Friday, January 3, 2020

December 2019 Entry

December 2019 Entry 

2019 has come to an end. Time to recap the final month of the decade. By the way, this month went by incredibly fast. 

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- I went for a follow up with my ENT (12.04). First, I went to get a CT scan (first time getting one done). Then I went to get a hearing test done. The only thing I questioned was the words used in the test that I had to repeat. They weren't bad, but I didn't know why those words in particular. Then...I waited an hour past my appointment for my follow up with the doctor. I heard through passing staff members that they were backed up. I wish they had told everyone at least. Once I finally saw the doctor, it was short, 15 minutes at max. But I passed my hearing test, yay. And the CT scan showed that I was missing a portion of my ear canal and that's where build-up will get caught (I can draw it in person if you ever are curious). So the two options were to either get surgery to make the ear canal the entire ear canal the same size and lose a little hearing in the process or to wait it out and see how things are after half a year. I opted for the latter. He mentioned the surgery wasn't necessary, but it would be definitive. So we'll see how things go. Yay for my hearing.

- Through some emails, I found out that my local GameStop is closing down (12.07). I had been going there since 2011 when the original 3DS was released. Not only were they the closest store, but they had a good crop of staff members there over the years (not all were winners). I called and asked a few questions like if it were true or not (it was), what will happen to my reservations (they transferred to the closest store), and when they were officially closing the day after Christmas (but as of typing this (01.02) I'm still receiving emails saying that they are about to close). The next time and last time I went there was for all my Shovel Knight stuff (more on that later). I did check around to see if there was anything I wanted since everything was on sale, but nothing stood out. I also cancelled my reservations letting them know I would find another store myself. And then I thanked them for being a good store.

I didn't look for one right away, but I ended up going out to find a new store (12.17). I had a few in mind including the one I used to work at many years ago since it would have been on the way to work. I went for the closest one to my house that was 15 minutes away...and I was done. It was a bigger store, but still cozy, it was clean with a lot of space, and the manager was very good at his job. He even did a thing I didn't know stores could do, which was give receipt print out of stores nearby that hide items in stock. I let him know I was looking for a new store and he was glad that I went to his. I reserved the next crop of amiibo to be released and went back home.

- No picture provided, but I did order a new webcam during Black Friday and it arrived shortly before November was over. But I did not get around to setting it up until early December (12.08). Didn't take too long, but I wanted to make sure to keep the settings for the previous webcam up in case this one craps out. So far, so good. I look sharper and shinier and it's been working fine ever since stream 201. Thanks to those that recommended it.

- It's official, I'm one of the official charter members of the Snerd Herd (12.12). Shout out to SNERDAPERDS for sending me my membership card (which he drew himself) along with a pin (wore it the next possible stream). He also wrote a nice letter with some kind words. He's a cool dude so check his streams out (https://www.twitch.tv/snerdaperds). Let him know I sent you. He's also the second person I've met via streaming that has ever sent me anything.



- While I knew they were coming, I was woken up around 7AM by roofers banging and scraping (12.17). Definitely didn't stream this day as it was incredibly loud and they were almost nonstop for 12 hours. My venture out to the GameStop was only an hour and I couldn't think of anything else to do while I was out. But I was able to take care of things such as stream planning, organized computer files, caught up on videos, etc. There was still more work done the next couple days such as getting gutters replaced and power washing of the house, but those weren't as loud and as long.

- The internet went out (12.18). This happened in the middle of stream, which sucked. What made things worse was that I was on the phone with our internet provider for over an hour and we couldn't get things worked out. We tried so many things. I even bought a new ethernet cable after the call to see if it would work and it did not. I also thought it might have been caused by my dad and uncle who were fixing the heater minutes before the internet went out (maybe the tripped a wire, they did not). For the next 5-6 hours, our wi-fi was working, but any hard wired internet connection was not working. I don't know what happened to fix it, but it's been back and it has been working fine since then. 

- Went to my cousin's house (mom's side) for Christmas Eve (12.24). It was short notice and I was waiting for answers for pending plans. But there was great food as usual and some good laughs

Went to my cousin's home (dad's side) Christmas (12.25). Just like Christmas Eve and previous years, great food and good laughs. My cousin got me a bunch of gaming related gifts with one of them being a code for Untitled Goose Game (to be played in January). Thanks. 

