January 2011 Entry

Welcome to 2011. You are now reading the January entry for the year of 2011. A lot has happened already this month that I wanted to share. So let's jump in.

=====01.01.11=====

Started the year off with friends as usual. I was a little jaded that we didn't count down to the new year together, but...it kind of seemed like I was the only looking at my phone's clock to know when it came around. As long as I'm surrounded by good people, I'm glad. And to what might become a yearly tradition, a good friend put together an entrance to emulate his current favorite wrestler, Alberto Del Rio. Good stuff. I think I'll change up what we do for next year just to breathe a little extra life into the event.

Barry Del Rio from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

My cousin Pauline turned 18 in December. To celebrate, friends and family were invited to her house on the first of January for her Debut. I had not seen Pauline in many years so I was excited to see her and other family members I haven't seen. The girl is a decade younger, but inches taller than I am, ha. It was nice just being in that family atmosphere. Seeing all my younger cousins all grown up made me feel old and reminiscent. I could easily think back to how tiny Pauline used to be, how Gina Fey would run around laughing, or how Erika used to mispronounce "parallelogram." I brought my video cameras to film this special day for her and later made a video to which she said, "Thank You. I love it. I really do. It made me cry. LOL." I also learned that day that her older sister Chery is getting married in March. That surprised me, but I am looking forward to that day. As a wedding present to her, I'm having 3 members of Royal Flush Media do video and take photos.

Pauline's 18th Birthday Debut from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

=====01.08.11=====

I had just returned home from dropping off a friend's parents at the airport when another friend messages me about an SNSD fan meeting in LA happening at the end of the week. Quick decision making led to he and I flying out on the 7th to Los Angeles to take part in the event. Now this was a fan meeting held by fans for the fans. It was never advertised that SNSD would be there in person, but many of us were hoping for a surprise.

We met up with a few other Texas SONEs the following morning and heard about volunteering to help set up the event. So we went over and quite a few people had already been there doing things. As more and more tasks were being handed out, it looked like my friend and I weren't going to have anything to do. So we just took out our gear (camera and video camera) and were then approached asking if we were the media team. Long story short, we became the media team.

Other than filming and taking photos of the staff and activities the fans were participating in, we were still able to enjoy ourselves and act as normal fans. We got chances to meet and talk to fans and get to know some of them better. We weren't able to participate in any prize giving trivia activities though. A gracious fan did give me a Jessica Star card she won though, awesome.

I became a stand out a couple times for dancing along to SNSD songs that were being played. I could've danced to the majority of them, but then I wouldn't be working, ha. I only did 2 on my own. I did Hoot, which caught fans' attention. Gee played soon after and I just figured I might as well do it. Again I gained attention and adoration and I ate all of that up. Later on in the day I was asked by a staff member of SM Entertainment that was helping put the event together to teach Gee to everyone. So at a certain point I had 200+ people watching me perform the whole song and then teaching the chorus to them. THAT was incredible. It had been maybe 5 years since I taught a dance to anyone or even performed in front of people let alone 200+ people. Videos of me dancing are circulating and I have it captured on my camera as well.

Another task thrown to us (the impromptu media team) was to get fans that were lined up to say "Happy Birthday, Soshified" in honor of the upcoming 3rd anniversary of the international fan site we were all a part of. Not everyone wanted to be on camera, but a good number of them were more than happy to. Soon after that, it was finally time for fans to start piling into the theatre to be part of the private fan meeting. During the fan meeting, they showed MVs, behind the scenes footage, and gave out prizes for various things. All in all a very fun experience.

And to give a clue of how long we were there, we were part of the staff around 11AM. The activities went on till 3 when the actual fan meeting event happened and that lasted till 5. The staff then went out afterwards to eat at a Korean BBQ and then to go sing karaoke. I think we get back to our hotel around 1AM. We flew back to Houston on the 10th.

This was such a memorable day. Not only was it great being a fan, but it was also a business venture also as we were communicating with top Soshified staff on behalf of SM Entertainment. They asked us at one point for some of the photos and footage we took so that they can use in a future article about these fan meetings and SNSD. RFM greatly obliged. Soshfied also wanted the birthday messages to use for a special video on the site's birthday, which they released on February 1st. So thanks to SNSD and SM Entertainment and Soshified, RFM is internationally known.

