September 2022 Entry:
September was busy.
MISC=========================
- Took a road trip to Austin (09.02-09.03). First time traveling out of time since the pandemic started. Been planning this with Akikobean during August. It almost didn't happen with catching COVID last month, but we were both healthy and still went through with the idea. The drive there took a little longer than estimated, but it went off well. Chilled for a bit at her place before going to eat pizza and then drive around the rest of the day to Austin exclusive places like retailers and retro shops (found the Octoling amiibo set, but it was $200) and a mall (first time in many years). I'm surprised it took all day because it was soon time for dinner. Got Korean food and really enjoyed it, especially our waitress who I got to be silly with. I asked if they had pink lemonade, but they only had regular lemonade. So I asked her when she brought it out to say it was pink lemonade and she did. I really enjoy when strangers play along with the silliness. Then it was back to Akikobean's place to chill and talk for so many hours. We talked the whole day since we were together the whole time, but there were things we've never talked about in our 25 years of friendship. It was nice.
Ended up sleeping in the living space, which was hard even with sleeping medicine. I started on the couch, but transitioned to the carpeted floor as it was cooler. Woke up a couple hours before she did the next morning and caught up on social media while dozing off a bit. We went to get lunch shortly after she woke up. They also only had regular lemonade, but I asked the waitress the same as I did from the waitress last night. And to my surprise, she came back with an actual pink lemonade. It caught other staff members' eyes as they knew they didn't have pink lemonade so they asked how I got one, ha. Went back to Akikobean's place to pack up the car, say my thanks and goodbyes, and drove off as it started to rain. Thank you to Akikobean for having me over, for driving me around and treating me, and for being one of few long lasting friendships from highschool.
The rain was bad. There were multiple instances in the 3-4 drive back where it was almost impossible to see or hear anything beyond the rain. It reminded me of one trip back from San Antonio and the rain was just as bad, but it was bright out. This time it was dark out so many cars had the emergency lights flashing. There were a few times I thought to pull over to a store/restaurant and wait it out. But I figured there was never a moment that traffic stopped for too long. It kept progressing. Once I hit a certain landmark that was about half an hour away from home, I figured the rest of the trip would have been fine.
It was a fun trip. Glad it happened.
- Caught up on Clash at the Castle shortly after settling back home from the trip (09.03). So fun. Match of the night for me was Sheamus VS Gunther.
- Worlds Collide was also great (09.04). I was still hoping some of the NXT UK representatives would have won, but I understand why not. But their build-ups on the go-home show with previous champions saying things to the then current champions, super cool.
- amiibo 190; Inkling Girl (neon pink) (09.04). It arrived right before the road trip so I figured to hold off on it until I came back.
- All Out 2022 was stacked (09.04). Unfortunately, I can't recall much from it a month later. I do remember some things, but when I look at the card, not much comes to mind.
- Got a present thanks to Rannchan; Clubhouse Games (09.05). As of typing this (10.12), I have yet to play it. But I wanted to finish my business with SENRAN KAGURA Peach Ball first instead of jumping back and forth between off stream games. And this makes Rannchan the first and only person to ever get me something from my wishlist.
- Batman: The Animated Series 30 years
- FOREVER 1 (09.07)
- Been playing SENRAN KAGURA Peach Ball off stream (09.08). When I finished the game, I still had $745,000 of purchasable items. Felt it was doable especially as something simple and casual.
- amiibo 191-193; Steve, Alex, Malzeno (09.10). Wasn't able to pre-order Steve and Alex, but the store had plenty. And I did order Malzeno when it was available stateside, which means I could have waited to get the other 2 along with it instead of importing them. Now that 3 set of Sunbreak amiibo are so easy to find, ha.
- 50,000 punches (09.12)
- Nintendo Direct (09.13)
- amiibo 194; Inkling Boy (neon green) (09.18)
- Finished the new game plus portion of Ring Fit Adventure (09.27). During the final battle, I did have to take a break just like before. And there was a point where I thought "is this it for playing this game?" I even thought of maybe doubling up Fitness Boxing in its place. But they opened up more stuff. Got another half year or so worth of content to work through, yay.
- Picked up my physical copy of Bayonetta, bought some snacks including Reese's with chips inside, and got amiibo 195; Inkling Squid (neon purple) (09.30). Lots of stuff, lots of pictures.
