October 2024 Entry:
- October went by in a flash.
MISC=========================
- First show at the Improv in years and it was to see Anna Akana (10.03). Agent Ocean came along for his first ever comedy show. Beforehand, we went to try the Immersive Birdbox and specifically their Escape AI game. It was impressive at first, then it felt gimmicky. The story itself also started well like an escape room, but then ended with minigames for points.
We were then first in line for the comedy show. I saw a mutual Kpop friend who was also there for the show and he chilled with us in line and ended up sitting behind us. We were front row with the stage being reachable. The opening act was Jenn Sterger. Never heard of her before, but her set was really funny. Good crowd interactions too. Then it was Anna Akana's turn and that was awesome. At one point she accidentally called the crowd Dallas and there was a bit of an uproar. She then talked to Agent Ocean to ask why it was so bad and he explained. She continued asking him about dating app stuff since that was the original subject and boy did that take off with Agent Ocean sharing about his recent break up and the crowd chiming in, ha. It was crazy.
After the show, we decided to go to the back of the VIP line to be the last ones to talk to Anna. The whole time I couldn't think of what to say to her. I made sure to say I had been following her on YouTube for over a decade and that she was the first show I had seen since the pandemic. Got pictures with her, yay. Unfortunately the person taking the photos sucked, boo. On the drive home I thought of a bunch of stuff like how I tweeted her with the HER account. We then went to the merchandise table where Jenn was. Talked to her for a bit, bought merchandise (poster and socks), and took pictures with her too. She's coming back in December and I might go see her again.
Great night of comedy.
- And a second night of comedy happened. While we were there for Anna Akana, Agent Ocean saw that Martin Amini was going to be performing that weekend. He bought tickets for us and his brother and friend to go to the show (10.06). Fun stuff. I was shown a bit of his act and how he brings people on stage to make a match and "beso beso." Some of the audience participation was interesting in a good and bad way. We definitely laughed and cheered some people on, but there were some that we thought didn't need to talk or be up on stage. We probably could have had more people participate if some didn't take so long. I did picture what would happen if Agent Ocean or I were on stage. He would have definitely had multiple women come up on stage, I believe that. I would have been worried if anyone would come up if I were on stage especially since the crowd was a younger audience (20s-30s).
- The HERetirees have planned to go to Dough Zone for the longest time. It was supposed to happen before the hurricane hit. Then a few reschedulings happened because of work or other events. Even the date we actually went was in jeopardy since Agent Ocean was supposed to work. But he was able to adjust things and we combined it as a pre-birthday celebration for Agent PQ (10.13). We first went to Activate. So much fun. We played some of the games we didn't the first time and we replayed our favorites. The biggest highlights I could recall are when we threw balls at increasing numbers and for hoops trivia, ha.
Then we went to eat at Dough Zone. It was actually within walking distance from the GameStop I used to work at. We got a good amount of food and carried on some good conversations. Finally stopped at Kim's Teahouse for drinks and more talk before calling it a day around 6PM-7PM. Always a pleasure hanging out with them.
- Went to Niko Niko's with the GGSN crew (10.16). Good talks and good food (I couldn't finish mine). It was good catching up with each of them. Not everything that has happened over the last few months has been great for everyone, but it was good to forget a few of our troubles and enjoy our company.
- Agent Ocean informed the HERetirees about The Great Big Game Show having a launch party tournament. Agent Blue wasn't able to join us so it was just four of us. We planned to meet at 9AM when they opened (10.19). I was on the scene first and there was only one person (not team) in front of me. I signed us in and told the staff that the rest of the team were on the way. PQ and Majordomo arrived about 10 minutes later and we had not heard from Ocean yet. Another call later, he missed his alarm. The three of us chilled in the sun for about 20 minutes as Agent Ocean made his way over. Shortly after we needed to determine if we were to face-off against the staff (knew the answers), a team of two young girls and two staff members (who didn't know the answers), or against each other, which we did imagine rigging it to help one team get a really high score. We ended up going against the girls and staff. The experience for the launch party was an abbreviated 15-minute experience. The first round was a block stacking challenge (highest stack won), we lost. The second round was trivia while trying to make it across a board (each letter was the beginning of the answer), we won. The final round was shooting darts at a screen to get as many points as possible by hitting your colored balls, we won. Our final score was 5900 and we were first out of two teams, ha. Got our freebies and left.
