July 2024 Entry:
- July...
MISC=========================
- July 4th was a short work day with one shift (07.04). It ended early in the day so I had no plans. So I went out for the night for the first time in years. It was fun.
- R.I.P., Tita Luz (07.06). She is the mom of my cousins in Canada. I had seen the posts they were making about her condition. Her body was shutting down to (what I believe) was a failing pancreas. I, like others, were hoping she would make it to her 80th birthday, which would have been on the 10th. I helped my parents book their flight. Originally they were going to fly out that Monday and return on Sunday, but the hurricane happened. So they rescheduled to leave on Wednesday and return on Monday. The funeral was held on her birthday.
- The HERetirees were supposed to meet for Dough Zone (07.07). But the rain before the hurricane the next day was bad in certain areas. So myself and Agent Ocean went out for ourselves. He had been hyping it so much that I didn't think it would live up to it, but it was really good. Other than having a really good chat, I definitely want to go back again. We did stay longer due to the rain really coming down. And we also went to a different location instead of the new location that opened near me.
- Diggnation was possibly one of the first podcasts I ever listened to and watched. I remember having it on when I had an office job and it was one of the highlights of the week that helped make the work day better. Watched every episode before they called it a show. I had no idea they recently got back together to do a fun reunion show (07.12-07.13). It felt like no time had passed. Their banter was familiar and it was nice hearing what they've been up to since then.
- My dad asked me to assist in fixing his friend's fence (07.22). It was about 30 minutes away and not a place I was familiar with. Nice neighborhood though. His friend wasn't home, but he had access to the garage and even went in when he needed to plug something in. I...did not need to be there. I barely did anything other than hold part of the fence up or to apply additional force, which he could have asked his friend were he there. And while he was able to get most of the fence back up, his work left a little to be desired. It did the job, but it's not the best he could have done. Plus almost having the fence fall on me within the first 10-15 minutes of being there, I was not in the mood to be there. I'm sure he could tell as he mentioned on the way back that I didn't have to come the next day. But even then, what was left he definitely would be able to do alone.
- Ordered copies of Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two and Part Three (07.28). I didn't end up watching the other movies I missed in between, but I figured I'll be okay. Watched Part Two the same day those blu-rays arrived. A little slow, but I'm glad they did do story building and gave credentials to why some things are happening. I did like Part One more, but this is a good bridge between it and Part Three (watching that next month).
- My blu-ray of the TWICE 5th World Tour 'READY TO BE' in Japan arrived (07.30). I like that it came the day after I pre-ordered the Seoul concert, ha. While I can make the time to watch it soon, I might save it for my birthday.
- Deadpool & Wolverine was so dang good (07.31). I had slated to watch this alone, but when Agent Ocean heard that, he said he'd join me. It was his third time watching it. I had a blast with it. I laughed a lot and silently applauded for many many things. We also watched it in 4D. I had only watched a theme park 4D ride once decades ago and thought it was fun. This was done really well. I only had issues with my eyes adjusting to 3D. Never had an issue before, but maybe because it's been so long watching anything in 3D. Once we were through with trailers, my eyes were adjusted enough. And this was my first time going to a theatre since watching the first Sonic movie before the pandemic hit. Cheers to sitting in seat G7.
GAMES=========================
- Demo Showcase Shorts continues. The streak ended due to not having power for almost a week because of the hurricane (126). Even when things were back to normal, I had to break the streak again on the 22nd as you read about earlier. I did add two games to my wish list. One of them was 50% off when I tried the demo, but I held off.
- Fifty Words by POWGI completed (07.08). Originally played the demo for Demo Showcase 32 stream 235. Actually played it on stream 993, but only did as much during the stream time frame. But it was a game I occasionally whipped out if I brought my Switch out in the wild and was waiting for things. This wasn't originally on the schedule to be played, but I didn't want to progress any others during the time of the hurricane. Could have, but I figured to chip away at this.
There were about less than half of the categories left. Most of those were the categories I thought I'd have the most trouble with like cities and castles etc. Slowly but surely I was knocking them out. I was surprised at the pace I was going, which was 5-10 minutes per category. Felt good to 100% this one especially during this time of the natural disaster.