And apparently a new tradition of playing Street Fighter with my cousin-in-laws has started. Last time I was there, I beat them one after the other and maintained a winning streak until I threw a match against one of the younger female cousin-in-laws. I saw the guys playing it again and stayed away, but then they asked me to join. Got my fair share of wins, but they started to learn my play style (as Bison) and eventually got the win. See you next gathering for the next round of fighting in the streets. 


- New BoA mini album and concert (12.27). The mini album is fantastic. I Don't Mind is one of my favorites. Haven't watched the concert yet, but I'll get to it eventually per usual.



- Went to meet up friends after work (12.29). Originally, we were going to play Uno, but we ended up talking the entire time, which is still good. Had not seen those guys since they came to do one of our escape rooms earlier this year. Plus this marks the first time in a long time or ever that I actually ate food while driving. I was really hungry after work and was already running late. Luckily fries and nuggets only require a few fingers to be picked up and eaten, ha. 

- I don't know why, but I've been sleeping very well all month. Other than a few exceptions, I've been able to sleep deeply with few interruptions. And almost every night I've had a concentrated dream. Even if I woke up and went back to sleep, the dream would continue. They're usually about different topics like a celebrity, family, friends, streamers, etc. And as of typing this (01.02), it's still continuing. Although the sleep has been not as great, but the dreams still persist. 

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- Ordered my tickets for Worlds Collide (12.05). I was actually thinking to skip it at first, but once tickets went on sale, I couldn't resist. And fittingly on the same day, my new wrestling shirts arrived. 



- WWE TLC was fun and chaotic (12.15). 


- Shout out to Agent Ocean for the Christmas gifts (12.26). I remember he messaged me during a stream asking about Trish Stratus and Elias and I thought he was hanging out with family who were talking about wrestling. Didn't even cross my mind that he was getting me these gifts, ha. Thank you so much. 



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- Agent Ocean brought some new kind of milk neither of us had before, Fairlife Chocolate Milk (12.20). Delicious. I don't drink much milk, but I won't pass up chocolate milk. Made sure to tweet that out and Fairlife replied to it. Agent Ocean also bought me their strawberry flavor the next day. That was good too. 



- Last work day of 2019 was a good one (12.29). I actually got a lot done despite Sundays usually being slow. And the last two groups I had were fun. First one was a family of nine and one friend that have done escape rooms before and they were really good. Very fun to watch. And the last group was a family of four where half of them had never done an escape room before. Went casual mode with them and they had a blast. Glad the work year ended on a positive note. 

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-  I enjoyed playing SUPERBEAT: XONiC (12.02-12.05). I even brought it to work once so Double Take could try it. Great tunes and a challenging mechanic. I can do 4TRAX fine, 6TRAX...okay, but 6TRAX FX...tough. And any song that was an 8 or higher on any difficulty was hard. I did as much as I could in the game and really liked my time playing it. My favorite song is Let's Go. Funny that the character for the song was wearing a 22 on her shirt and I was wearing a 22 on my shirt during my first stream of the game, ha. 



- My copy of AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES and River City Girls arrived (12.02). Can't wait to play this in them in February and March. 



- Demo Showcase 26 was a great group of demos (12.09). 
'n Velore Verstand - Interesting first-person platform puzzle game. No dialogue, just run and figure things out. The mystery of it all pulled me in. 
Daemon X Machina Prologue - Similar to the first demo, but improved. I liked it as much as I did the previous demo. 
Desktop Baseball - Another Desktop game. I liked the concept of this one, but found it harder than the others I've tried. 
OVIVO - A gravity and plane based puzzle game. Much like the 'n Velore Verstand, they don't tell you anything. You just go, switch back and forth between the plains, and reach the goal. 
The Sushi Spinnery - Another fun simulator from our friends at Kairosoft. Akikobean was in the stream helping out with some of the decisions and it was fun.

Out of this group, my favorite was OVIVO. It really hooked me in with the simplicity of the look and mechanics and still provided a good challenge. 