=====01.19.11=====

My weekly hiphop class was cancelled this week due to Soundbox Studios having a showcase. So a special class was scheduled on Wednesday at 5PM. So I took that and then took another friend's Intro To Hiphop class at 6PM. And then since it was Wednesday, that was also Salsa class night. I was unsure about attending that, but I was under the assumption I was going to help mix a song for the studio later that night because I already did one for them earlier in the week. So I decided to stay and take Salsa to kill time before doing the song and to see if I still remembered my Salsa moves. It was great to see familiar faces and to be the only guy there, ha. I was already tired after 2 hours of hiphop. Good thing I brought a bottle of water. I had remembered quite enough and had enough energy to stay on beat, but I could feel my legs and knees giving in towards the end of my third hour dancing. In the end, I didn't have to mix that song for them and I could've just gone home, but that was definitely a test for me. I had not done a long stint of dancing like that in almost 10 years. I used to do 2 hours of dancing for exercise almost everyday back then. Yeah...age and wear and tear, but I think if I really wanted to I could still go all out. Maybe not to the level that some at the studio are, but at least back to the level I once was and just a little better. So yeah, 3 straight hours of dancing made it hard to walk the next day, but I was glad I did it.

=====01.21.11=====

And then there was Soundbox Studios' Texas Showcase. In celebration of their one year of becoming a studio, they had invited different crews to come and entertain the supporting friends and family of the studio regulars. I almost didn't go, but was glad I did. Again, I became part of the media team (impromptu) doing video work for them. I had a good spot, but was watching all performances from my video camera held high above me via my monopod. All the performances were great and it was great to see familiar faces I've learned to recognize from the studio and had become closer with (some). I almost stayed and went out with them to eat a celebratory dinner, but I remembered I had to wake up early the next day...

=====01.22.11=====

...and go to the beach! Met 2 friends at 7AM and arrived at the beach around 9AM. The weather had been on the colder side so not many people were on the beach and it was very nice. Quiet and serene and all ours. We just went around and took some silly videos and photos of ourselves. We ate lunch and then headed to the town area to venture and do more photo/video things. Another friend then joined us and we headed back to the beach to do more of the silly photo and video taking of ourselves complete with feeding many seagulls and getting our feet wet in the water. We then ended our time there with a 4-Person bike ride around the beach streets. Best part had to be ordering drinks at the McDonald's drive-thru. Such a silly idea, but we needed those drinks, ha.

So we were at the beach from 9-5 pretty much. Arrived back in town around 6 to eat a small dinner, lose a friend, go to a drink restaurant, regain the lost friend, go karaoke, gain another friend, and then go to a cafe to get drinks while we played Rummikub and then a card game in which the loser revealed an interesting fact about themselves to the group. And that lasted to about 1:30AM. Who would've guessed that a last minute beach trip would have surmounted to a enormous day of whimsy.

Ada Day - 4-Person Bike Ride Adventure - 01.22.11 from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

=====01.25.11=====

Then I got sick. I guess everything finally caught up to me. I know I got sick starting this day because I was waking up at different hours of the night checking if videos I made were uploaded to Vimeo and YouTube properly. Vimeo, yes. YouTube, no. That issue got fixed and I got sick and remained sick for about a week causing me to miss...

=====01.29.11=====

...Epic Dance Show 2. I had been trying to get myself better for that day and was starting to feel better the night before. But I woke up and was disappointed. I informed Lucia about my absence for the event, but that the RFM team would still be there. I informed other RFM members that were going to cover the event that I was sick and got someone to replace me. Met with one to get all the video equipment and bring it there and talked to the other 2 to make sure they were ready as well. I worried that things might not have gone well especially since this was at a different venue and set up might not go right. I even had a dream that night that I got 3+ hours of horribly shot footage. Thankfully things went smoothly according to each RFM member that went. The equipment was returned the following Monday and I watched it and was pleased with the team's work. I've also already started editing the footage together. And I enjoyed the show itself, but I really wish I was healthy to see it in person.