Agent Ocean left for work while the rest of us went to Snooze for food. Never went there before because I'm not the biggest breakfast person, but there was stuff I saw I liked. The drink I liked ended up not being as good as expected. The chocolate pancakes were good, but I couldn't finish it and gave the rest to Majordomo. We just caught up a little more before needing to split. Chilled in the car for a bit before heading off to work.
At some point during work, I thought to check TGBGS' social media to see if they posted anything. There was a video and at some point you can take a peek at the current scores at around 7PM. We were fourth. Cheers to us for holding on to a top 10 spot, but that also meant we weren't first and were out of the running for the $1000 prize. The next day, I got an email congratulating our team on being 8th place and for winning four free tickets to get the full experience. We have yet to determine if/when we'll use them.
- For the first time in years, I missed doing my daily push-ups (10.19). I thought I could possibly do them after work late at night, but I was too tired. But I also missed doing them in the same week (10.22). You'll read why later in the blog under the work section.
- 10 years sober (10.24). The day itself wasn't going all that great as plans and timing (traffic, more customers, etc) were thrown off. The one thing I wanted to make sure was to get a passion fruit green tea to celebrate. And at the beginning of the day, I did text back and forth with MIM. While it was about other things, I did thank her for being there for me. She was the last person I drank with, she was there to bring me to an emergency room when I needed help, and she is still in my life. Thank you.
- Dad asked me to assist on another fence (10.28). Different person (mom's friend), different part of town (half an hour away). My main job was to saw the wood planks for the fence. He measured and set a frame for me to easily set the boards in. Then he showed me how easy it was and always encouraged me to take my time and not go fast for obvious reasons. Other than that I also brought the wood over to him as he was nailing them to the frame and other small assists. There were a few times where our steady progress was halted due to different reasons (not leveled, having to move the support beams, etc). We started at 9AM and actually finished around 2PM. He has to go back another day to fine touch a few things, but my part was done.
One thing that bothered me was my mom's friend. She called me by name and I felt bad that I didn't recognize her. Later after she brought us lunch (Popeye's), she asked what I do for work now. As I was wiping my mouth to speak, she mentioned if I still worked at the blank store. My dad replied, "that's his brother." Not too big a deal because it happens. But then she responded with "oh, I don't know which one you are then" and laughed it off. Overall she was kind, but that got to me. She's of an older generation and probably thought it was nothing. I just thought she could have responded better. Thank you for the food though. Your big dog was nice and playful.
- Watched the Resident Evil series (10.30). My investment was up and down so much throughout. The first couple of episodes, not into it. The next couple of episodes, into. Then it bounced back and forth until the end. The main thing I didn't like was how they kept jumping back and forth from the past to their present time. Part of me wanted to see it play out sequentially. Another part of me wanted to just see the past parts. They did reference some things from the game, which I got a kick out of. Unfortunately, there won't be a season two and they were obviously aiming for it. It's not horrible, but I won't go out of my way to recommend it.
GAMES=========================
- Demo Showcase Shorts continue. It wasn't a full month due to work and other things. One thing I will start to keep track of how many are left. As of typing this (10.31) there are 68 demos left to try. Of course more keep getting added, but the number itself has caught my eye a few times. So it'll be interesting to see how this goes.
- Started playing the Castlevania Advance Collection and started with Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (10.02). I had played this on the Wii U, but never finished it. It still felt as if I was playing it for the first time. I liked how it was simple to play. I didn't like that the DSS system was never explained so I never used it. I'm sure it would have made some parts easier. And as much as I would have liked to 100% the map especially since I was less than 10% away, that battle arena was very tough. Again, if I utilized the DSS system, maybe it would have been better.
- Next in the Castlevania Advance Collection was Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (10.06). I never played this nor had I heard much about this specific title. The map was intimidating and I do wish there was a way to mark the map so I knew where certain locked doors were. That last bit I was missing was almost defeating, but thankfully I found it. And I got all the endings. This ended up being my favorite game on the collection.
