September 2023 Entry:
September was a big month. Time to recap.
MISC=========================
- Road trip to Austin (09.02-09.03). Just like last year, I visited a highschool friend. Now she lives elsewhere in the area. I realized 10 minutes in that I forgot my TWICE bracelet. There was a nice bead bracelet in the car so I wore that around. The ride there was smooth. My timing was also off by about half an hour. I remember thinking by the time this podcast finishes, I'm halfway there. I was not. That's also when I hit a pocket of traffic that slowed things down. Awesome house. And she was pet-sitting a friend's dog and bird. The bird was chill, but the dog was so dang fluffy and full of energy. She definitely was an added bonus to the whole trip. She liked the attention and liked cuddling.
After settling in, we had lunch at 600 Degrees Pizzeria. It was her suggestion as it's one of her favorites. I see why. The wings were really good and the pizza slices were very large. A full pizza pie would be way too big. Next was Austin Wonderspaces. But we didn't realize we had to make an appointment ahead of time. So we saw the next available time, which was about an hour later. Signed up and paid for it and drove out to what would have been the next destination with Toy Joy. We first went to their dessert bar area and got some ice cream and candy. Then we walked around the store. There was a lot of stuff there. Saw some really cool figures from games and cartoons/anime. Tons of miscellaneous merchandise too. I didn't see anything I wanted myself, but my friend saw potential gift options for others. Then it was back to Austin Wonderspaces. I'm not one for museums. I like them, but it's usually not something I'd plan myself. If someone else did, I'd go along if invited. But this one stood out as it was interactive and that's why I suggested it. 80% of the displays had something you can do whether it was contributing a small part to a large piece, walking through it, viewing, etc. Almost everything was picture/video worthy. You could stay as long as you want and take your time, but we actually spent close to an hour and were done. Then we went to a small store called 3 Star Candy. She got a bunch of specific type of bottled drink and I got a simple orange soda, refreshing. After that, it was back to her place to relax before dinner.
Plans changed. We were both still full from lunch. Yeah, 5 hours later, those wings and pizza were still sitting well, ha. The original plan was to go to El Monumento for dinner. Instead we went to HEB to get some stuff she needed. It was a new and very large HEB, impressive. While we were still full, we still went to Frozen Flamingo for dessert as we both agreed it was a good way to end the night. Went back to her place, watched the first two episodes of Zom 100 (both of us were not impressed despite hearing it was good), and then called it a night.
The next day started with a walk around her neighborhood. It's nice and quiet with lots of room for growth (she had mentioned what was being built around). Then it was time for lunch at Catfish Parlour. Great stuff (took the leftovers and eventually ate all of them within a few days). Game X Change was close by so we stopped by there. Found a Sonic figure for a friend and got a Christmas gift for another that I don't think they'd expect. Then it was back to her place for me to pack up and eventually leave around 3PM. It was hard to leave the dog (seriously, I actually miss her). But much like last year, it was great hanging out with a friend I've known for 26 years. She was a great host and it was great catching up again.
The ride home wasn't bad. It started to rain a bit during the last half hour, but at least it wasn't the rainstorm the entire way back like last year. The proceeding link is for a thread of photos I took during that trip (food, museum, dog, etc).
- I reached 900 stream followers (09.04). Normally I push the goal posts back by 25, but I figured to just put up to 1000. And for the last time I mentioned how cool it would be to reach 1000 followers by stream 1000. Spoilers, that did not happen.
- I received an email from Escapology about a delay (09.05). Not going into all the details, but my spot to be a fulltime manager had to be changed to part time and Assistant Manager for the time being. Will things change, eventually. But at least for the rest of the year, this will be my position. It's not horrible, but unexpected on my part.
- Drove my dad to the airport (09.06). His first time traveling to the Philippines since the pandemic. We were there at 2AM...and he had to wait until 4AM to check in. I was told I could park in the normal parking lot, but when I got there, the attendant informed me that parking was closed until 4AM. So I sat in my car for about 2 hours in front of the passenger pick up (drop off was blocked due to construction) waiting for my mom to return from staying with dad until he was all checked in. Once that was done, we were home around 5AM.