=====01.30.11=====

I also wanted to be healthy the next day to possibly go see the Royal Rumble live at a sports bar or anywhere that was showing it with a crowd. I was feeling better, but knew I wasn't good to go out. Mostly had a nagging cough and that wouldn't make me a pleasant person to be around in public.

So I watched it from home and I still had a good time watching it. The 2 title matches were great. My champions won, yeah. The Rumble itself was as exciting as it usually is. Plus this was the first time it had 40 participants rather than the usual 30. Was iffy about the idea, but it worked. And the 2 surprise entrants of Booker T and Diesel had me jumping around and going nuts.

I chose John Cena, John Morrison, CM Punk, and Alberto Del Rio as my picks for the final 4 in the match with Del Rio being my top choice to win. I had 50% correct with Cena and Del Rio. And then Albertooooooooo Del Rrrrrrrrrio won! Amazing. My friend called me after because he was excited that his favorite wrestler won. Now it's his favorite and my favorite going head to head for the title at Wrestlemania. Can't wait to see that to go down.

=====Final Thoughts=====

- So, do you like the new format of this entry? Rather than hitting key topics I'm hitting key dates and being more descriptive and less cryptic. It definitely can make these entries longer. Long time readers know I can type a lot. It might just be this month was long because a lot happened. I could've gone longer and explained things more thoroughly, but I think just nailing key moments and talking about those a little make it more interesting. Videos are now sprinkled where they apply to so no more skipping straight to the bottom to watch them all. The Final Thoughts portion will remain and I'll just throw things in there that didn't need a big section to read.

- A friend and fellow SONE has been auditioning to be a full time DJ for Soshified. I'm sure he'll get it. He's had 2 good trial shows so far.

- I added more music to my iPods, but I don't listen to them as much since I'm not working. But I have been listening to them while I can. Lately, I've put more video game music in such as the Ace Attorney series OSTs and Final Fantasy VIII's OST. I've been listening to the FFVIII OST while typing this out. How fitting that "Eyes On Me" is playing as I'm finishing this out.

- As I stated last month, I ended my game review blog. So ratings will only be put on here as well as my Facebook. I only managed to complete one game (100%) in January with how busy I had been and I'm close to finishing Ghost Trick. I will score that next month, but for now...

- Lost In Shadow (Wii) - Rated 3 out of 5

- And I'm surprisingly doing well on my resolutions for the year.

1. Enjoy my time not working. - Yeah, I don't think I would've done half of what I did this month had I still been employed at a 8-5 job.

2. Improve my editing and video camera skills. - As you could tell from reading (IF YOU READ, ahem) I had plenty to do with video and editing.

3. Get more gigs for Royal Flush Media. - If you count the impromptu stuff, which I am, RFM has been busy. Then there's my cousin's wedding in March, more dance events, a possible piano recital, and who knows what else. And now we're internationally known! Yeah, I think this will be a good year for Royal Flush Media.

And that does it for the first entry of 2011. I'm pretty sure there were other things that I could've talked about, but we're already 5 pages into typing.

Thank you for reading. Be healthy, be thankful, and be loved. Take care.

December 2010 Entry

We're already in the year 2011. It has been busy so far so I apologize for the lateness of the December 2010 entry. And I did the same thing last year except I'm a day earlier this time, ha. I also did a look back on the year last time, but I don't think I can/want to this time. A lot happened and the majority really does seems like a blur.

=====Work=====

I am no longer employed. Just like I mentioned in the last entry, I put in my 2-week notice. Those last 2 weeks were very slow. Other than going on the custom shoot one more time the final week of work, I had little to do. I spent a couple of days making documents on where things were on what PC and how to do certain tasks step by step. I used those documents to train a coworker to do a few of the tasks I had to do. It took a while, but she was getting the hang of it before I left.

They did throw a (sort of) going away party. They bought pizza for the entire crew and thanked me for my work and that they're sorry to see me leave etc. The last few days I spent clearing things from my PCs that they didn't need or moving files around. It was a slow burn, but it felt great walking out of that place on my final day.

