May 2024 Entry:
*insert comment relating to whether May was busy or not*
MISC=========================
- My extra ITZY VIP ticket has been claimed again (05.05). Funny enough, it's the same person that originally claimed it, ha. But I did publicly put it out on socials and no one bit except for one person that reached out via the person that actually took it. I'm just glad I don't have to worry about it anymore.
- Had a good time with one of my best friends and her daughter (05.06). Ate some good food at L&L Hawaiian Barbecue. We caught up a lot there too. We've both had some stresses happen since the last time we saw each other. We walked around a bit and she bought a few things for her girl. Then we drove to our dessert spot we selected...but they were unexpectedly closed (written note on the door). We drove to another place...but their location didn't offer ice cream like other locations did. Went to Kinokuniya to look at stuff (bought a couple of things) before ending the adventure at SOMISOMI. It was great spending time with them.
When we split, I stuck around the area to check out an escape room that was there. They were closed. If they were open, I would have just spoken to the staff about things like I used to when HER was around. Then I went back to EvePink to buy the ITZY light ring. When we stopped by there earlier, I told the clerk I'd think about it. Pinged a friend about the price of it elsewhere and it was similar in most places. So I bought it to make the price of buying things at the actual concert less. Tested it out at home to make sure it worked even though there was a note the store leaves to assure it's tested. I like it. Can't wait to take it to the concert.
- Our a/c was on the fritz (05.07-05.08). I could tell it was getting warmer, but I waited it out. Then when I went to eat dinner, it was way hotter. Unfortunately it was too late to do anything about it so it was one of those nights where it was very hot to sleep. I actually went downstairs to sleep on the couch and I think I got 3-4 hours worth before waking up and returning to my room, which wasn't as hot (still hot though). It got fixed the next day, but we were without a/c for 12-15 hours.
- I had a health scare (05.10). This day, I decided to up all the exercises I was doing by 5 (seconds, reps, etc). After doing my set of push-ups, I did feel more sore. But I continued with getting ready to start Blast Corps and I recall reaching backwards. That's when the pain shot out. At first it felt familiar like a small pull, but it didn't go away. Then it intensified and felt very tingly like electricity was shooting through my right pec and arm. I still tried to wait it out, but any tiny movement of my right arm was so painful. I went outside to find my dad and uncle working on the a/c unit (reinforcing it) and asked for help because at that point I thought I ripped those muscles. My dad laid me down to massage those areas and that hurt a lot. But in a few minutes, the pain started to subside. Movement was not as painful anymore and I continued my day like normal while monitoring my movements. Since then, it's been fine, but I just try to be careful with any extraneous motions.
- The Wolverine was the movie of the month (05.12). I had seen his Origins movie in theatres. Even then I thought that was okay with my favorite scene being when the adamantium was infused. The Wolverine was always one I heard was skippable and I see why. I couldn't buy into the villains at all. Fight scenes were okay, but not spectacular. My biggest positive was Mariko. She's absolutely gorgeous.
- Family came over (05.14). They had visited last month as we were one of their first stops to them going around the US to travel and visit other family members. This time it was a mini-party. I thought more would be joining, but it was the same batch. It's been years since we hosted a party at the house. It was nice as there was a lot of storytelling. At some point I went upstairs since they were all mainly speaking Tagalog and I couldn't tell what was going on via context clues like I normally do. Plus my body was aching since I wasn't sitting in the best spots while listening in. I made sure to rejoin them as they were leaving and be part of the group photo.
They came back because I knew they were going to stay with us for a week towards the end of their trip. We were the beginning and end. They saw other family in Canada and a few other cities/states before coming back to us. Although there was mixed communication about when they were supposed to leave. Yes, I just said a week, but I was also told "next Saturday" instead of "this Saturday" so I thought they were staying longer. But they left when originally planned on the 25th. I made sure to bid them farewell before going to work.