- Qubic Games was celebrating their 15th year anniversary by releasing 10 games for free (12.10). I already had 2 of their titles, One Strike (which I played) and Geki Yaba Runner Anniversary Edition (have not played yet). I made sure to download the other 8 games. Together, the games total over $60. And I only paid 1-2 dollars for One Strike...which I used a gift card on...so they were all free. Outside of One Strike, I have scheduled to play one Qubic Games game a month in 2020. 



- For my 199th stream, I decided to play Tetris 99 again (12.10). At first, I wasn't going to do anything special, but then I thought I should. I looked up what other games have 99 in the title on the Switch and there weren't many that interested me. I already played through 99Vidas and the other game was King of Fighters 99. So until further notice, every stream with 99 in it will be Tetris 99. Funny that there was an update to the game that added more stuff the same day after I was done with stream, ha. 




- My final trip to my local GameStop was to pick up all the Shovel Knight stuff I had reserved (12.10). That included Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove and 4 amiibo (Plague Knight, Specter Knight, King Knight, Golden Shovel Knight). The amiibo are some of the best crafted. 



- Decided to play Just Shapes & Beats: Just Shovels & Knights for my 200th stream (12.11). I played the original Just Shapes & Beats on day 1 (before I was streaming) and beat and never came back to it even though I enjoyed it a bunch. I had an inkling that the Just Shovels & Knights DLC would be short (but fun), so I decided to play through all the songs again. Not only were the DLC songs great, but playing through the original songs reminded me how much I liked the game. It was still short so I decided to play the Challenge Mode, which I'm glad I did because we got to play the Mortal Kombat movie song (so cool). And then I went through all the songs again on the harder difficulty to finish things up. I'm glad I shifted this song to be my 200th stream. 


- More Shovel Knight in the form of Shovel Knight: King of Cards (12.12). Finally, all of Treasure Trove is complete. King Knight was fun to use. I didn't care much for the card game though so this also marks the first Shovel Knight title I didn't 100% complete. Had I not played as much of the card game as I did, it wouldn't have taken as long to beat. But I really liked it. 




- Ending all the Shovel Knight goodness with Shovel Knight: Showdown (12.16). A simple party fighter that provided a challenge. I did have to turn the challenge down in order to finish my goal of unlocking all the fighters and beating each of their story modes. It went longer than I thought, but it was fun. 




- Those in Discord voted for Worldend Syndrome to be the visual novel game for me to play in 2020 It wasn't on sale on the eShop, but I did some quick research and found a physical copy not sold stateside for cheaper. That copy arrived mid December (12.17). I didn't flip through the art book yet to avoid spoilers. 



- Nintendo had a site to show your Switch Year in Review (12.18). I was surprised by the number of hours I played in 2019 and the number of games I've played (Demo Showcases bumped that number up). I hope they do every year because it would be great to look back on stats like this. 


- Our free game of the month was DC Universe Online (12.18). Spent a good amount of time with the character creator. I really liked the opening cut scene too. The game reminded me of Phantasy Star Online as I was playing similar to how I would in that game. Got lost a few times, but I was able to save Christmas during the last mission I played before the internet went out (darn you, Brainiac). I most likely would have played it for at least 5 hours total had connection not been lost. Plus highlighting the stream via mobile took quite a bit of time to do. At least I know I can do it, but it isn't the best way by far. 


- Got to finally play Hob: The Definitive Edition (12.19, 12.23). It was an immediate favorite of mine during a Demo Showcase earlier this year and I got it on sale during Black Friday. Visually pleasing game that doesn't hold your hand. They literally tell you nothing (no text, unintelligible dialogue). There were a few parts that I felt lost on especially since the world would grow and change. It would have been possible to 100%, but I didn't have the urge to. However, we did watch both endings. I still recommend it for those looking for a simple adventure. 




- Saw that Guacamelee: One-Two Punch Collection was on sale again for half off. So I got myself a copy when the internet went out (12.22). Planning to play the first game the month before Wrestlemania in 2020 and the second game the month after Wrestlemania. 



- Our NES game of the month was JOURNEY TO SILIUS (12.24). I didn't realize it until after stream, but the HVGN did a review on it way back in the day and that's why I knew of it. And I did have 3 people tell me about how this was supposed to be a Terminator game before they lost the license. This game was great. Played it once through with save states and then a second time after setting the number of continues to 9. It's a fun jump and shoot game similar to Mega Man. Simple and fun. Definitely recommend it for some old school fun. 