I haven't heard back from the place I submitted my resume to and I'm okay with that. I've been fairly busy since quitting that working again would actually get in the way. I'm okay right now not working. My fear of not having anything to do did not come true.

=====Video Games=====

Even though the review went up early January, I'll still post the link for it.

Disney Epic Mickey (review) - click

And here's the entry on why I am ending my game review blog.

End of Rated CBAM - click

And in January, I am playing Lost In Shadow on the Wii. I did want to get Ghost Trick also, but I might have to wait or skip it since things are busy at the moment. I haven't played much of Lost In Shadow due to being busy.

=====Royal Flush Media=====

Getting more gigs. We're so far booked for another dance event in January and are doing work for my cousin's wedding as well. It's great to extend our portfolio with these and hopefully they'll help spread the word even more so.

=====XMAS Bash 2010=====

Another fun and memorable night. Another game show was put together. I thank not working for giving me more time to work on what we did for this. I do have to give myself a few negative points as I had thought of camera angles for every game we played, but I didn't arrange the camera each time leaving for a lot of bad angles. Other than that disappointment, this Christmas party was just another great gathering of friends. Hope everyone enjoyed the gift I gave them.

=====Final Thoughts=====

Congratulations to the newly graduated nurse. It was great going to San Antonio to see you graduate and celebrate with your family.

Lost my voice during WWE's TLC PPV. Man, that was such an awesome night. I screamed so much, ha. We also got to keep our chairs since we were pretty close to the ring. Can't wait for the next live show I'll go to.

I haven't gone to Salsa class in almost 2 months now. But like I've mentioned multiple times in this entry, things have been busy. Maybe I'll go back when things die down.

A lot happened so far in January. I can't wait to talk about that in the next entry.

I think I might try a different format next year for entries. Not sure yet, but we'll see. I still feel secure doing it this way though. You'll find out by the next entry.

Plus I don't know if anyone noticed that I started not mentioning people by name now (only a select few). I think I picked that up from a friend who did the same on their blog. So it's hard to talk about certain things and not mention names. Not the hardest thing to do, but you get what I mean. Sure you can see their faces in some of the videos I make, but I don't always project these videos to the large public.

There is one person I'd like to thank (without mentioning their name). I'm just happy to know someone like you in my life. Your positive attitude, your outgoing personality, and your sense of drive is very refreshing and I think some of my days towards the end of the year would've been more gloomy were it not for you. Here's to more memories in 2011.

I got my hair cut in December. My stylist did in the style of Onew from SHINee without asking me. When she was doing it I thought that the hair style looked familiar, ha. It doesn't look like it now though.

Resolutions for 2011:

1. Enjoy my time not working.

2. Improve my editing and video camera skills.

3. Get more gigs for Royal Flush Media.

And now for the videos I made for December. Again, if you can't watch the video, let me know. Even though I check the settings, I know that sometimes I miss something.

Super Mega Maximum Hyper Duel - The Next (Trailer) from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

New Year's 2010 from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

And that does it for 2010. Here's to everyone's health and fortune in 2011. Take care.

November 2010 Entry

Right at the end of the month. Punctual. Let’s go!

=====Work=====

I know I mentioned I was thrown into a custom shoot at the beginning of the month. That actually went well. It really felt like being part of a team rather than working individually like how things are normally done. This is how things should be done and hopefully they continue to push to do things like this from now on.

And…I put in my 2-week notice at my current job yesterday (11.29.10). I had the plan formulated for a while and was just waiting to execute it on the proper date. My previous mention of a proposal last month was scrapped. I was going to see if I could just work here part time since I’m not always needed, but after talking to a few people it just seemed that cutting ties would be best so I’m not dragged back in later. Now that I think of it, they probably wouldn’t have taken me up on that offer anyways. A friend asked if they even bothered asking why I wanted to leave or if they tried to convince me to stay. They didn’t and I’m not surprised. I am surprised that they just didn’t let me go the day of instead of letting me stick out the rest of the 2 weeks. But I have to show and teach what I do to a coworker who will be taking on the load. They’re not hiring anyone to replace me from what it seems. That and them not trying to keep me on board are a couple of things that shows you how bad a shape things are in. There’s more to this tale, but I won’t divulge it all online. Ask in person if you’d like to know.