- Third on the Castlevania Advance Collection was Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (10.07). This title was the one I heard the most praise for so I was looking forward to it. At some point, I realized I was at the final boss door and thought that was easy, but I stopped to fill in more of the map. And then I did some research only to find out that some of the map was locked behind needing certain souls. That's when I decided to finish the game sooner rather than later. At first, I thought the soul collecting mechanic was interesting. Early on I had to stop myself from trying to collect the soul of every new enemy I encountered. Thankfully I did because I thought once you killed X amount of an enemy, you get their soul. Incorrect. It's based on your luck stat if that soul drops. Even though finding enemies in certain spots wasn't bad and there were items to increase your luck, I did not want to spend possibly an additional 5-10 hours (or more) hoping to get the soul I needed. I may be the outlier, but that made my playthrough of the game sour. Great game overall though. The evolution of controls and graphics was apparent.
- Last game in the Castlevania Advance Collection was Dracula X (10.10). I thought I had played it before, but I had not. I was familiar with how it played since it was closer to classic Castlevania. While I beat Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow only a day apart, I could have done that with Dracula X as well were I not scheduled to work a lot that week. I pretty much got one ending a day. Not perfect, but definitely a good Castlevania game.
- Capcom Arcade Stadium was the free-to-play game of the month. This had been out for a while and I held it off for some reason that I don't recall. But since we're in October, it was appropriate to knock out a set of games/series like I had done for the last few years. 1943 - The Battle of Midway - came free with the initial download (10.11). I've definitely played the arcade version, but I never beat it. If I did, it took a lot of quarters because I spent at least 20+ credits beating this one. It's challenging and repetitive and free.
- Ghosts 'n Goblins was next in my Capcom Arcade Stadium collection (10.11). This was free for a limited amount of time and I know I made sure to download it. Never played the arcade version of this. I'm definitely more familiar with the NES and SNES versions. Seeing the differences was neat. It still has that high level of difficulty especially in the latter half of the game.
- STREET FIGHTER II - The World Warrior is also part of my Capcom Arcade Stadium (10.14). This was also free for a limited amount of time so I made sure to get it. Played this tons of times in the arcade, but I don't think I ever beat it. Mostly played against others. Blanka was my main before I knew anything. I thought he looked cool and that he could bite opponents, ha. But I made sure to beat the game with everyone. It took about 20-30 minutes per character. Having to unlearn each one of their moves to get back to the basics was bumpy at first, but things were smoother after at least 2 fights. Using old school CPU methods still worked for the most part. Yay for muscle memory.
- Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium was the other free-to-play game of the month. Lumping this with the other Capcom Arcade Stadium. There has only been one game offered for free up to this date and that was SONSON (10.14). The only experience I have with Sonson was using them in Marvel VS Capcom 2. I would have never expected the game to be a side-scrolling shoot 'em up. Simple for what it is, not bad mechanically. It just wasn't too interesting to do more than a single run.
- My copy of Contra: Operation Galuga arrived (10.15). I double checked to see if I had this penned on the schedule. It was for June. I have since pushed it up to April, but it might get pushed more simply because it's shorter than other games in the backlog.
- NecroWorm was a game that I wasn't specifically looking to buy. It was part of Demo Showcase 47 August 2020 and it was a thumbs sideways. But it was part of a deep sale combo with Liberated. For $2 combined, it was hard to pass up, especially since the sale for them separately was about $2-$5 each I think. I didn't expect to be blown away and I wasn't. Similar to Snake; eat all the items on screen and don't run into yourself. I only had to look up about 25% of the levels online. Thankfully everything was single screen so it was easy to follow paths. Played it to completion (10.16). I was underwhelmed with how it ended since it was a small text bubble congratulating you. Oh well, got my money's worth.
- Liberated: Enhanced Edition was the favorite from Demo Showcase 71 in August 2021 (10.18). This was the game that was bundled with NecroWorm. My positives and negatives from the Demo Showcase still stand. While I liked seeing the story play out in the comic panels, I wasn't motivated enough to replay it to see different dialogue options. It's definitely not perfect, but it has potential to be great if it was better polished or if they made a sequel that was more refined.
