Harvest was the last sponsored stream from aPriori Digital (07.24). It's basically Pokemon Snap with aliens and technical issues and bad controls and not a good game.
- Finally appeared on G's stream to play Vegas Stakes (07.26). Time pending, we would have also played Uniracers, but we were caught up in beating the game. I'm glad he got into it and I'm glad chat was digging it too. We did beat it after many retries in the end. Afterwards, I chilled with Rannchan to catch up before heading home.
- MyNeighborJess was planning to play some bargain PSX games on stream and one was Top Shop (07.28). I bought Top Shop decades ago on sale at Best Buy and really had fun with it. I joined Jess and two others in the stream for what ended up being 2 hours when we realized how long it would take for the game to end legit. So we ended at year 2 (or 3) and looked at the stats. It was a blast. So much nostalgia unlocked. I'd be down for a round 2 if it happened. I'm glad I stuck around for the whole duration as I originally said I'd only stick around for an hour.
- Thanks to chat donating channel points, we replayed Ravva and the Cyclops Curse (07.29). If you recall, I had the world record for Ravva on Console An% on November 1st. Then a friend beat it 28 days later. I knew I would like to come back to it, but wasn't sure if chat did hence it becoming a community challenge goal. The week prior to the stream, I made sure to watch Voxgizer's runs once a day just to know what the optimum route and weapons were. I already knew there were spots I could make up time, but didn't know other things like when to take hits or where extra lives were.
The day of, I knew I needed to de-rust. It felt good to play again. And apparently I only needed one round of de-rust as I reclaimed the record on run two. Third one I finally got to the developer room as well as improved the run. I still wanted to get the secret ending if anything else. The fourth run was a better run, but we were shy of the 500,000 point goal before the final boss. Still improved the run time and that is now your current Console Any% record. And then on the 5th and final run, it happened. We got the secret ending and now hold the record for Secret Ending Any%, which was held by no one. It also stands as the fastest Ravva time in any category, wow. And that's where we ended things. Not only did I reclaim and destroy the previous record, but I got a second one. I hope this one lasts at least half a year, ha. But thanks to any and all that were there and for the support in doing it. It was awesome.
- Last stream of the month was our N64 game of the month; Star Fox 64 (07.31). I may have forgotten a lot about the game, but it felt like a glove 20+ years later. Shared some memories and stories and just enjoyed this masterpiece.
ETC=========================
- TaeYeon - Some Nights
- Shinhwa - Hero (MV remastered)
- TaeYeon - INVU
- SM TOWN - Hot Mail (MV remastered)
- TWICE - Celebrate (MV)
- ITZY - SNEAKERS (MV)
- AILEE - Killing Voice
- HYOLYN - Killing Voice
- SM TOWN - Red Sun (MV remastered)
- I feel like I had some closing lines to end this entry on, but I think the current situation has overtaken it. I'll go into more detail in my next entry about having COVID, but just know that I'm feeling a lot better, but am still positive (08.14).
That's a wrap on July 2022. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