- GRANDIA HD Collection | Grandia II finished (07.17). A year and a month after playing Grandia on stream. I didn't like this one as much. The game was always quiet whether it be music or sound effects. It also felt slow in many aspects such as skills and spell casting. Another thing that bugged me was that the Japanese audio wasn't synced with the pace of the English dub during cutscenes. So there were quite a few times that the person speaking was cut off or the text had advanced 1-2 characters while the original person was still talking. And I simply could not get into the characters and story. Not a single moment did I care about what was going on. I kept going hoping it would surprise me or throw me for a loop, but it never happened. The main positive thing I liked was how skills and spells leveled up compared to the first game. Overall, I preferred the first Grandia.
During the hurricane, I only advanced the story a little. I was already close to the end and could have beaten it sooner, but I was also using an online guide and didn't want to disregard it for the last 5 or so sections. And I did start at the first of the month. I was on track to finish it around the 10th at the earliest, but I estimated the 13th (around 2 weeks).
- Picked up my copy of Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (07.18). Funny instance; GameStop called me while I was literally picking up my preorder to tell me that my preorder was ready to pick up, ha. I let them know and waved at the camera. Glad that I could have a laugh with the workers there.
I did start playing it a couple days later (07.20). It's good in bursts rather than a long haul. So I'm taking my time with it. Long term goal; unlock all levels and pins. I'lll also try my best to participate in all the World Championships and Survival challenges. Unfortunately, I missed the first World Championships as I didn't understand how those were being run. Basically a weekly thing to come back to along with Survival challenges changing up each week.
- New Splatoon amiibo were announced (07.18). Yay for new amiibo. A lot in the community thought it was done with Sora, which honestly was a wonderful bookend. Pre-ordered them the next day from Best Buy and was grateful I could use a $5 coupon I had even though it comes out in September. The coupon would have expired at the beginning of August and there was nothing I could find that I wanted to use it on. But yeah, 4 more Splatoon amiibo are coming soon and they look really rad.
- Joy Mech Fight was the NES NSO game of the month (07.19). Purely picked it because I knew I was playing Kirby games and the main character featured was pink, ha. This was surprisingly a competent fighter. The cast that you can choose from is diverse with a set of 4 (I think) special moves. Playing through the story was long with a total of 36 fights (32 characters and 4 bosses). And once I unlocked Honoo (the first CPU I fought against), I never swapped out.
- Kirby's Dream Land was one of two GB NSO games of the month (07.19). This is continuing off of playing Kirby & The Amazing Mirror and Kirby's Avalanche from last month. I have vague memories of possibly playing this, but I was shocked when I finished it in half an hour. If I didn't know about the Extra mode, I would have moved on. Extra mode is basically expert mode. More enemies are on the field and bosses have different attack patterns. It definitely made it tougher, but my total play time was only a little over an hour.
- Kirby's Dream Land 2 was the second of two GB NSO games of the month (07.19). Figured to knock this out since it's not a long game either. Longer for sure with my play time being around 2.5 hours. Definitely liked this one more than the first game. Mainly because there was variety with powers and then combinations with the animal friends. I used a guide to find the rainbow shards otherwise I would have no idea how to get some of them.
And yes, I did beat 3 games in one day. Because of the hurricane, I did think to simply discard these and not worry about them. I didn't play them back to back either. I at least took a 1-2 hour break in between each game and still took mini breaks as I played. If things were still with the normal schedule, I would have split them. Possibly would have played the two Kirby games together since Kirby's Dream Land was so short.
- GUNDAM BREAKER 4 Open Network Test was the second free-to-play game of the month (07.20). The reason this was played sooner rather than being put at the back of the line is because this was available for a limited amount of time. I got in on the last day when the time sessions weren't as strict. I liked it. Good combat. But I do think Gundam fans would enjoy it more as there will be lots of callbacks and nudges that will fly over my head. Not only that, but being able to design your own mobile suit with the tons of parts available from across so many Gundam series, the possibilities are limitless. It would be cool to see fans making their dream gunpla or some silly configurations with what they have.
- Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards was the N64 NSO game of the month (07.21). I've always heard people praise this one. I get why now. Being able to mix and match powers is really cool. I didn't bother trying to find every combination because that would have just been more time spent. Plus there were only a handful I actually liked and would go back to. My biggest negative was needing specific powers to reach some of the crystal shards. It wouldn't have been so bad had I remembered where you can acquire certain ones, but a chunk of time was spent hoping I would run into what I needed in a level because I didn't know or forgot what showed up and where. I also didn't legit get all the monster cards. That would have been an easy task of repeatedly beating the first level over and over to get them, but there are 81 total. I had close to 20 by the time I beat the game. I did "get" them all thanks to using a code to turn the third save slot into 100%, ha.
- The latest Fitness Boxing achievements I was trying to hit were for 30 hours with each trainer. I was close with Sophie. She was at 20 hours when I started to do idle runs with everyone. She was my main when I first started using the game for exercise, so her initial 20 hours were legit. What I had been doing was switching trainers each day and letting a Heavy routine run and that adds close to an hour to their play time. Sophie got her 30 hours (07.21) and then a new achievement showed up...50 hours. That really surprised me. 30 was plenty already and felt attainable. 50 made me consider stopping. But for now I'm pushing through with spending any extra down time not playing anything to have Fitness Boxing on idle to get all these hours. I'm not looking up the achievement list, but if there's another one after 50, that's going to be rough.
- Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy | Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney finished (07.21-07.27). This makes it my third time playing this game (original DS release, eShop release, and now). There were quite a few moments I knew were coming and a chunk of the middle of cases I forgot, which is generally what happens for me whenever I play the original trilogy. But I really enjoyed this replay. I forgot how good the music was and some of the crazy characters you encounter. I did play this with the Story Mode option on the entire time and it's very interesting. It makes the flow of the story well paced. Sure you miss out on extra dialogue and not having to examine each piece of evidence, but I've already played it. The Great Ace Attorney had that option and I hope they patch that into the original Phoenix trilogy. Plus I was powering through this one by playing it almost every chance I had (early morning, before work, late night) because I didn't have too much time to get 20+ hours in with the end of the month's schedule. I still liked re-experiencing it again, but I did wish I had more time instead of trying to cram it all in before the month ended. Can't wait to play Dual Destinies next month.
- Played Fall Guys for the first time in almost a year (07.27). It was for KarmieGee_'s birthday stream. It was fun. I haven't really played in another person's stream in a while.
WORK=========================
- We had 53 sessions (07.06). That's our second highest record. Current record is 55 and I was there for both instances.
- Cancelled for the day due to the hurricane (07.08). And while all the bookings were rescheduled, one was insistent on not rescheduling so at least 2 staff members had to go (from what I was told).
- The day before work was nothing special. On the way to work, my mood went down (07.20). Nothing happened, but I was out of it. I asked to be a Game Master for the night without saying why. Later I let Agent Ocean and CG know about my mood and that I didn't want to have a sour mood in front of customers. Thankfully it didn't stick the entire night. That's mainly thanks to a 2-person team that did really well in their room. I wasn't stressed about them and they were genuinely good people. I did take a few minutes to personally thank them for helping lift my mood.
- One day, we were light on bookings (07.22). Some staff were called off to save on labor while LT was asked to stay longer to close with me. We had a plan laid out for the remainder of bookings. Another one got added during that time, but we were able to handle 7 night sessions with just the two of us.
- Worked on a Friday (07.26). It actually wasn't super busy that we closed early.
- Busy Saturday (07.27). The big thing was that when we left, a couple of staff members that clocked out earlier were talking outside. I won't get into why, but a few of us that closed out joined the conversation. We were out there for about an hour giving advice and sharing experiences and giving support.