- Went to Escapology to do their Star Trek room (09.06). This was the first time (since my very first room) doing an escape room that were not former HER Agents. Rannchan and Kai were the team. Triple S was supposed to join, but was sick and G was busy. We did escape. The first part was when I was worried because I felt we were there for too long. Other than that I was impressed by the room. In terms of resetting, it seems to be one of (if not the) easiest room to reset. Afterwards, we went to Happy Lemon to get drinks and a waffle and talk before heading back.
- 10 streams remaining (09.11). Oh, that dang smoothie blend off, ha. Good times.
- Ring Fit Adventure finished for the third time (09.13). They mentioned it already that it was the final runthrough and nothing more was added. The final boss battle was long per usual, but felt the easiest. Do I plan to continue with Ring Fit, no. There's plenty of reasons to keep playing it, such as collecting all the clothing and titles, but there are unfortunately a few missions I physically can't do. So I figured to stop now instead of only ending up with 99% of things. Instead, I will put more focus into Fitness Boxing. The larger achievements require time put in with each trainer while the rest happen upon checking in and putting in said time. And with work happening soon, I may be doing it on specific days so it's not sporadic. Not only that, I will only be doing the Intense difficulty from now on.
- Nintendo Directs are always great for me (09.14). Even if the big announcements aren't for me, there's usually 3-5 games I look forward to. This time it was Trace Memory: Another Code Recollection, Princess Peach Showtime, Congra: Operation Galuga, F-ZERO 99 (totally called that this was the next 99 game), and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door remaster.
- Picked up my copy of Blasphemous II (09.15). I plan to play it during the latter end of October to align with when I played the original game a few years ago.
- One final trip to Escapology to do Antidote (09.15). It was another HER reunion with PQ, Marjordomo, and Blue to do the last room at the place as part of my training. We escaped (didn't beat the record) and we totally skipped a whole step, ha. It was also good seeing familiar faces from the staff and seeing them in action. We went to Happy Lemon afterwards to recharge and went back to Escapology to continue catching up with Ocean. We ended up reminiscing a lot and sharing HER stories with the staff there. PQ, Majordomo, and Blue left and I decided to stick around for closing. That turned out well as I ended up driving a future coworker home, which wasn't too far away. Felt good bonding and to find another alternate path to and from work.
- I realized I did not add any off-stream games or movies to this month's schedule. The games made sense as I didn't want to get too busy with games this month, but I figured I would have stuck a movie in there. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was what I decided to watch (09.17). This was really good. Shed tears in the end. Still not sure if the first or third movie is my favorite in the trilogy. If I had to choose, I'd lean closer to the third movie. Thumbs up.
- Another internet outage (09.19). Seems that it's happening at least once a month, which isn't too bad. I was thankful that it wasn't on the day of the final stream.
- 5 streams remaining (09.21). From the Friar's Club Roast on my birthday. I recall thinking this would be a fun annual thing to do for that group of friends when I first mentioned the idea. But when no one was stepping up to be the first, I figured there was a high chance it wouldn't happen again. I totally get that everyone likes being the center of attention especially if the idea is to poke fun of said center. Mine wasn't brutal by any means. More funny than harsh. I can still remember some of the technical issues that happened as well as my cousin crying (I'm sorry). Overall it was a fun event, but one I don't go back to watch that much even nowadays.
- 0 streams remaining (09.29). And then there were none. Originally the photo from the Roast was going to be my last photo, but I thought this one at Marfa was more fitting. The way I'm looking up, the scene itself, something about it felt like a good start rather than the end. In terms of this series of posts, I'm still surprised not everyone caught on with me counting down. Even then I was hoping the photos would spark more conversations (thanks to the few that did ask about some of them) as well as give a peek into my past.
- The final gift I received from streaming; Octoling amiibo (09.30). Shout out to Reversed2 for it. amiibo count is now at 217. The number of gifts received through streams totaled to 6 with the total number of gifters being 4.
- Ate at Lopez with Kpop friends (09.30). Initially it was supposed to be to celebrate my 1000 streams and starting a new job, but I said it doesn't have to be about me and just a good night chilling. I did choose the venue at least. I mentioned it to them, but I swear I've sat around the same area the last 4-5 times I've been there, ha.
GAMES=========================
- I am so glad I did not have to adjust the stream schedule for this final month. Only added one game to it and that's all.
- Round three of playing Best Friend Forever (09.01). Continued choosing another partner and a different dog. It's still fun to jump back into that world and learn more about the other characters. Robin's path was unexpected, but felt appropriate.