Almost everyone (that didn’t know beforehand) was shocked with me leaving. A few have expressed that they don’t want me to go, but it’s time. I didn’t burn any bridges with anyone nor did I speak ill of the company in my resignation letter. Sure, they weren’t the best, but what’s the point to talk bad about them on my way out. I’m just done. My last day is December 10^th.

I have actually submitted my resume somewhere to work with a friend. I’ve been told I’d be getting a callback, but I’m okay if I don’t. I could use the time off to relax for a good month or so. Plus I could concentrate more on RFM and trying to get more work for that as well as improve my camera and editing skills. So I’ve known what I’d be doing post-Digital. It’s just whether or not I get this other job that is the unknown at the moment.

=====Video Games=====

Sonic Colors (review) - click

Donkey Kong Country Returns (review) - click

Beat both of those a week into their release. I was hoping more from Sonic Colors, but I got exactly what I wanted and more out of Donkey Kong Country Returns. You can read the reviews to see why. And that leaves one game left for November; Epic Mickey. I will be picking that up later tonight. Epic Mickey will also be my 100^th game review I’ll be doing. I’ll talk more about the future of my game reviewing after I review Epic Mickey so stay tuned.

=====Royal Flush Media=====

Not much to note with RFM this month. I finished a piano recital after waiting a long time for a response from the client. She wants to book us next year for another recital. I worked on a friend’s wedding. It was done as a nice gift for them, not for pay. We were attending the wedding, not working it. While editing that video, I did wish I took more liberties with filming things though. Oh well. I was more caught up in the spectacle that I was at a wedding anyways.

I’ve kind of slowed down on anything RFM related for the rest of the year. Other things are keeping me busy anyways. Can’t balance all of it at the same time without something going wrong or not being as awesome as it should be.

=====Broomball=====

A friend and I attended another broomball event put on by a church. 55+ people playing! It was crazy seeing all the people there, most being children. Fortunately the person that put it together had us split the rink into halves and had the children play against each other on one end and the adults playing on the other. The smaller field of play made it more frantic and the action was pretty much nonstop. I lost track of the score, but it was high scoring. I’d say at least 3:6 with our team winning. That 2 hours went by so fast. Thanks to Compass church for putting it together and letting a couple of strangers join in on the fun.

=====Thanksgiving=====

Thanksgiving isn’t the biggest holiday in our household. Ended up doing nothing except stay home. I actually have more unpleasant memories of Thanksgiving than good ones. That’s probably the reason I don’t care to do much on this holiday. But if I get invited to a gathering, I’ll do it.

I did receive a genuine Thanksgiving wish from someone. Was told why they were thankful to have me as a friend. It was very nice to read.

=====Final Thoughts=====

Congratulations to the newly engaged couple!

The Miz is WWE Champ! Awesome! Can’t wait to go to the TLC PPV in December.

November birthday wishes to those that had them this month.

Karaoke is always fun. Time really flew by last time we went. They do need to update their songs though. We still find songs we didn’t know they had, but having more new stuff to sift through would be nice.

Looking forward to T-ara and After School’s comebacks in December. Had to move to a new After School forum since they merged recently.

Heal up fast and properly, Tiffany. I and all your fans missing your bright presence.

Been listening to Shakira’s Sale El Sol (The Sun Comes Out) album while typing this. She always puts out good stuff.

The weather is doing whatever it wants. We’re just here for the ride.

R.I.P. Leslie Nielson.

The annual Christmas party is happening soon. CC and I are planning out the games to play and getting things ready for the big day. I’ve also been working on a New Year’s video. Just need footage from December and I’ll be set. Thanks to those that I’m collaborating with for these holiday features.

Again…I feel like I’m missing something.

Video time? Yes, video time. Not much this time since things have gotten busy on the non-video front.

The Wedding of Jackie and Garo - 09.05.10 from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

Barry Chooses Your Destiny from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

Thanks for reading. Be healthy, be thankful, and be loved. Take care.

October 2010 Entry

A few days late. Been busy. Here we go.