- Had a couple of rough teams (07.30). One was a family playing Star Trek. It was for three and the mom and toddler were going to watch. But the other two kids were fairly young too. Ended up with one of them watching videos on a phone while the other wanted to be more helpful, but really wasn't. So it was mainly the dad doing all the work and eventually the mom jumping in. It sucked more because They wouldn't check the nudges I sent them during the first half hour. They'd even acknowledge it, but not check. Thankfully it got better towards the latter end. The dad was a Star Trek fan and it was his birthday and he had fun so that's good.
Then there were two kids that did Scooby. They insisted on not doing Kids Mode, but it pretty much was. They almost didn't figure anything out on their own. Their focus wasn't great, which didn't help when sending clues. They had fun, but I did emphasize why we normally ask for 4 people minimum for that room.
ETC=========================
- aespa - Hot Mess (MV)
- KARA - I Do I Do (MV)
- Found this fancam of Yeji from the concert. Part of me thinks it's from the one I went to. One thing I mentioned in my last blog entry was that Yeji possibly gave me the rocker symbol. That's what you see in this fancam. Was it towards me? Probably not since she needed to look down towards me rather than straight on like she does here. It's the closest I'll come to finding that interaction.
- Hurricane Beryl (07.08)
Day 1 - Power went out around 6AM. I did wake up a few times before then because of the loud wind and rain. Shortly after the power went out, I heard my dad using tape nearby. My thoughts were that he was reinforcing the windows, but there was only one in my mom's room that needed it. Apparently it was leaking through. I helped hold the flashlight so he could see. Once we were done, I went back to sleep and probably slept until 9AM. Checked what I could online via my phone before going to eat lunch around my usual time of 11AM. It was then that the rain had simmered down and I looked through the windows of our house to see what it looked like outside. Our main damage was that our backyard fence connecting to one of our neighbor's was down. Thankfully that was the extent of damage we had. We also lost the internet at one point (maybe around the same time the power went out) and my phone showed SOS instead of any signal. Never saw that before. It came back around 1:30PM. The rest of the day was hoping everything would be normalized, but that didn't happen. Around 8PM is when my mom and brother decided to go to our aunt's who only lost power for 2 hours. Similar to the winter freeze, my dad and I stayed. It was a hot night of sleep. Even though I've slept downstairs before on the couches, this time hurt a lot and I woke up very sore.
Day 2 - Spent most of my time at home fanning myself off if I wasn't putting in time towards Fifty Words by POWGI and managing power levels for my phone and Switch. But I left for work at my normal time, but came in not in a work shirt. Any time I was at home, I did shower, but would be sweaty minutes later after drying off so I didn't want to get my work shirts super sweaty. I left an extra half hour early in case traffic lights were out or there was debris on the road. Not much debris, but traffic lights were mostly off or blinking. I made it to work on time at least and that was a good way to keep my mind off things. After work, I went home and there was still no power. It was hotter than the previous night. It was around 11PM when my dad asked if we should go find a hotel/motel to stay at for the night. We wanted to find something close since we needed to be home by 7AM to wait for mom for any last minute packing before taking them to the airport. Spent 90 minutes going around to various hotels and motels. They were all booked. It made sense, but I didn't think of that ahead of time. My dad was willing to go out farther, but I mentioned that the traffic lights being out would make it so that we arrive back home late and have to rush. So we gave up. We were able to find a few USB powered fans and hooked those up to a battery back up. Those really helped as I was asleep shortly after.