- Demo Showcase 113 was the final Demo Showcase and final Viewer's Choice (09.04). Spoilers, they all got thumbs up. Yay for making a historic moment happen on the last one. And it wasn't a lie either. I enjoyed all of them. I did choose an ultimate winner, but added all to the wish list. Cheers to those that did the redemption and chose the last set of demos.
- The final free-to-play game of the month was Fall Guys (09.07). Originally slated for February, I felt this was a good last one after looking at the list. I'm glad others jumped in to play because I would have been a little bummed if no one was interested. And after playing it, I now understand how it's not as easy as it looks, ha.
- Crusader of Centy was the final Genesis game of the month (09.09-09.10). For those that don't know, a physical copy of this game is around a grand. So getting to play this without paying a lot of money for it. It's pretty good. Only negative is that it can be cryptic. I was thankfully following a guide. Not beat by beat, but had I done that, I would have stopped the first stream shorter because I actually did things ahead of time and we were maybe 2/3 of the way through rather than 1/2. But I'd rather have a shorter final stream than the other way around. Glad to have completed it.
- Thumper was my last choice to replay something during September (09.12). Every September, I've always done a vote in Discord for them to choose what game for me to replay (beat/played before streaming). This time I made the call. Thumper is a great game that I don't hear people talk about often so I was glad to get some new eyes on it. The game is still hard as heck. While I was playing normally, I had to resort to playing practice mode, giving myself X amount of tries before moving on because it was going long. Plus my arm was hurting. I mentioned it on stream, but I am one of those people that presses hard on a button for no reason.
- WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ was the final GBA game of the month (09.14). WarioWare games are always fun. The first game wasn't my first WarioWare (that goes to Twisted, which I showed off a bit on stream). But you can tell that this was the foundation for the series.
- Fifty Words by POWGI was the favorite from Demo Showcase 32 (09.16). I accidentally kept calling it a crossword game when it was actually a word search. Originally wanted to play it on the 18th as that would have been on the anniversary of playing Word Wheel by POWGI on stream. And based off that stream, I was thinking the viewers would enjoy looking for words with me as they did when I played the demo. That didn't happen until maybe the last 30-60 minutes. I still enjoyed it myself, but the lack of audience participation surprised me.
- Joe & Mac + Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics were the final SNES games played on stream (09.18). The main reason was this also featured the final guest on stream; DanAngelo (FKA DoubleTake). Not only was he the person that pushed me to stream in the first place, but Joe & Mac was one of his favorite SNES games as a kid. It was actually the reason I didn't attempt to play those games any earlier because I knew I wanted him to be part of that in general. And with the last 3 years featuring guest spots from other former HER coworkers, him being the last with all those reasons felt appropriate.
With that being said, boy were both of these games difficult, ha. I know I've played the first game back in the day, but I don't think I played the sequel. If I did, it might not have been that much.
- Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics was not the original plan for this day (09.20). I wanted to play Coffee Talk 2 on the 22nd, 2 years after playing the first game. But I have the physical version pre-ordered and that unfortunately kept getting pushed back and didn't want to double dip. I wasn't sure what to replace Coffee Talk 2 with. At first I thought to do a medley of games I played before streaming and show off the endings. It would have included at least four games depending on how long it would take to finish the final stages/fights and to have credits roll. Choices included Super Mario Odyssey, Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, Breath of the Wild, and more. I liked the idea, but wasn't sure if I wanted to settle on just 4 games or fit in as many games as possible.
Ultimately, I landed on Clubhouse Games as that is literally 51 different games, ha. Not the exact same idea, but it also fell into that category of games I didn't play on stream, but not before streaming. The original plan was to run through all the games win or lose mainly because some games are short and some are super long. Then I would have opened it up for others to join. Due to the timing of things, no one was able to, but at least people were around to comment throughout.
- THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE was excellent (09.21). While it was a game I played through and had credits roll off-stream, I knew there was a high possibility that I wanted to feature it in September. Originally I was thinking of waiting for all the DLC to come out, but the last 2 wouldn't be out until later in the year. But I waited long enough so that the Xenogears DLC tracks were available.
For this stream, I tried Endless Mode at first to see how far I could get. That lasted about an hour. Then I opened it up for song requests from chat as I played on the higher difficulties (previously only played all the songs on Basic). Cheers to chat for picking a variety of songs. And I saw my first Game Over as the Ultimate difficulty was definitely tough (even the difficulty before it).