- X-Men '97 was so dang wonderful (05.15). It's been a while that I was excited to see the next episode of any show. If you watched the original, they reward you for your time and dedication. For fans of X-Men in general, they'll throw quite a few things such as storylines and images from the comics that are familiar. The cameos are some of the best surprises. And the stories of every episode mattered. They did not hold back and evoked emotions throughout the entirety. Highly recommended.
- The monthly HeXagon meetup happened (05.17). Not only were we down a member, but our original karaoke plans were cancelled due to the thunderstorm (the place we were going to go had no power). Plans changed and we met at EvePink before going to eat at Handam. Shout outs to our waitress to who we were having fun with the members saying horrible puns and pickup lines when she wasn't around, ha. Great food and atmosphere. Then it was over to PopFancy for the Dragonball Z themed restaurant. However, there was a fighting game event happening making the already small space even more cramped. So we changed plans again and walked to MeetFresh for drinks and for some of the members to open up their ITZY albums to see which cards they got. Good food and good talks.
- Had an extra day off and put it out if anyone wanted to hang. I've done it in the past, but usually no one replies. Thankfully this time Rannchan did (05.23). I gave a few options for dinner and she chose Donkey Yaki, which was one of the options for my best friend and her daughter earlier in the month. I didn't realize that the restaurant was inside of H-Mart in the food court. Lots of options I'd try there. Exchanged some pleasantries with the worker, sat down, got our food, and enjoyed our meals. Afterwards we walked to Bubble Egg to continue eating/drinking and talking. Good times.
- Went to the dentist for a cleaning (05.31). It was raining the morning of. It wasn't so bad, but that was definitely the topic talked about when I was there. Just a routine cleaning (twice a year). I always have someone different cleaning my teeth every time. Some were good, some weren't. This person was really good. Not only was she fast, but she wasn't wearing all the normal face shield equipment I'm used to seeing everyone working. Before I left, I asked if I could give her a compliment. She was okay with that and I told her she had pretty eyes. She laughed and thanked me as I left. Seriously, very pretty eyes. It was hard not to stare. If I continue to get a different cleaner every time, I'll probably never see her again. Oh well.
- Remember last month when I mentioned I was watching Fuller House? Remember how I said I'd watch an episode a day? Yeah...I'm on season four now, ha. Can't help it.
GAMES=========================
- Demo Showcase Shorts continue. Another month of a demo a day bringing the total streak to 89. Special shout out to Gunbrella which is the first demo in a long time that I played for over an hour.
- 10 Second Ninja X finished (05.03). It was the favorite from Demo Showcase 108, stream 903, 04.04.23. Got it on sale for $2 and I felt I got my money's worth. It is not bad by any means. Controls were very responsive, which were very necessary for a game like this. Achieving the low times to get all the stars, that would have demanded so much time and skill to do and I knew I wouldn't be able to.
- STAR WARS: Knights of the Old Republic was a free Game Trial (05.03). Always heard good stuff about the series so I was excited to give it a try. Combat was done really well, but there was so much darn talking. I know they talk a lot in Star Wars to begin with, but I wanted to play more rather than listen. 3 hours in and I was done. I was hoping the saving grace would be the accessible cheats similar to Republic Commando. Nope. While they were interesting, nothing was usable to make the game progress. Oh well.
- Opus Castle (Chapter I) was the free-to-play game of the month (05.05). The game itself wasn't bad other than some glitches and pop-in issues. But the blatant jump scares (that kind of didn't make sense or scene appropriate) felt like they were simply thrown in. I liked that there were multiple paths/endings, but I was not invested to pay $5 for the next chapter. And you see that there are more chapters in the menu, but only chapter II is available.
- DEVIL WORLD was the NES NSO game of the month (05.05). Originally only knew about the devil since it was an assist trophy in Smash. The game itself is not bad. 3 types of stages that loop and the difficulty stops increasing at a certain point, which is when I stopped. It is pretty challenging as you never know which way the devil will move the walls. I got squished so many times, ha. Worth a try.
- Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition was announced (05.08). There was some speculation that it will take after the NES Remix series. It sort of does and sort of doesn't, but I think it suits what it was going for. Online leaderboards, couch competition, and bit sized challenges. I'm excited to play it and the possibility that an SNES Edition may be next if this sells well.
- Quest for Camelot was the Game Boy NSO game of the month (05.09). I saw the movie when I was a kid, but I don't remember much from it. I don't think it's necessary to play the game, but if there were references or if the game was following the story 1:1, I don't know. It's not bad. The worst part to me was the lack of music. The main songs repeat when appropriate, but there aren't many. And there is no music at all during the cutscenes. There are tons of Zelda clones to try instead of this one. If I were to recommend this at all, it would be if you were a fan of the movie.
- Rakuen 7th Anniversary (05.10)
- Blast Corps was the N64 NSO game of the month (05.12). Rented this a few times. I recall it being difficult and that was very apparent in this replay many years later, ha. Backlash was the one I had the most difficulty with as I never felt I was in control of it properly. I know I eventually did well with it back then, but I couldn't wrap my mind around it this time, which was rough as quite a few stages make that the only selectable vehicle. I almost thought to not finish the game on the first day because of that and a few of the latter stages that require a lot of steps. But I eventually powered through those levels and eventually found easier ways to win with Backlash. I didn't 100% the game, but the credits did roll and I went to the moon and was satisfied with that since I remember going there in the past.
- Picked up my copy of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (05.24). I won't play it right away. Currently it is scheduled for August making it the 8th month of playing at least one RPG. I still have my GameCube copy and an old strategy guide, which I plan to use when I play it.
- Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster | FINAL FANTASY V completed (05.24). I barely remembered any of it. That's probably because I've only played it once (Final Fantasy Anthology). Turned on the boosts per usual. While I knew I was going to complete the bestiary, I didn't think I'd master every job. Boosts really helped with that. And while I knew this was popular for many among the series, I never was big on any with the job system with the exception of X-2. This was always ranked lower because of that fact, but I definitely enjoyed it more during this second playthrough.
- Alleyway completed (05.29). One of the latest GameBoy NSO games added. Originally I wanted to play Super Mario Land, but decided to hold it off for a bit even though it's short. Never played Alleyway, but have tried similar games like it. It was a nice time filler, but there's not much to it.
- amiibo figure collection complete (05.31). Qbby was always my holy grail of amiibo to collect. I don't exactly remember when I knew about it, but it was maybe a year after it was released in Japan. I had been a fan of the BOXBOY series and even streamed the third game on the Switch. The amiibo slipped by my radar. At the time, the price was going for $150 loose. Back then, I thought it cost too much. You can look up prices, but I definitely paid more than what it cost back then. But what I wasn't sure about was whether I'd buy it loose or complete in box. I kept checking prices online. To my surprise, I found a few that were being sold brand new. Never saw that before so I pondered if that's what I wanted to do. But then I found a seller that was offering it complete in box around the cost of a loose copy. The package itself had some damage and of course the amiibo box was already opened, but it was the price that was appealing. I put in a bid and new I'd go $25-$50 higher if needed. To my surprise again, no one else bid on it and I got it with my original bid. A few days later, it arrived. I audibly said "wow" out loud. I couldn't believe I actually owned one. Per usual the new amiibo will sit at my computer desk for a week before being displayed somewhere with the other amiibo.
And that is the end of the amiibo figure journey. The only things I'm missing that I care to get are the 2 Super Nintendo World Power-Up bands for Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong when they eventually get released.
What to collect now? Well, there are some games I want to collect physically that I have digitally at the moment. If they're cheap, I'll snatch them up. Other than that, I don't know. Maybe specific gaming merchandise for a series? Maybe certain Kpop merchandise? We shall see.
https://x.com/ArnellragasA/status/1796602543155626212
WORK=========================
- More snow cones and snacks from the nearby truck (05.01, 05.08). Was given another one on the 28th, but forgot to take a photo of it. It was nice to get one after so long.