=====Work=====
Still sucks here. I have come up with a proposal for the company as an alternative to me just flat out quitting. I will mention it to them sometime in November. Not a good time right now as things are somewhat busy and some key people are missing.

I’ve actually been running out of things to do. The last thing I made myself do was take these 4-5 large bins full of cords and went through the trouble of untangling and arranging them into separate bins. Yeah…I have little to nothing to do at times lately. Heck, I typed out this entry at work.

Although at the beginning of November, I was thrown in to be part of an important custom shoot last minute. That was actually interesting…and that’s November news so I’ll leave this sentence to force myself to talk about it in the next entry.

=====Video Games=====
Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 (review) - click

Only played Sonic 4 this month. I enjoyed it. I do have a list of 3 games that are set for November releases so next month should be busy with game playing time.

=====Royal Flush Media=====
Been busy with some RFM stuff. Are big thing of the month was being hired for Lucia’s “Epic Dance” event. The event was fun and the work part actually flowed smoothly (at least to me). The footage and photos came out great and we’re further cementing ourselves to be Lucia’s go-to team for media purposes. Plus the videos are getting viewed a lot and at least more people are learning the name Royal Flush Media.

An extra thing I did for fun was film Brette’s “Thriller” class on Halloween Eve. I slapped the RFM name on it to get our name out to another group of people. I’m hoping that some of the parents of kids in her classes will gain interest of who and what we do and maybe hire us for stuff their kids do or for family events.

Videos will be posted at the end as usual. I will only post a couple of the “Epic Dance” videos since there were 9 total. Check out the rest on our YouTube or Vimeo page (shameless plug).

We are doing some behind the scenes stuff with RFM to further its business. Please help and let people know who RFM is. We have a Twitter, a Facebook, Youtube, Vimeo, our own site, and maybe more down the line to get our name out there. So to friends/family/strangers that read this blog, please help spread our name.

=====Broomball=====
A bunch of us got together to play Broomball. It had been a couple years since I first played and I have always wanted to do it again with friends. Needless to say, everyone had a great time. Even the people that didn’t want to play ended up playing, ha. It’s just tons of fun. It ended up being a tied game, but it was great when we did score.

I did get whacked in the mouth. I was one of the few that bled that game. Sure, I could’ve gone back out after about 15 minutes, but it is fun to just watch also. I at least played for half of the game so I was fine sitting out and filming afterwards. Everyone had fun and that’s all that mattered. I for sure won’t forget it.

=====Halloween=====
Ah…Halloween weekend was busy. Funny, I did things on Friday and Saturday, but not on the actual day of Halloween. Well, I made the video of Brette’s class from Saturday on Halloween. Eh, I was kind of burnt out anyways. 2 days of being Edge, ha.

On Friday, Brette was teaching “Thriller” at Sonia’s World of Dance and invited me to come (VIP) because Univision was filming the class. It was cool to see where else she teaches and to have everyone that attended the class dressed up in costume. Man, it was hot dancing in costume…lots of sweat. I did talk with some of the people there afterwards. A couple of guys were excited that I was dressed as Edge and that I had the coat, shirt, and especially the belt. We took pictures, ha. As I was leaving, one guy complimented me saying I was the best dancer in the class. And a girl in the class talked to me at my car and invited me to join her and a couple others in the class to go to a Michael Jackson Halloween thing going on. I would’ve considered going were I not going to meet friends after class.

So, yes…I was on Univision. Video at the end of the entry.

Saturday, I filmed and participated in Brette’s “Thriller” class at Soundbox. Another great turnout with the majority of us in costume. It was so fun.

Afterwards, met up with friends (also in costume) to eat. Then we headed off for “Scream on The Green” at Discovery Green. Tons of people in costumes, several booths set up (karaoke, psychic, etc), people acting in character, a screen set up to show “Beetlejuice,” and a costume contest was going on. I was expecting a little more to be going on, but it beats not doing anything. I did spear one of my friends and it got some people’s attention. Some little kids called out to me saying “It’s Edge!” Ended up taking photos with them and let them try the belt out. That belt certainly calls attention to itself, ha.

We then went to go karaoke in our costumes. Ah…karaoke.