Day 3 - Dad woke me up around 6AM to get breakfast. If you know me, I don't normally eat breakfast, but obviously we were in a different situation. He originally wanted kolaches and the place was closed even though he went there yesterday. Went to the nearby Whataburger and they were closed too since they needed to replenish ingredients. Ended up at a Shipley's (could only accept cash) and ate there. Went back home and my mom and brother arrived around 7AM. Once they were packed, I drove them to the airport. Thankfully that drive wasn't bad. They forgot their jackets in the car, but they didn't realize that until they landed. The drive back home wasn't bad either. I called G to see if they needed anything and they informed me that they and Rannchan were going to Kai's since they had power. They invited me over as well. Went home first to shower and pack up things since I was going to stay at my aunt's. Made my way to Kai's and G and Rannchan arrived shortly after. We hung out and talked while Kai worked. At one point, G and I went back to our places to check if the power was back (and so they could feed their cats). Back to Kai's and then we went to Bahama Buck's to get the Sonic themed shaved ice. It was good. I got the Shadow ice and we all ended up getting Amy spoons, ha. Kai bought more spoons and ended up getting them all. The only regret I had was I should have gotten a small instead of regular (that was a lot). Went back to Kai's for a bit and played a couple rounds of Wheel of Fortune. Rannchan won the first set and then I won the second (I did super well). Then I made my way to my aunt's. I'd dropped my mom off there a lot, but never went inside. Nice place. She had some pizza ready for dinner. Caught up for a bit before I retired to my room. I used my iPad for possibly the first time since I stopped streaming to watch YouTube videos on a screen bigger than my phone. It felt good to charge everything, have a/c, and have a comfortable bed to sleep in.
Day 4 - Left my aunt's to pick up G so we can check our homes. First theirs, then a stop by their PO Box, then to mine. When we got to my place, we saw people working on our fence. I was asked to talk to our neighbor's mom to discuss things. She arrived a few minutes later as she and other members of her family were staying nearby with someone who had power. They let me know how much the fence repair was going to cost, which included labor, replacing the 20+ year old wood and throwing them away, and reinforcing the new wood. I agreed the price felt right to split in half. The fence was done within hours as I returned later to see it up. G and I went to Maple Street, which was delicious. Food time and catching up before taking them back to Kai's. I went back to the house to start cleaning out the fridge. Ended up throwing away 6 trash bags full of food that either has or was going to spoil. Did that in under half an hour, let the windows open to let the fridge smell air out and to cool off the house a bit (yay for a little bit of rain), shower, and get ready to go to work. More traffic lights were operational, but I still took an alternative path as I saw my main way was getting backed up. Arrived again in not my work shirt. Again thankful for things being operational and to take my mind off things. Went home in hopes that things were working again, they weren't. And I retired at my aunt's once again.
Day 5 - Started the day doing some normal routines, but got a phone call from Rannchan. Their car wouldn't start and needed some help. Took a few minutes to get ready and met her and G at her work. We attempted to jump the car and it wouldn't work after a couple of attempts. G and I went to a nearby AutoZone and let them know what the issue possibly could be. The analysis was the battery was old and dead and needed to be replaced. Went to G's to find an old receipt and returned to get a new battery. We also asked if someone could come to replace the battery as neither of us were confident to do so. Thankfully they had someone available to do so. A few minutes later, the battery was replaced and we tested the car for a few minutes before parting ways. This was from maybe 9-12. I went to the house as my original plan was to start cleaning the fridge to help get rid of the smell. Not only that, but there were some maggots so it definitely needed to be cleaned. Spent a good couple of hours to do that. Took a shower and noticed the time was around 2PM. I had not eaten yet. I was only drinking water. Went to the nearby McDonald's and got a nugget meal, something familiar and simple to eat. Stayed at home for a few hours to air it out. Also because I let Rannchan know I could take her back to Kai's since I was still nearby and in case their car still had issues. After getting gas, I went to her workplace, which was super busy. I stayed checking things online and watching The Price Is Right on their TV. While it was predicted she'd be out at 5:30, she stayed on the clock until 7:30 because of how busy it was. Took her home to feed the cats and pick up a few things before dropping her off at Kai's. Then it was to my aunt's to end the night with dinner (thanks for the pizza, Rannchan).
Day 6 - Not much to say here. The work day was fine. I did speak with my aunt before work saying there was a high possibility I'd be back after midnight, which is usually the case on Saturdays. The only reason I wouldn't return is if the power was back at our house. She advised me to take her house key and to text her if the power was back and I'd be staying there no matter how late it was. If I came to her place after midnight, be quiet about it. And that's what happened.