- Members of HeXagon had mentioned The Bếp Teahouse so I looked up locations. There's one close to where I work. Mentioned that to Agent Ocean and he was down. It took a week because of how unexpectedly busy we became on our slow days, but we finally went (05.08). Drinks were excellent and the snacks were very tasty. Shout out to the nostalgic tasting popcorn chicken. We chilled there for a good hour. It felt good just talking about life and not be in the confines of work.
- We had a slow Saturday (05.11). It ended up being 34 sessions, but we were maybe around 20 at the beginning of the day with the majority coming towards the end of the night. But the team was on their game and the customers had fun so that's all that matters.
- Stayed a little after closing to answer questions our latest hire had (05.15). CB has been with us for maybe 2-3 months now and he's a manager in training. But this might have been the first time he and I worked together without anyone else (Agent Ocean was on assignment out of the city). I'm not sure if he never bothered asking others that were training him or I'm the one that goes all-in with training or he hasn't had as many work days as I thought he did, but he asked about a lot of things. They were all good questions, but part of me thought that he would have known some of them. Like I always say for work things, it's better to ask than do something wrong assuming it's right. I'm glad I could provide the answers he needed.
- A fierce thunderstorm occurred (05.16). I was game mastering and I recall hearing the alert go off for the mother and daughter in one of our rooms. Soon after, mine went off. LT was in the lobby when another family was coming in when the storm really picked up. 5 out of the 7 came in. To give an idea of how strong the wind was, it was opening our front door on its own. When I saw the family being frantic through our camera system, I went out to the lobby. I informed LT that the mother and daughter were about to get out and to tell them about the storm. I then tried to corral the family that just arrived. I started to lead them into the VIP room, which was in the middle of the building and away from any windows. But the mom kept going out of the building a few times and myself and her husband had to bring her back in and stop her. Understandably, she was concerned for one of her kids still being out there along with one of the kids' best friends. LT described later that I was literally dragging her back in even though I don't recall that myself. If anything I was blocking her way from leaving. After a few minutes, I was able to bring all 5 into the VIP room and the mother and daughter joined them. Those 2 were definitely more calm. Everyone was trying to make phone calls and they weren't going through. We locked the front door to stop it from opening and possibly breaking. LT and I gave everyone some water to calm them down. LT kept his eyes on his phone to see how the storm was progressing. At some point we noticed water leaking through our side doors, which Agent Ocean and I knew about from a heavy rainfall. This time it was way more. LT did a good job of placing towels in the doorways to help prevent more water from coming in and later mop up the area. That's when I did a walkthrough of the building to see if anything else happened. A couple of the sprinkler caps fell from the ceiling along with a little debris. Water was seeping through a section of the front door. The lights did flicker here and there, but never went off for a long period of time. And we also noticed one of the trees outside bending almost halfway over (we later learned it had supports holding it down).
Many minutes passed and the storm was letting up thankfully. So were the moods of everyone we were sheltering. The mother and daughter felt comfortable to leave. I asked them to call whenever they got home and they eventually did. The other kids for the other family eventually showed up and everyone was ecstatic. While we had already discussed possibly rescheduling, they wanted to know if it was still possible to have their session. I checked their room...and there was water coming through. Made sense since it shared the same side of the building that water came in from. I checked the other rooms and there was no damage and they were all functional. I let the family know and they were fine with changing.
Around that time, one of the owners came by with one of her sons. I had LT take photos and send them through our messaging system so she and other management were aware of what was going on. I walked them through to see the water leakages in person. They started to form a plan with LT as I game mastered for the family. They got more towels and placed a few fans in places to dry the floors after wiping and mopping. The day became normal afterwards after the storm passed. Once the family was done and the owner and her son left, LT and I went around to every room to make sure all the electronics were working. Some needed to be reset, but thankfully everything was properly running. We patted each other on the back, assessed some of the debris outside, and eventually left.