Before the stream, I checked to see if there was a list of songs that might not have been cleared for streaming. And there are actually 2 lists from Square-Enix. One was a set that wouldn't allow for monetization or would allow the other party to monetize from it. The other was a list of not playing at all due to copyright reasons. The majority were songs with lyrics, but not all. I didn't realize it until I was about to wrap things up, but the song I wanted to end on fell into one of those lists. While one was safer than the other, I made sure that if anyone requested a song to check those lists too. Sucks, but better safe than sorry. But I was delighted to play one of my favorite rhythm series on stream.
- And then there was Rakuen: Deluxe Edition | Rakuen (09.23-09.24). When I had decided to stop streaming, Rakuen was a top contender to be my last stream. But since it's on the longer side to be a one-shot (8-10 hours), I wasn't too sure. Not only that, but (I think) it wasn't on the Switch yet. I'd been part of supershigi's streams for a while, and early on I recalled making the comment of "Switch version when" or something similar and was met with a reply of "we're working on it." So I always held out. When it was finally announced, she also announced Mr. Saitou with it. She mentioned it was shorter than Rakuen so I kept that in the back of my head and waited for times to pop up on HowLongToBeat. 2-3 hours was perfect. So I could now play Rakuen in two streams without having to cram it into one super long stream.
I've been part of supershigi's streams for years (followed her on YouTube many years prior) so I knew of Rakuen itself, characters from it, and more importantly the music from it as she would perform them regularly. Her community is pretty good about not spoiling the story. The only thing I knew was that most people cried from playing the game. So there was a bit of anticipation as to when it would possibly happen. It didn't happen during the first stream (cheers to the surprise 90 minute Just Chatting section as I was trying to wrap things up). But the tears flowed during the end of the second stream when I finished the game. The game itself is very emotional and there were moments that I did get choked up. But when it happened, it happened and I could not hold the tears back. Not only that, but knowing the songs ahead of time and then hearing it played in context with what was happening on screen amplified the emotions tenfold. Wow. Thank you to supershigi and her community for joining in during those streams.
- Continued the tradition of playing PAC-MAN 99 for the last few 99th numbered streams (09.26). One last round and one final time to play it online before it goes offline. All I wanted was one more PAC-ONE. While I traditionally went around 5 hours for these streams, I already had the mentality to go longer. And it happened around 4 hours into the stream. I could have played more, but decided to end my play of PAC-MAN 99 on that high note.
I had a back up plan in case I got the PAC-ONE early and that was to play F-ZERO 99. A few had asked if I was going to play it at all on stream because it would have been the only time I could and the fact that I had correctly predicted it would happen. I would have been fine not playing it on stream at all. The game itself is great. Played it for a couple of hours and enjoyed it. But I realized I wasn't getting into higher spots. It was one of those things that I would have needed more time on to get better. I knew what I was doing and how to survive (only blew up once and it was during my last race). I just needed to learn when it was best to use a Super Highway on each track and how to eliminate more opponents efficiently.
I also wanted to go long for stream 999 as it was also the last time I could send the stream over to someone else. Thankfully schedules aligned and I just had to wait for G to start and then do it.
- 5 year anniversary, stream 1000, final stream (09.28). I said that a lot throughout that 8 hours and not to my surprise, some didn't know it was the final stream. I've mentioned it before, but I wasn't hiding it. However, people will social media the way they social media.
Rakuen: Deluxe Edition | Mr. Saitou was the final game streamed. Knowing things from supershigi's streams, I was really looking forward to it, especially since it takes place in the Rakuen universe. While there was still some emotion there, it definitely was more on the silly side and that felt like a great way to end on game-wise. It was great seeing characters I've heard of and hear songs I've only heard out of context again added to my enjoyment. Thanks again to supershigi and her community for joining in.
Read A Review was something I knew others were looking forward to. Lasted a little over an hour (originally 2 hours, but Mr. Satiou went a little longer). Got through 6 of them, which was less than I wanted. Really thought it was more. To think I was going to make the redemption buy-1-get-1-free, but it wasn't needed.
