January 2023 Entry:
2023 has begun. Time to recap the first month. As a brief reminder, the HER section is no longer going to be part of these entries. You can read last month's post to find out why.
MISC=========================
- Finally got around to watching my copy of the BoA 20th Anniversary Special Live -The Greatest- concert (01.02). The last concert she ever filmed was in 2018.Once I realized that, I knew there had been something missing these last few years as she used to have one every 2-3 years. But this did not disappoint. Of course I sang along to all the songs (popped up and danced to a few). The special guests were amazing. Once one showed up, I wondered if another would and they did. And when Only One was being performed, I quickly thought who could be the biggest name I could think of that has performed with her in the past and I guessed correctly. Overall, it was a good way to start the year. Pictures from the Twitter post are of her various stage outfits and of course from whomever took them. I think some people that aren't big in the Kpop/Jpop world might have mistaken that I went to the concert, ha.
- My copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge arrived (01.04). Didn't get my favorite turtle as the inserted card. Know a few that did, but I'm the odd one that's not willing to trade. I get what I got. Have yet to play it unfortunately. Still trying to get out of the mode that the games I buy have to be experienced on stream. I'll get to it. If not on stream, I have a good idea when. I also took a photo of the Pizza Hut coupon so if I'm out with someone and we want some free food, boom.
- I started an unrelated stream countdown on Twitter (01.06). Starting with 150 remaining, every 25 will be another post with an unrelated photo and short story to go with it. I noticed that at least this first post got more eyes than my general post about wrapping streams up once we hit 1000. It may be because people on Twitter (and IG) that have only been following me recently have never seen it or the other images I plan to post. Stay tuned for more old photos of me.
- New snacks in the form of The Good Crips Company (01.08). They're basically gluten-free Pringles. They're fine. Nothing home to write about, but a good alternative for those that need their snacks to be free of gluten. As of typing this (02.03), I have the aged white cheddar and classic original remaining.
- New Nintendo 2023 Calendar (01.10). As I've been doing with them, they stay in the background of streams and I change it every month.
- Bought a copy of The Wild At Heart (01.10). I considered it a late holiday gift for myself even though I had bought myself a few things already. Just had the itch, especially since it wasn't gifted to me by anyone. Someone tried, but the transaction oddly would not go through for them even though they ended up getting me something else.
- 205 amiibo thanks to Sephiroth and Kazuya (01.13). Hard to believe there are only 14 I'm missing now. 17 if you add the last 3 Smash amiibo that are to be made.
- Bought Sam & Max Save The World during a sale on LRG (01.14). I tried to also get the Grandia HD Collection, but copies got swiped up fast. Sam & Max is currently scheduled to be played in June.
- A friend from high school has been teaching overseas for a while now, but was visiting (01.16). It's not the first time, but it definitely has been a while since I've seen him and his wife. They picked me up and we had lunch at Lopez. Then to a few places in Chinatown before a stop at Walmart and Daiso. This whole time frame was from 1PM-7PM. Lots of time to catch up, share stories, ask things, and be silly like we did back in the day. Shout out to him and his wife for the Kpop gifts and snacks.
- A cousin showed up unexpectedly with her parents since they were in the area (01.22). It was two hours into the stream so there's a two hour break in the last stream of Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! Even though I saw her for her sister's birthday last month, it has been a while talking to just her. It was very nice catching up and reliving some memories of growing up.
- Another milestone in Fitness Boxing 2; 100,000 punches (01.28).
- The Royal Rumble was so fun (01.28). Went to G and Rannchan's place as they hosted a watch party. Saw some familiar faces, met some new ones, and saw someone who I had not seen in 10 years. We both knew we were familiar to each other and I looked up old videos I edited for Texas Showdown. We interviewed him, ha. The Royal Rumble itself was so fun. A long event, but each advertised match delivered. Especially the Rumble matches themselves. Part of me still wishes I was there, but I would have wanted to drive in and out the same day meaning I wouldn't have been home until maybe 2 or 3AM.