Day 7 - Originally the HERetirees were supposed to meet the week prior for Dough Zone (mentioned earlier in this entry). We were keeping tabs about meeting post-hurricane. We were all still good for Sunday, but we checked on if Dough Zone was still open. They were, but mentioned they were limited on ingredients including their main draw of soup dumplings. Agent Ocean had mentioned that a customer that came by recently recommended they come to their restaurant called Biff's Banh Mi & Pho. That was our back up plan and we all met there. It was good seeing them all again ever since Activate. We shared stories of the hurricane, we caught up in general, and had some good food. We also had a good time with the owners by letting them know how Agent Ocean met their family at work, cracked a few jokes, and shared hurricane woes. They even offered me a free drink since I still didn't have power (I ended up not getting one). After a few hours there, we went to a nearby Twistee Treat for dessert. We were eating our ice creams fast as it was an outdoor place and our orders were melting. I liked it, but I would have liked to have enjoyed it at my own pace. We almost got them to do one of our escape rooms, but the timing wasn't there. We parted ways there and I went home. At some point, there was a map customers could access to see progress being done in regards to restoring power. In the morning it was predicted to come back for us a couple days later, but it was green at Biff's. The closer I got home, I noticed more places in the area were up with power and that traffic lights were almost all working properly. A few streets away, I happened to put on Into The New World and belted it out with emotion. A few minutes later, I pulled into the neighborhood and noticed lights were on and more cars were around. When I parked and stepped out into the driveway, I didn't hear any generators like I had the last few days. I unlocked and opened the door and immediately flicked on a light switch and we had power. What a relief. I started to open windows and turn on all our ceiling fans and of course our a/c was automatically on. Texted family, HERetirees, and a few others to let them know that 6.5 days later we had power back. We didn't have internet, but the power being back was huge. After checking on a few other things, I texted my aunt letting her know about the power and that I was on my way to drop off her key and get my things. When I got there, she had prepared dinner for me to take home. I gathered my things and thanked her for her hospitality and went home.
Called mom to let her and dad know the power was back. What was meant to be a short call was around 2 hours as the phone got passed around and I got to talk to my cousins. It was good hearing familiar voices even though it has been decades since I last saw them. We caught up, I let them know about the hurricane, some just returned home after a previously planned vacation before the death in the family, and I got emotional with my cousins that did lose their mother. But I think after everything that happened with the hurricane, hearing from them regardless of the passing was what my soul needed at that time.
Being able to sleep in my own bed after almost a week was wonderful.
Day 8 - Picked up my parents from the airport. There was a small delay and I had to drive around the terminal about 5 times since they kept asking cars to keep moving due to the construction (no one could wait). Earlier I stayed in the parking garage, but it would have been very expensive if I stayed the entire time (paid $5 for 30 minutes). We got some McDonald's on the way back. Thankfully our internet was back by that time as well.
And then...there was a misunderstanding that basically put me in the dog house. Whether I was right or wrong, they weren't going to listen as they were upset over something that occurred while they were gone. I even had a solution, but they wouldn't let me do it. It's not the first time misunderstandings like this have happened. It just really sucks that I can't explain myself and have to live with a cold shoulder for an undetermined amount of time (a day, a week, a month). With all the crudeness of Hurricane Beryl, this was a horrible way to end all of that.
A few more things about the hurricane. Exercises ceased. I still did my daily stretches minus the day I took my parents to the airport. Other routines stopped during that time such as Demo Showcases, I missed Crush Crush dailies for the first time since I first streamed the game, eating schedules were adjusted, etc. Sleep was different as I was doing what I did for sleep when I'm out of town or simply not in my own bed, listening to a specific TWICE song on repeat. That had to stop as my corded earbuds were messed up making the song sound warped. Believe it or not, I was able to go to sleep for about a week with no white noise. I wanted to keep that going even longer, but there was one night where I knew I was losing sleep so I reverted back to Game Informer Super Replays.
Shout out to my 2010 SMTown BoA fan. I used it a lot during the first few days of the aftermath of Beryl. I was trying to use my HyoYeon one as well, but it has a curve to it that doesn't make the wind affect as good. Thanks, BoA.
Thank you to the friends that helped keep me sane during Beryl.
That's a wrap on July 2024. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