All in all, one of the more memorable Halloweens I’ve had.

=====Final Thoughts=====
I am now on Facebook. Find me if you want to. I will accept you…if I choose to.

Ordered tickets to the WWE TLC PPV coming in Houston in December. Excited.

Speaking of wrestling, I now carry both of my iPods with me. One has all my foreign music on it. The other has all my wrestling and video game music. Soon I will add all my English music on there. Just being lazy with that at the moment. Ah…I enjoy listening to my wrestling music a lot. Didn’t realize I missed it. A lot of those songs conjure up great memories.

SNSD made a comeback in Korea with their 3rd mini-album “Hoot.” I like their concept. The song is catchy and they’ve had great comeback performances. I’m still waiting for my copy to arrive.

I joined a forum recently for After School (After School Play). I’m starting to like them a lot more. Kahi is my favorite. The forum is small and not super active like Soshified so I can keep up with it. Thanks to one of the members there, I found a place to start watching Invincible Youth again. It’s been great catching up on what I’ve missed since Hyunah, Yuri, and Sunny left.

The weather has gotten cold. Thank you. It feels great.

Like always, I feel like I’ve forgotten something.

AND NOW, time for everyone’s favorite part of these entries (I assume), the videos. Again, if you have troubles viewing the videos, let me know or else I won't know. You’re getting six this time. Remember, if you want to see the rest of the “Epic Dance” videos, visit RFM’s Vimeo or YouTube page. They were all spectacular performances.

KT Anniversary Year Three - Broomball - 10.08.10 from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

SNSD - SooYoung Special Announcement Interview from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

(Not an accurate translation. Done for fun for friends like the Sunny one from last month.)

Epic Dance - Performance 1-1 - 10.16.10 from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

Epic Dance - Performance 2-2 - 10.16.10 from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

Brette's Thriller Class - 10.29.10 (Univision) from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

Brette's Thriller Class - 10.30.10 from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

Thanks for reading. Have great days and stay healthy. Take care.

September 2010 Entry

Hard to believe that I wrote the entry for August only 20 days ago. At least I’m on time this time.

=====Work=====

So…I had eluded to the “S” hitting the “F” last month in regards to work. Here’s the story. I came back from taking time off and our IT guy was out sick for a couple days. So I was asked to do some of his tasks in his place. The thing is I’m not trained to be an IT guy. I only know a few things he has shown me and I don’t know how to do everything he does. So when I hit a roadblock and he’s to sick to answer my questions, I can’t do it. That doesn’t sit well with the owner as he gets mad at me for not getting what he asked done. So the owner types out a sheet and it is handed to myself and a few others regarding cross-training each other to which I scoffed, ripped the paper up, and threw it away. Minutes later, the owner comes in and asks if I was okay with cross-training and I told him “no” up front. This lead to us talking for 5-10 minutes about my frustrations with the company, mainly how I have too many tasks to do and have more dumped on me and then I get yelled at because I simply don’t know how to do a job that’s no mine. This isn’t a onetime thing and it has been building up over the years, but this set me off to tell him what was on my mind. And it came down to the fact that I’m not getting paid more to continually do more and more tasks over the years. Unfortunately, the owner didn’t paint a pretty picture regarding the company’s financial situation and in the end it became clear to me that this company (unless a miracle happens) will not get back on its legs financially. And since then, the owner simply does not acknowledge me unless we cross paths in the hallways (oh no, I spoke my mind). Ever since that incident, I’ve heavily thought of leaving the company. Unless something comes out of nowhere to give this company the injection of hope it needs, I’m wasting a lot of time here. The only reason to stay now is steady pay and benefits, but it won’t get any better than that. At least for me, I was always be given more and more work to do on top of what I already do and not reap any gain from it. The glass ceiling was built above me 2 years ago and I didn’t really see it until recently.