- Continuing going for Fitness Boxing 2 achievements. The latest was a big one with Sophie hitting 50 hours (10.20). That is the last hourly achievement to attain and I have 8 more characters left to do that with. Those are the major ones left, but I really should be "playing" it here and there to get more punches in. I'll think of something.
- Played through Luigi's Mansion 2 HD (10.23). I was a little worried about this going in as I didn't have fond memories of the 3DS version. Apparently I gave that a 4 out of 5. Other than that, I didn't recall much from it. As I was playing this time, I could tell how it's been improved upon outside of quality of life. The one thing I did not like was the completion process. Unlike the first and third game, there are split levels instead of an overall connected world. If you reach the end, you get booted out. If you missed an item or a few, you have to play that whole level again from start to finish. Sure you can speed through and not suck up everything, but some levels are still long and would require 10+ minutes to wrap up a second or third time through. Thankfully I realized that early on and had a guide handy to make sure I didn't miss any...but I still missed some. Had I not decided to go for 100% (not including ScareScraper), my playtime would probably have been cut in half.
- A Little to the Left was one of three Game Trials available this month (10.25). While I knew of this, I wasn't keeping it on my radar. Thanks to the Game Trial, I knew I could at least give it a shot. The concept of arranging things in a certain manner is good. Figuring out those certain manners was another thing. It wasn't always clear and I had to use an online guide to figure about half of them out especially for the alternate solutions. The thing that got to me the most was having to be very precise with a few of them. To me I had the solution, but because it was a little off, it didn't count and I'd have to figure out what was wrong. I did everything except for daily challenges and the DLC. It's not bad, but not particularly for me.
- Tried out Cursed to Golf (10.27). I had heard some good stuff about this. I see why people like it. I've played my share of golf games and I'm not the greatest at them. But I had fun with them. This is not for me. Mainly because it is a rougelike. If I could learn a hole to be better at it, cool. In this, if you lose, you have to play a completely different set of holes. Some could be similar, but I didn't run into that with my time with the game. And if it was just the one hole, not as bad, but you start over from hole one. Again, I see why people like it, but it's not for me. I wouldn't have tried it if it were not a Game Trial.
- Played Vampire Survivors was the third Game Trial this month (10.30). The hype is real. I see how people get addicted to this game. Were I not that busy, I would have played more. I think I got about 10 games in. While it's not super expensive, I'll still wait for a larger sale. For now, it has been wish listed.
WORK=========================
- I have now worked 1 year at Escapology (10.04). There have been ups and downs throughout. It's not perfect, but I am in the industry I was well suited for.
- We had two birthday parties (10.05). Nothing new there, but I didn't realize I hosted both of them and that they were all for young girls. I do recall one employee saying "this is all you" because they didn't want to host the one for the 10 year olds. They were fine. Once they listened it was all good. If I recall correctly, I actually in-room facilitated this one about halfway in. The second birthday of girls, some remembered me as they had been there before. They even gave me a Halloween ring to be part of their crew. As I left them after hosting, I said something like "good luck, fam/bruv" because they wanted me to say some current slang, ha. After their game, I was helping with bringing food into the party room. One time I left and walked into the glass door. I just continued off and tried to compose myself. As I was washing dishes, they all came out and gave me part of their birthday cake. I thanked them, but I thought of something to say after they left. Them giving me the cake was a good representation of how much they enjoyed me and a nice way to celebrate a year of working there.
- A short week day (10.08). Other than a few sessions, my big task was to fill up lab bottles with different color resin for the second location. Agent Ocean had a hand in them too, but he also had his own tasks. It took the majority of the day and boy were my hands sticky after, ha. Since we closed early, I suggested we go to Zero Degrees nearby. It's not bad. Good boba options and familiar food options. Too bad they don't do split cups anymore because I've always wanted to try that.
- I wasn't originally scheduled to go there, but I was asked to come to the second location to help out (10.09). They caught me at a good time because I was literally about to leave for work. Changed my clothes and it took about an hour to get there and help Agent Ocean and the ladies move heavy props from large crates into the building. It was definitely tiring, but I was glad to be available to help them out. Afterwards, Agent Ocean and I got some ShareTea in the area (it tasted so good) and went our separate ways.