- Round 30 was only one series; Invincible. Wow, amazing. I had heard mostly positive things about it and I now know why. My eyes will keep a look out for Invincible merchandise (at least a shirt). And I can't wait to watch season two whenever that comes out.
However, this is where I end watching free stuff from Prime Video. I had thought to go a full 3 years ending on Round 36, but Invincible was a fantastic way to bookend this instead of trying to find more stuff that may turn out to be disappointing. Not only that, I don't order stuff from Amazon as much anymore so there is not much reason for me to keep a Prime account. I'll still watch some free stuff here and there until the current subscription ends, but I won't rate them like I had been doing. If you enjoyed reading my thoughts on movies and series, thank you.
H.E.R.========================
- Recently I looked back at our Hiring Video (within the last week). If you've never seen it, please take 11 minutes of your day to do so. This was back in 2015. It was nice to see and hear from former coworkers I haven't been in contact with in a while. Everything they said in it felt very genuine and I think it rang true for most of their tenures with the company. There were a few applicants that did mention watching the Hiring Video before their interview, which was really nice. Filming all of it was fun as it made for many outtakes from everyone (there was an outtake video made, ha). And watching the video for the first time with everyone during a meeting was memorable especially for a couple of moments that we couldn't help but laugh at. Good times.
https://youtu.be/sgslIZmOruc
GAMES=========================
- Replayed Best Friend Forever (09.01). This time with a different dog and a different person of interest and with the spoop theme turned on (the dogs had adorable costumes). It was fun to revisit and may be my annual game I return to. That does mean 6 years, ha.
- I really enjoyed The Flower Collectors (09.04). A favorite from Demo Showcase 75. The story was very compelling as more unraveled. Would I have liked it if everyone were humans instead of animals? Probably, but the animal part is what may have sold me on it outside of the demo.
- Good crop of demos for Demo Showcase 96 (09.05). The highlight was when the developer of Okinawa Rush showed up and was kind and chatty. Not only that, but they ended up giving me a code for the game. To be played before the year is over.
- MAPPY-LAND was our NES game of the month (09.07). I originally played this when I was a child because my cousin had it. Never beat until now many decades later. Fun simple game.
- Super Animal Royale was our free-to-play game of the month (09.09). For a 2D top-down battle royale with animals, not bad.
- Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy was our Viewer's Choice game (09.11, 09.13, 09.15). Played it when it originally came out and was voted on by Discord for me to replay it. It...was rough. First game wasn't as bad, especially the one stage that everyone knows about. And I thought the second game was my favorite of the trilogy...I was wrong. The third felt better coming off after the second one. I don't know why I had memories of at least enjoying it as a whole, but this is now filed under "I've beaten it and I never have to play it again."
- Word Wheel by POWGI was super fun (09.17). Very thankful for chat being into it as well. I could go back to this off stream as something quick to play.
- Demo Showcase 97 was not great (09.18). 3 thumbs down. It may be the most thumbs down given for any Demo Showcase at least that I can recall.
- Spanky's Quest was added last minute (09.19). Funny thing, I think this was originally meant to be played last year in September, ha. I knew that it was an odd one, but I found it very fun. Short silly adventure as a monkey.
- Finally played Chicken Police - Paint It RED (09.21-09.22). Had purchased a physical copy at the beginning of the year and it was one of the main catalysts for Zoo-tember. Great noir story. The voice acting was top notch with a great mystery. Similar to The Flower Collectors, I think I would have enjoyed this if it were a cast of humans instead of animals. The animals is what sold it though.
- Played DRAGON BALL: The Breakers offline (09.23). This would have fit with the Zoo-tember theme now that I think about it. But it was quite enjoyable. Never played Dead By Daylight because I wasn't interested in it despite knowing a few streamers I watched and played it a lot. I had fun with it. I was never the raider and the few times I won was never when Frieza was the raider, ha. Only won a few times when it was Cell.
- Banjo-Kazooie was our N64 game of the month (09.24-09.26). I think this was the other main catalyst in making Zoo-tember a thing. Played it for a couple hours when it was originally released. Always heard good things about it. Definitely had a small influx of Banjo fans show up, which was a plus and a minus (a few times). The third of three streams was actually the worst one. I enjoyed it up until that point. It wasn't all bad, but there were just outside stream factors that soured my mood at the beginning. Thanks for chat for being helpful and understanding. It was fine when we went back to collect everything. But the final boss fight with Gruntilda was not fun. I even did all the Stop 'n' Swop stuff afterwards and it took forever. I can now say that I have 100% completed the game though. It's unfortunate that the third stream wasn't me in the best spirits, but I did like playing the game. I don't think I would have liked playing it on original hardware though. Thank goodness for save states.