- WandaVision was so damn good (01.31). I watched 3 episodes at a time throughout the month. Was very tempted to watch more, but I didn't want to binge it all at once. The way they paid homage to old TV sitcoms was spot on. And the underlying story of everything is not what it seems eventually being brought to the forefront was done really well. I may have knew of a few things through social media, but thankfully it wasn't spoiled outright for me because I was able to enjoy surprises as they happened. Highly recommend it.
GAMES=========================
- Games of 2022 Year in Review
- LOUD has been on my radar for a while (01.01). Got it on sale when it came out and was waiting for the right time to play it. I'm glad this was the first game I played for the year. Nice simple story to follow, but the music is really good. Had a few tracks that I really enjoyed listening to. And I almost completed it 100%. The only thing left was clearing the bonus song that gets unlocked. Other songs prior on the hardest difficulty posed a challenge, but I was never able to make it maybe halfway through the extra song. Jokingly said it on stream, but as of typing this (02.07) it's still my game of the year.
- Target Earth was the Genesis NSO game of the month (01.03). It's old school difficult. Absolutely no way I could have beaten it without save states and rewinds. It's a well made game overall, but it is not a walk in the park.
- Demo Showcase 101 was the first of 5 for the month (01.05). Thanks to those that put in channel points to make it happen. Unfortunately, this was one of the worst Demo Showcases in terms of ratings. 4 thumbs down. Almost the elusive 5 thumbs down. Although I'd still like to see 5 of all the thumbs to happen at some point.
- No Straight Roads has been on my radar for a while (01.07-01.08). G streamed it recently before I did and he got me a copy of it as a holiday gift (thanks). I liked it, but the Switch version is not a good port. I unfortunately ran into a few crashes and lots of glitches especially in the second stream. So I'd recommend it as long as you don't play it on the Switch.
- Demo Showcase 102 (01.11)
- I had been taking my Switch with me while taking my dad to his physical therapy sessions. That pretty much guaranteed one hour play. After weeks of doing it, I completed Wheel of Fortune (01.12). I knew level 40 was the max and reaching that unlocked the last few things as well. Wouldn't mind playing it for fun, but it is done.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel was our free-to-play game of the month (01.13). Not bad. Playing with basic rules, I did okay and even found cards I liked. But any special type of battles, I couldn't win.
- Demo Showcase 103 (01.15)
- Returned to The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles ones last time (01.17). Initially it was to play the Escapades, but we ended up looking at all the other extras as well. I'm glad I did that as there were a few things I totally forgot were made for the game. And of course I do like looking at galleries.
- Demo Showcase 104 (01.18)
- Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! was fantastic (01.20-01.22). Sure, I knew the story so there was nothing to surprise me from the core game. But it was still cool to see how some things got translated to consoles as well as a few jump scares I had never seen before. And of course there was the side stories that happen before the events of the main game, which I found to be very sad and heartwarming. That was also when my cousin arrived and there was a 2 hour break, ha. But I unfortunately didn't complete it on stream. I was only missing 2% and for some reason, it didn't click for me to look it up because it only took a quick search and 15 extra minutes to get it. So I did complete it, but off-stream. It was a good experience all in all.
- Demo Showcase 105 was the last of 5 Demo Showcases (01.24). And it got 4 thumbs sideways. Crazy to bookend these 5 with possible sweeps.
- EarthBound was the SNES game of the month (01.26-01.30). My second time playing it with the first time being a decade ago on the Wii U Virtual Console. It went slower than I recalled. And I also power leveled off stream. I was doing my normal one hour of leveling up off-stream for RPGs, but I got my party to at least level 50 before getting our fourth member. While I was doing it normally at first, once I remembered that I read about an easy way to get experience, I did an extra couple hours of that to achieve those 50s.
ETC=========================
- SMTOWN - The Cure (MV)
- SMTOWN - Hope (from Kwangya)
- TVXQ - Rising Sun (MV remastered)
- GOT the beat - Stamp On It (MV)
- ISAK N JIYEON - One (MV remastered)
- TWICE - MOONLIGHT SUNRISE (MV)
- TWICE MiSaMo - Bouquet (Making MV short ver.)
That's a wrap on January 2023. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