The days continue on and I just keep seeing things we do as a waste and not beneficial at all. An example (and there are TONS of examples to choose from) would be one order I had to help with. 1000 DVDs to a special customer, the owner’s doctor. This customer order is very tedious to do and they always order a lot at a time…this time it is the largest amount ever requested. For this process we have to copy his 85 minute DVD, print the custom face on the DVD, print out the inserts for the jewel cases, and insert the inserts into the jewel cases, put the DVD in the jewel case, and pack it up. So imagine doing that 1000 times. Each part takes a chunk of time to do and at least we can burn multiple DVDs at once. It just takes a lot of time. I helped our guy in shipping with this over 3 days. We didn’t devote whole days to this because there are other orders coming in that need to be filled and I had my own work to do. What’s wrong with this custom order of 1000 DVDs? The doctor buys them for $2.50 each. That’s right, we made only $2500 from this order.

$2500 – 1000 sheets of paper – 1000 jewel cases – 1000 DVDs – the time it took 2 workers to do it = NOT WORTH IT!

December…that’s when I should have a definite answer of whether I stay here or not.

*Update – A confrontation today almost lead to me quitting on the spot. It might have been over a little thing, but that was proverbial straw that broke the horse's back. After cooling off and talking to a coworker, I’m okay. He let me vent a lot of my frustrations about the company and how I view it. He understands me wanting to leave and wouldn’t blame me, but he hopes I don’t. He is one of the few people that always appreciates what I do here and shows it and lets me know. Thank you.*

=====Video Games=====

I already posted my “Metroid: Other M” review last entry. No other games were played this month. The one big piece of game news is the press conference Nintendo had over the 3DS. You can check your local internet for tons of new, videos, and images about it. It’s good to know the release date and the price range at least. Makes it more finite. So I’ll be spending a good chunk of money in March of 2011. I’ll get one regardless, but it would be cool to try one out beforehand.

=====The Wedding of Jackie and Garo=====

Congratulations to the newlyweds. I had a great time with everything. It has been a few years since I’ve been to a wedding and this is the first one I’ve been to that wasn’t family related. I have to give you the footage sometime and I will make a video for you with what I filmed. I just have to stop being lazy about it, ha. Congratulations again.

=====Final Thoughts=====

I think this is a short entry. Or I’m burnt out on the first part about work…

Still doing hip hop and salsa classes. I actually took a community hip hop class (09.29) because I was asked to come since this one time it was the same teacher from the beginner class. Man…definitely a step up. I haven’t done anything at that pace in a long time. I was able to get it and do it, but towards the end I was cramping in one leg, ha. And people at the studio were surprised to see me in the class and shocked to see that I could actually do it. But then I turned to a few asking “how do you do this day after day?” My lower body was so sore that night…but I felt good.

RFM will be doing another dance show for Lucia. It’s not all Samba, but it will be the same type of event. Slated for mid-October.

Podcast. Did one. Awaiting feedback.

Bought a lot of DVDs this month. The Big Bang Theory Season 3, Daria (the complete series), Chris Jericho Behind The Walls – Breaking The Code, and Superman/Batman Apocalypse. Currently going through the matches on the Chris Jericho DVD and I will get to the Superman/Batman movie this weekend. And I never put it together, but I figured out where I get my sarcastic attitude from; Daria. I enjoyed rewatching that series so much. The one sucky thing is that they had to change 99% of the music (licensing), but at least the insert of the DVD explained it out. Thankfully, the series still stood out on its own. There were only a few key parts where I remembered them playing a particular song, but it ruin the scene. Enjoyed it. Thanks, Daria.

…

I think I’ll keep this short. There were more negative things that happened this month (most surrounding work) that I’d rather not talk about. I’m thankful for the small positives that happened whether it be receiving a CD (Shoujo Jidai/SNSD) or seeing certain people or just relaxing with no worries for an extended amount of time. I had a good amount of those small positives.

VIDEOS! I got busy with a few. Some done within one day and I was just on a roll.

41. AndyN X Chop Gallery - The Legend Begins... from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

42. SBS Presents: The Fall Workshop! from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

44. Samba Night - CF from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

45. SNSD - Sunny (BTS SM Town Concert) from Royal Flush Media on Vimeo.

Last video was obviously not an accurate translation. Made for fun. If there are issues with viewing any videos, I need to be informed otherwise I won't know.

Thanks for reading and stay healthy, eat fruit, and take care.