And as a note for future streams, NES games will be played toward the beginning of the month from now on. 




- Demo Showcase 27 is in the books (12.27). It almost didn't happen as I was going to sacrifice this stream due to taking a friend and her boyfriend to the airport. They ended up not needing me and this Demo Showcase was brought back on. 
Epic Astro Story - Yet another fun simulator game from Kairosoft. It reminded me of the dungeon type game they have. It was fun and of course I got disappointed when the demo ended.
Robothorium - A nicely designed dungeon crawler with turn based combat. I liked it, but it didn't grab my attention that much. 
TINY METAL: FULL METAL RUMBLE - I'm not the best at strategy games and this game was more proof of it. I did like the design and how the characters interacted with each other during fights though. 
Trials Rising Standard Edition - I played the beta of Trials Rising earlier in 2019, but not on stream. I actually enjoyed playing this demo a little more. Easy to pick up and play, but challenging. 
Voxel Sword - Similar to Voxel Shot, it's a multiplayer melee game. This time with a medieval theme. 

I added Trials Rising to my wish list. These games are always fun to try out. Unfortunately the sale was ending in a couple days and I was still on the fence on whether I would buy it or not. So it sits with others in my wish list until I do. 



- And the final game of 2019 was our SNES game of the month; The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (12.30-12.31). This was my favorite Zelda game for a long time and now it goes back and forth between this and Breath of the Wild. Haven't played A Link to the Past since 2014 on the Wii U. Went and did a 100% run and even did a couple things I never did before such as find all the pull spots and reaching a cracked wall in Ganon's Tower. While I messed up on estimating how long it would take me to play making the streams unbalanced, I had a blast revisiting one of my all time favorite games. 




- Games Finished in 2019: 


-----Top 3 NES/SNES Games of 2019----- 
Honorable Mention -- Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
3. Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream
2. Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
1. Vice: Project Doom

-----Top 3 Re-releases of 2019----- 
Honorable Mention -- Ninja Saviors - Return of the Warriors
3. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered
2. Resident Evil Remake (Resident Evil Origins Collection)
1. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy

-----Top 3 Favorite Games of 2019----- 
Honorable Mention -- Katana ZERO
3. SUPERBEAT: XONiC
1/2. Luigi's Mansion 3
1/2. Cadence of Hyrule featuring Crypt of the NecroDancer

- I decided to revive my WingedVoX YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. I actually had thought about it for a while. I mentioned last month how I was uploading Twitch streams to YouTube. That's still going and that's what I'll mainly plug. But Facebook and Twitter will just have links to the YouTube videos. So these accounts will be for older streams while the main focus for catching it live or seeing the chat will stay on Twitch. Feel free to follow any of these accounts though. I do see views for the YouTube videos happening so I'm glad to see that. 


- And for a final note on streaming, there are a couple things I would like to get tech-wise in 2020 (just to put it out there).  
1. A bluetooth adapter for my PC. 
2. Bluetooth ear buds to use while I stream. 
3. An extra external harddrive to archive streams and other files in general. 

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- BoA - Starry Night (MV)


- Red Velvet - Psycho (MV)

- That's a wrap on December 2019 and a wrap on the decade. This year...I don't know. It wasn't horrible and it wasn't the greatest. It kind of evened out and that's not bad. I know I've definitely had years where I couldn't wait for them to be over and this was not one of them. As for the decade, it's hard to recollect everything. I could go back and read all my blog entries as I've started this blog back in 2007. Outside of streaming and H.E.R., the one thing I know I can really think back on are the people that are still in my life. Whether they are no longer in it or they are new to my life (mainly thanks to streaming and work) or if we formed stronger bonds over time. The ones I'm connected with matter a lot to me. Know that you can reach out to me and that I will do my best to give you my time. For those that are still in my life, there are multiple ways you can support me in 2020 and beyond.