Quiz Kit was what I was looking forward to the most behind Mr. Saitou. Only seen iceTokki do it in her streams and thought it would be neat to see how much people knew through stories, instances, etc in 1000 streams. I made 5 quizzes with 10 questions each (easy, random, medium, random, hard). The only one I knew that would have the lowest scores (and it did) were the hard questions. I even stated that viewers would be learning facts that they never would unless I mentioned them, but I did want to include them. Had to rush this short too again because of Mr. Saitou taking more time. I had explanations for every answer I chose and I did still give some, but had to speed things along so that at least the last segment got an hour.
Q&A (Just Chatting) felt appropriate to end on. I did state to still keep things TOS and not to talk about topics I normally stray away from on streams. I also prepared myself in case certain questions were asked. Other than the main ones of "why are you stopping" and "what are you doing after," any other question I thought might have been asked were not asked. I am thankful no one asked anything inherently negative. I did wish more serious questions were asked, but people want to know what they want to know. Cheers to anyone that asked questions and shared memories.
I also prepared everyone knowing that the last 15-20 minutes would be Emote Only Chat so I can say a few specific things without interruption. I might have forgotten a few things, but I got some main points out. Made sure to say a few specific quotes that I wanted to share. I also wanted to make sure to end on time. I expected an overrun due to the possibility of people coming in (interesting fact; no raids during the final stream). And the one main thing I wanted to make sure people saw was the final image that I commissioned my talented cousin to create. With the last stream ending, a weight was lifted off my shoulders and I was able to sleep decently that night. 5 years, 1000 streams. Done.
- Stream Trailer 1000 (09.30)
ETC=========================
- ITZY - RINGO (MV)
- With streams being over, I will reorganize the blog a bit. The GAMES section of this to contain purchases again. It might have been confusing for some (I assume, no one has mentioned it to me) and for myself as I'd have to check older posts to see where I put them. I will most likely add an ESCAPOLOGY/WORK section similar to the older H.E.R. section when I was working there or for other previous jobs. It's not much, but I figured to mention it and have it written so I don't forget. I almost wrote a whole paragraph about work at the end of this entry, but I'll save it for next post.
- Instagram posts will continue. With the 1000 streams, there ended up being 1143 clips made with the last one being Mr. Saitou. Once that's done, that's it. And I decided to post on non-work days. So similar to non-stream days rather than a constant daily post. I'll keep using the account to post stories. Will I ever post anything non-stream related? Only if I have something specific I want to share from that point on. Or maybe a year later I'll post anything I feel like.
- Post-stream life so far. Firstly, after the stream, I felt nothing. I did my normal post-stream routine (changing clothes, highlighting the VOD, etc). It wasn't until maybe an hour later that I was walking around and I stopped and put my head against the wall. At that moment I wished someone was around to high-five or hug me. But it speaks to a thing I grew weary of while streaming; once the camera was off, it was just me again. While I have mentioned in plenty of streams that people can contact me outside of the stream, part of me felt like that wasn't going to happen. I truly felt alone.
A small number of people have reached out and said words of thanks and well wishes. Or if I popped up in someone's stream since then and they knew, they audibly said something heartwarming. I even got a special shoutout read during one of supershigi's streams and it was really sweet. The downside...a lot of people I personally invited didn't make it. Or if I talked about it in someone else's stream (they asked so I talked, not specifically self-promoting) they didn't show up. I said earlier how I didn't get any raids. I didn't realize that fact until after. And it was disappointing for me to not see others that knew, but still streamed themselves during that time. They could have been there beforehand for a few minutes or after their stream if it happened during my 8 hours. There were many reasons to join even if you didn't know it was the final stream (5 years anniversary stream, 1000 streams).
I typed more frustrations, but I deleted them. I didn't want to dump on it all especially since there were good things. However, I didn't want to leave the negatives out completely. I don't have anything against those that didn't show up or didn't know. I am very thankful for those that did even for a few minutes to say anything. Some are still finding out that I don't stream anymore because they'll give me a shout out in their streams and I will mention that I don't anymore. I feel this will happen for a while along with maybe a few people asking about why I don't post in their Discords about streaming anymore. Some still believe I'll return to streaming. And while I've said the door is always open, part of me now doesn't want to at all. Right now, there is absolutely no reason for me to come back after the at least one year hiatus. If I don't return, that's possibly a good thing. I want my life to be busy and better that I don't even think about returning to a stream life.
As of typing this (10.08), it's been a little over a week of not streaming. I don't miss it.
That's a wrap on September 2023. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
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