- The 4 year anniversary stream happened (09.28). I continued the tradition with inviting a guest and specifically a former coworker from the Houston Escape Room. This time it was maxx_lobo AKA Agent Majordomo. And another tradition continued with them as we played the third game in the Escape First series with Escape First 3/Supernatural. It was okay. Twitch had an outage around the time we were going to start. It actually didn't go back up until about 2 hours later. Thing was that we were pressed for time too as maxx and I had already decided that he can only stick around for X amount of time. So while he was going to be on for 6 hours, it was only 4. Thankfully it worked at all instead of having to reschedule without him (he took the day off for it). He was able to play through 2 of the 3 escape rooms before having to bounce and it was fun. We made a heck of a team. For the 3rd room, I opened it up for anyone in chat to join otherwise I'd go solo. Cheers to Reversed2 for hopping into voice chat and helping me out.
The technical issues did put a large damper on the stream as a whole as I'm pretty sure a few more people would have joined in had we started at the normal time. And unfortunately the turnout was low despite it being an anniversary stream. Even had spoken with maxx about maybe doing a Q&A after we were done kind of like what Krispy and I did at the end of the previous anniversary stream. I even had other things to say afterwards, but like I mentioned then, I'd rather privately DM a few people than speak out loud to no one. Overall, the anniversary itself was kind of blah, but playing with maxx and Reversed was fun.
ETC=========================
- BoA - Girls on Top (MV remastered)
- SNSD - Long Lasting Love
- NSP - Heart Boner (acoustic)
- ITZY - Blah Blah Blah (MV)
- SES - Love (MV remastered)
- It's out there now on all socials, but I have mentioned that I will be taking a hiatus from streaming when the 5th anniversary stream and/or stream 1000 happens. I had been thinking about it for a few months as I found myself not enjoying it as much. I'm sure a few regulars can see that there were times that the game I was playing frustrated me more than normal or the unpleasant minority of viewers had gotten to me more. I had been thinking about it, I had not solidified it until the 12 of September. A streamer who had not been on for a while went live and the outpour of positivity and donations that always happens there really made me think. It's not this person's fault by any means. They deserve it all. And I definitely see that happen for other streamers, just the timing of this instance hit with what I was thinking. While others will tell you not to compare yourself to others, it was hard not to. I've been doing this for 4 years now and I don't recall seeing anyone say they missed me, but I'm always on. On the flip side, I'm always on and people still don't show up. Am I doing all the things other streamers do to generate interest; no. I've stuck with my guns and am comfortable with how I run streams. Am I doing anything special to make others want to tune in; not particularly. For example, when I show off the master list or mention how many streams we've done, people sound impressed. Do I deserve to be gifted anything from my wish list for doing this for 4 years; seems not as even though this was the first time I asked, no one did. And I don't make much via streaming to make it worth it. If I did the math, I'm pretty sure I was always in the red in terms of paying for things for the stream compared to how much I made. It's also burnout. Had I still been working and doing streaming part time, we'd have less streams, but I think I would feel differently about all of this.
To those I've mentioned this to privately, they understand. And unfortunately I guess, no one else has reached out or asked about it now that it has been made public. I didn't expect an outpouring, but I would have at least thought someone would have at least said "wait, really" or something like that. Nothing so far. Although I have the thought that if anyone asked on stream, I'd be very matter-of-fact about it rather than being cute or dancing around it. This is what it is.
It all hinges on if we find a place to reopen the escape room by the end of the year or not. Even if by the final day of 2022 we find a spot, I'll go back to streaming part time as I work like I did for the first two years. The only other thing that can stop the hiatus if there is a crazy amount of support and interest in the stream and it becomes a sustainable way of being financial. If neither of those things happen, I will continue the pace of streaming I'm currently doing until we reach the 5th anniversary stream or the 1000th stream. I can make them happen on the same day and that is the way I'm leaning towards. And I already know what game it would be. It won't be a game to be voted on like every 100th stream has been for a while and there won't be a guest. As long as the game comes out as planned, it will be that game.
And that's it. Unless something changes things for the better, the last stream will be on the 5th anniversary stream which I will do my best to make the same as the 1000th stream. The hiatus will be for at least one year.
That's a wrap on September 2022. 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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