1. Book a session at the Houston Escape Room. I've been working there for 5 years now, the longest I've ever stayed with any job. I wouldn't have stayed there if I didn't enjoy what I did. And if you know others that want to go to an escape room, point them in our direction. 
2. Come to my Twitch streams. There are multiple ways you can support this venture, but anything is fine. While coming to a live stream is great so you can interact with me, even watching the VODs or archived streams on YouTube works. Talk to me about the streams outside of the stream too. Your time with me doesn't have to be relegated to the time frame that I stream. 
3. Help me find a girlfriend. Local, long distance, doesn't matter. I've done plenty of things myself and missed out on opportunities. So I'm putting it out there for others to help. It hit me hard towards the end of the year so if you can, be a good wing man/woman for me. 
4. Hang out with me. I will make the time if you put in the time. Life happens, but we can make something work. I miss hanging out with friends on a regular basis. I know that part of that is because I've been a bit more solo, but I have been getting better with putting aside what I want to do to hang out with others. This applies to family too. 
5. Go on a train ride with me. Since I still can't fly (one day I will again), it makes it harder to travel and meet others. But I have always heard that train rides are fun. This can be a fun week vacation to take in the sights along the way and visit others. I wouldn't mind doing this 2-3 times a year if feasible. So if anyone is up for it, let's ride.  

Thanks for reading and supporting and take care.






Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."

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Wednesday, December 4, 2019

November 2019 Entry

November 2019 Entry

November...you were an interesting month. 

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- I went to a new ENT (11.06). This was after taking my mom to one of her appointments so I visited the medical district a couple times today. I really liked this place. Everything was way better than the last ENT I went to. I didn't even get to finish filling out my paper work by the time we were done with everything. Seriously, the last thing I did was finish my paper work. But they brought me in as soon as they could. The doctor was very chill and easy to talk to and he did what I wanted to be done, which was take out the blockage in my left ear. It took a while as he had to squish and move things around. I want to say that whole process took 15-20 minutes. There were a few times we took a break because of the pain. Once he took the main chunk out, I could hear perfectly out of my left ear. The bad news was that I immediately became dizzy. The room was spinning and I got nauseous. After things settled down, the main ENT (who was also cool and easy to talk to) came in with someone shadowing him. They also set up a camera so they could show me the inside of my ear. The right ear was normal, but the left ear was obviously damaged (I have pictures). Other than me taking care of it, they were also concerned about the possibility of damage behind the ear drum that they couldn't see. They think the dizziness might be in conjunction with that. So I'm scheduled to come back for a CT scan as well as a hearing test and follow up.

I left to go pick up some prescribed ear drops. The ENT mentioned that the drops he is prescribing could cost $300 if my insurance wasn't accepted. In that event, he would have prescribed something cheaper, but less effective. So I went out...into traffic for almost 2 hours. But I made it to the Walgreens I asked to send the prescription since it was close to home. I had forgotten that Walgreens doesn't accept my health insurance. They recommended going to CVS, which does take my insurance, so they can transfer it there. Went there (10 minutes away) and the price was definitely under $100. They even helped me get a coupon to make it cheaper. But they were very busy so I was there for almost an hour. 

Quite a day, but I can hear out of my left ear. Everything is so loud now. I noticed it the most when I stream due to the ear buds. It's good, but I no longer hear other noises such as my phone vibrating or someone knocking on my door. Small price to pay to have my hearing back. 

- Picked up part 2 of season 2 of the Ace Attorney anime (11.07). It took a few days to finish watching all of it (11.12). So good. The anime is faithful to the game with some changes, it's shorter, and has original content for the series. I definitely recommend it to fans of the game series. I'm currently rewatching the whole thing with the English dub. I'm halfway through it all and it's pretty good. 


- I started to feel a little under the weather the weekend before a scheduled doctor appointment (11.11). It was busy when I got there and in the end, they confirmed that I had the flu. Picked up a prescription on the way home and then let work know I was possibly going to need to take time off. I actually did feel better and went to work a couple days later and streamed. But the flu came back that Friday. Took Saturday off. Felt better on Sunday, but played it safe and took that day off as well. The flu was gone by 11.18.

Other than eating a lot during my time with the flu, but I caught up on so much sleep. Ever since daylight savings kicked in, my sleep schedule had been thrown off. Thanks to Nyquil, I had at least 10 hours of sleep each night. 