It took me an extra half hour to get back home. On my normal route back, I noticed how a lot of businesses around our facility didn't have power and of course the lights were off. Once I got to the main highway it was very apparent that it was dark and there was no power. Nothing on either side of the freeway. That also meant traffic lights were down making traffic slower. The further down the highway I got, I could see cars moving to the far left lane. Eventually I saw not 1, but 2 different powerline poles knocked down and in the middle of the road. The cars had to detour to avoid the second pole completely and also tons of debris in front of it. Once I got to the cross section of the highways, it was smooth sailing from there. It seemed like everything else on the other side still had the lights on. I think if anything there were 1-2 more traffic lights out. No damage to our home and neighborhood other than light debris. If I left work at 9:30PM, I got back around 10:45-11:00.
The next couple of workdays, I had to find alternate routes because there were still outages and cleaning that was being done. After a week, things were back to normal along that route.
That thunderstorm...I'll remember it for a long time.
- A customer called on a Saturday saying they were excited to hear another human being on the other end (05.19). We had a nice exchange before they needed to call back due to a disconnect. They were interested in booking and I handed it off to CB. Before that, I made a joke that they better bring us dessert as they were going to eat before coming to us. Lo and behold, they came in with two cheesecake slices for us. It was a very nice gesture. I still do the "free dessert" joke at restaurants. It doesn't happen often (15% of the time), but it's rad to get a sweet treat.
- I was scheduled for only 2 days of work (05.22, 05.25). It's not the first time that has happened, but I'm always surprised when it occurs.
- Paraphrasing; "If you're so good at this, you should try something else" (05.21). This pissed me off so much to the point that I was shaking while texting Agent Ocean about it.
- Had a nice chat with LT as we were wrapping up work (05.22). The work day itself was slow, but productive. I was literally about to type the security code for us to leave and we kept talking standing by the door. It was all work talk. At one point he mentioned how and why and when he gained more respect for me and I remember it well (story written months ago). Him telling me that made me feel better about the conversation I had the day before where the paraphrased quote came from. Thanks, LT.
- Rough work day (05.25). First, it was a Saturday. On a regular basis, that's the busiest day of the week for the company. Second, Agent Ocean wasn't feeling well so he stayed home while asking myself and CG to move up in our schedules (I was supposed to come in at 5, but came in at 3). Third, everything seemed off when I got there. Teams were behind, we were low on staff, and the customers in the lobby didn't seem in the greatest of moods (most likely from the heat). Usually when I come in, I can assess things for a few minutes then start doing stuff. This time I had to start doing anything and everything right away.
Fourth, I was sent out to pick up pizza. I was told that the current birthday party wanted more than what they originally ordered. Orders are done the day before and to my knowledge no team had ever requested more the day of when they were there. So I had to leave our already low staffed team. I've actually never picked up the pizza before, but the team had always said it's easy. I knew where it was at least. When I got there, the pizza place had no idea what I was talking about. They needed to know the order and I was sent without that knowledge. I tried texting the person that asked me to go, no reply. I tried calling them, no pick up. Called CG who was able to figure out what the order was. Even then, it was going to be a 10-15 minute wait for them to make it and another 5 for me to drive back. That's when it clicked that I was told "so-and-so forgot the other pizzas," but that doesn't make sense. So-and-so wouldn't know to get the extra pizzas when they originally went out because there weren't any to get. During that time, I texted Agent Ocean about asking the other staff members that were to come in at 5 to come in early. He gave the okay and let me know I can make those decisions without asking. Both of them were able to come in (one about 45 minutes early, the other 20 minutes early). When I finally got back with the pizza, the party was gone. No explanation given other than they left. Waste of time and money.
Fifth, the a/c wasn't properly working again so it was hot inside and outside of the building. Even the back that houses our rooms was warmer than normal. But I was sweating minutes into arriving at work. Extra fans were already in place and I was given the okay to give customers free water if they were too warm (by the end of the night, we were low on water). But that also led to the owners coming in at some point with some help to figure out a temporary solution since the a/c company wasn't available. Thankfully this part happened when there were less customers and bookings and the building started to get cooler in temperature. And around the same time, things started to settle down.