- A slow, but productive day with RB (10.10). I took on the task of all the game mastering so that she could get some social media stuff done.
- Another group of customers offered us cake (10.12). The following Saturday, we also were left with some cake, but it was hit or miss with the staff.
- Used another CVS coupon to get some work snacks for myself and Agent Ocean (10.17). Not bad.
- Did work at the second location (10.22). Originally we were all to meet there at 9AM, but there was a huge traffic jam due to an accident. We started to show up a little after 10AM. But we made a lot of progress as we worked from 10-7PM. That definitely was not the original plan as I recall being scheduled until 5PM. But when things are flowing, don't stop the momentum. Plus the drive home was the shortest ever. Still was around an hour, but not 1.5-2 hours like other times.
- 5 sessions back-to-back (10.29). Not necessarily a bad thing, but it was only myself and RB. While we preemptively planned what sessions we'd be game mastering, we didn't think of when the teams finished. While I had 2 teams and she had 3, when I had to exit out my first team she had to watch 4 at the same time. In the end I exited the first 3 teams and she got one or both of the last two. The biggest downside was that we had to ignore the plethora of phone calls that happened during that time. Agent Ocean was also texting to do a few things and I didn't reply until way later.
Speakers got packed up, papers were organized, tips were counted, phone calls and bookings and made (and remade, ha). No other sessions were booked and we were ready to leave until we realized we didn't reset one of the rooms. And that's when there were issues with some of the tech in there. There was a technical issue that occurred during a booking. Even though I reset the game, the issue still persisted. My solution at that time was to read out the clue for the team to figure out, which they did. We couldn't fix the issue with our knowledge. Not only that, but two other similar issues popped up. Message the group chat and one of the owners replied with what to try. I had never done that before so we FaceTimed each other so she could explain and see what needed to be done. It did fix the issue for 2-3 issues. RB tested it a few more times as I packed away what I was to bring to the second location into the car. Came back and joined RB and we came to a conclusion. The issue needs to be reset at the beginning of the day every time until we replace the PC stick, but it will run properly until everything is turned off for the day. That was 1 hour of testing and fixing and packing. At least we figured out what needed to be done.
- Went to the second location two days in a row (10.30-10.31). First day was 11AM and that day went by fast. Agent Ocean and I got drinks at Dave & Busters during our break. Got a lot done, which was with the speakers. I became super itchy as I was doing stuff in the ceilings. It was tough to avoid the insulation and I wasn't properly dressed to be protected from it. It was mainly my hands and arms. Thankfully I wore a hat that day otherwise I'm sure I'd be scratching there a bunch. The second day was a short day (9AM-3PM). It was the continuation of what we were working on with the speakers the previous day. Ran into one hiccup where we couldn't get cables through the wall. That took a while. After that was figured out, Agent Ocean and I went to Walmart and Home Depot for a few supplies before returning to wrap up our final hour.
ETC=========================
- ITZY - GOLD (MV)
One of their best. The song, the music video, the performances, and their outfits. It was a rare instance where I liked it immediately before seeing any performances. Way to go, ITZY. Welcome back, Lia.
- ROSÉ & Bruno Mars - APT. (MV)
Such a super fun song.
- aespa - Whiplash (MV)
- ITZY - Imaginary Friend (MV)
- TWICE MISAMO - Identity (MV)
Good stuff. My only negative was that the song was short. Other than that, wonderful music video and outfits. Can't wait to see performances.
- SooYoung - Unstoppable (MV)
Similar to Run Away from Tzuyu, I nodded in approval. This fit her so well.
- Something I've felt recently and I could be wrong on this. I feel I've been part of conversations where there is obviously no interest in my part of the conversation. Not going to name names, but let's say there are three of us and I'm engaging with person 1 and person 2, but person 2 only really responds or says anything to person 1. Other instances with more people involved are the same except sometimes person 2 and person 3 aren't responding to me even though the conversation was turned to me or I know the answer etc. This isn't everyone, but I've noticed it from a few specific people and I can bring up multiple examples. I feel like it's been more so this past month, but again I could be perceiving things incorrectly. We'll see. I hope to be wrong about this.
That's a wrap on October 2024. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