- Finally got around to watching Wonder Woman: Bloodlines while I was sick (11.16). It was okay. Unfortunately, it was hard for me to get into the story and the characters so this one is hard for me to recommend. I really did enjoy the mini showcase of Death. And Superman: Red Son is coming out next and I've always heard that was a good series.

- My younger cousin had a wedding (11.23). He married his girlfriend of 10+ years. The ceremony was nice. Arrived with my parents at the church, but another wedding just finished so we and others thought we were at the wrong place. Another guest and I went in as we were both hesitant to go alone and they were there. We helped direct others in and during that time I saw the bride arrive and go to where she was to wait. I went and greeted family and took a seat. Saw my younger cousin enter the building and go up to front and waited for the bride. The ceremony was nice. After it was done, it was good to catch up with other cousins who I had not seen for a while. Took photos with the family and then the guests had to leave. 

The reception was about 10-15 minutes away and most of us went there, but the reception wouldn't be ready for another couple of hours. Hung out with cousins and took some time to relax as more guests arrived. The reception was great, the food was good, lots of dancing. Wonderful night. Congratulations to the newlyweds. 

One negative thing about that day was that I knew the DJ. He used to work with us at HER 3-4 years ago. He didn't stay with us long as he all of a sudden stopped showing up after a couple weeks into training. Then something else happened where he lied about something that I won't go into. Leaving without notice already left a bad impression, but this added to it. He wouldn't have been a good fit for the company in the long run. I wouldn't have hired him. I'm pretty sure at the time I was only training staff, but not hiring yet. But fast forward to the wedding, his voice was familiar. Then I saw him and recognized him. I told a couple of my cousins how I knew him and they were shocked. I knew he did DJ gigs because he had mentioned it when we worked together. At some point, he went to every table to hype them up and I kept staring at him. He didn't recognize me and that's probably a good thing. I finally got to tell my cousin and his new bride about this during Thanksgiving, ha. 

Thanksgiving was great too. Small gathering, played with the young boys, caught up with others, ate, shared stories, laughed, and it was a short event. No complaints from me. 


- Normally I don't buy a lot during the Black Friday season, but this time I did (11.27-11.29). Wednesday started with Nintendo's Cyber Deals. I was already planning to buy a physical game as well so I did some math and bought 4 games. Downloaded Hob: The Definitive Edition, GRIS, and Batman - Telltale. Originally, I was going to go to a GameStop the same day, but then Amazon had the same deal for half off of AI: The Somnium Files. Saved myself the trip. The next day, I bought 2 wrestling shirts, Io Shirai and Undisputed Era. And finally on Black Friday itself, I checked my Amazon wish list for the webcams I was suggested to get. One was no longer available, but the same model with a privacy cover was $20 off so I ordered it. 

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- Didn't watch WarGames live due to my cousin's wedding, but I stayed up late to watch it after (11.23). NXT always delivers and this was no exception. The 2 WarGames matches were fantastic. Great job from all the men and women involved. Dakota Kai...so evil and done so well. 



- Survivor Series was great too (11.24). Went to a friend's home where I've gone before for other wrestling get togethers. Good to be around other wrestling fans. There were some fun surprises on the show too such as Dominik getting involved in the Mysterio/Lesnar match. 



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- Company meeting at the Downtown location (11.08). It has been a while. Good to have all of us together. We also did take our picks of stuff that was to be thrown away. We took some stuff back the Memorial location. That's about it. It was just nice to have everyone under the same roof. 

- Agents Blue Heeler and Striker came to the Memorial location for a couple of reasons (11.13). One was to have Agent Blue Heeler learn our version of Dark Side. She shadowed me for one session and she good after that similar to the others that had helped our location. The second was for Blue Heeler and I to talk about the holiday party. We were chosen to put it together since we put it together a couple years ago. Worked on some of critical items and I brought up ideas I had planned for the previous year, but was not given the chance. Can't wait for it to happen...in January. 

- And unfortunately because of the flu and the Thanksgiving week, I barely worked this month. It was nice to sort of take a break from work, but I was definitely excited to be back to work at the latter end of the month. 