Sixth, our final birthday party (VIP room access, catering, etc) asked about drinks since that is part of the deal when they choose catering. They were told that they got unlimited drinks, to which I quickly replied "that's not true. If that were the case then we would have run out after the first party of the day" (we had 3 that day and they were the last). I let them know it's supposed to be only 1, but that I would confirm and try to make things right since they were given incorrect information. I knew I was correct, but asked one of the owners in the event I was wrong all this time and she was shocked that someone would offer unlimited drinks. I let the party know that I would honor giving them 2 drinks per person for free because of the mistake, but if they forget and only get 1 then we're all good and that's what ended up happening.
To borrow the phrase that CG kept saying, "we were running around like chickens with their heads cut off" until 5PM. He said it was already hectic when he got there at 12 and he did his best to stay focused and get things back on track. Thankfully the staff was (mostly) on their toes about things and simply getting stuff done. The other saving grace was that there weren't any issues with the rooms. There were minor things here and there, but nothing to upset the customers. Had a talk with CG before he left to talk about the hectic day, how he felt about the situations, how he felt about the staff, and what he hopes will come from the new location opening up. Honestly, if that ended the night, that would have been nice. Not that the rest of the night went poorly. It would have been a nice bookend. The rest of us were there close to midnight and I didn't get home until a little after 1AM and didn't sleep until after 2AM.
To think that I almost took that day off, ha.
- Summer schedule started (05.27). More bookings are available as well as hours. I opened my availability to include Mondays and I haven't worked on a Monday in a long time (I might have since working there, but can't recall).
- Another storm (05.28). This wasn't as bad, but it wasn't pleasant. I recall thinking it wasn't bright outside an hour before leaving. Then the rain started to come down half an hour later. Even though the harsh winds kicked in, I still decided to head out. For about 10-15 minutes I was driving in that harsh rain. It's not the worst rain I've ever driven through, but it was still rough. Once it cleared, it wasn't smooth sailing. A total of 8 out of 10 traffic lights on my way to work were out. I did text Agent Ocean letting him know I was most likely going to be late and I was by 10 minutes. On the way back home, only one traffic light was blinking so it wasn't bad.
- We have some new trainees that started at different points this month. Gearing up for the summer and the new location.
- Agent Ocean dropped some news (05.30). I won't divulge it, but it's big. Not only did we talk about that, but about the state of the location currently as well as our worries about some of the employees.
ETC=========================
- aespa - Supernova (MV)
- asespa - Armageddon (MV)
Supernova very well may be the song that gets me into aespa (I now follow some of their social media accounts). Armageddon is good too, but out of the two I definitely like Supernova more. It reminds me of second generation Kpop. The album is very solid overall.
- I downloaded more dating apps. I don't remember the day when I did, but I know I started to research various ones and try a few out because I had time at the end of a day off doing nothing. Ended up redownloading okCupid, Coffee Meets Bagel (the first dating app I ever downloaded) and Facebook Dating. Combine those with Bumble, Hinge, and Tinder and those are the ones I'm cycling through daily, but I might delete some soon. No updates on anything other than talking to one bot (they asked what the scammers try to talk to me about and I basically mentioned things they wanted to talk about). I did reach out to someone since they had their Instagram on display and we had a short conversation ending with her talking about how busy she is to meet up and me saying we can schedule sometime in the future with no response. Cheers to any friends I know that are getting interactions and are going on dates via dating apps. Please know that I am not getting matches unless they're bots. Paraphrasing what a friend said recently; "some people might get 200 matches and have an opportunity to choose maybe 5 they want to invest in. 0 matches doesn't give any options." Anyways, I'm still desperate and lonely. I think some are tired of hearing me say that almost as much as I'm tired of hearing "I hope you find someone soon."
That's a wrap on May 2024. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