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- First game of the month was Luigi's Mansion 3 (11.01-11.04). The main word I used to describe the game was "charming." Luigi and everything in the game is very expressive. It's hard for me to choose which I liked better, the first game or the third one. But for the third one, I did make sure to catch all the Boos and to find all the gems. There's a lot more to do, but I wasn't interested in doing that. 

I also played the online multiplayer game with a dedicated follower, softguitar. She was also working through the game too and neither of us tried the online mode. It was fun, but difficult. Within the hour we played, we only got to the second floor. I liked it though and wouldn't mind trying it again...but probably with 2 more players, ha. 



- There were 2 game sales that I missed. The first one was AI: The Somnium Files (11.05). I've been keeping an eye on it for sales and when it finally happened, I didn't jump on it right away and scheduled when I could get it. The day I planned to get it, the sale ended. But if you read earlier, I eventually did get the game. The sale was the same, but I got it from Amazon instead of GameStop. 

The second game I missed out on was Gal Metal: World Tour Edition (11.13). It was $10 new at Best Buy for a little over a week. This time I actually went to the store, to buy it. The store was sold out even though I checked online beforehand. Then the game was out of stock completely online so I couldn't even order it. A few days later, the sale was over. Because of these two instances, I made sure to jump on sales within the first 48 hours hence me getting those games I mentioned during Black Friday pick ups as soon as I could. 

- Terry Bogard is in Smash Bros (11.06). I tried him out the first day he was released and did what I do with every DLC character that was released. I have to say, Terry is my favorite out of the DLC characters. I really enjoyed using him. I do think it's because he's the one I have the most history with. 


- Demo Showcase 24 was sports themed (11.07). 

Desktop Table Tennis - Nothing special. Similar to other Desktop sports games I've tried. 
NBA 2K20 - As much as I found enjoyment trying this, I had a hard time playing it. I'm very used to passing the ball to a team mate and I take control of them. This time I was only me. So when I had to do things like stay out of the paint or be more of an assist man, I would forget to do that and try to do everything. It was hilarious getting benched, ha. 
Pocket League Story - Another Kairosoft sim game. This time we took on the role training a soccer team. Not bad. It was interesting watching the soccer matches take place. 
Super Kickers League - Another soccer game, but this time I was in control of the action. 3v3, no rules, and special powers. Made for a fast paced game. 
Super Mega Baseball - It took a while for me to get used to the targeting for hitting and pitching, but I did like this game. The last baseball game I can recall playing was...Wii Sports. 

My favorite out of the bunch was Super Kickers League and it now exists in my wish list. 


- At the time I thought I was over the flu. So the next game that was scheduled to play was R-Type Dimensions EX (11.14). This was a special stream because this was a Viewer's Choice stream. For one month, those in Discord voted from a selection of Demo Showcase favorites. And they chose R-Type Dimensions EX. 

It was a challenge. I died so many times even when I switched to the mode that continued respawning me where I was instead of having me start at a check point. The goal was to beat both R-Type and R-Type II in the modern and classic looking mode as well as attempt to see how far I could get with other viewing options. Definitely had fun playing this. Thanks to all those in Discord that voted. 



- Got the latest amiibo that were released (11.15). Chrom, Incineroar, and Simon all look fantastic. I also reserved the upcoming Dark Samus and Richter amiibo. 


After getting the amiibo, I played Growtopia on stream. It was our free game of the month and...yeah...it was not for me. None of it clicked with me and the flu kicking back in didn't help. This is the first time I decided to end a stream under the 3 hour normal limit I set for streams. One hour only and I was done. Can't recommend this one. 


- With the flu gone, I got to finally play Ninja Saviors - Return of the Warriors (11.19). I really liked the SNES version back in the day and this did not disappoint. For the first stream, I beat it 3 times as each of the original 3 characters. The second stream was for the 2 new characters and then one play through of hard mode switching between everyone. Shout outs to arctheladder who is a fan of the game and gave some helpful tips and advice. Overall, a fun brawler that I can easily recommend. 



- NES game for the month was Kid Icarus (11.21). Never played it before, but always knew it was difficult. Did my best without save stating, but had to use them. The main frustration was that someone came to check our internet connection as I was streaming. It lead to the connection getting cut and I had to wait about an hour before finishing the last hour of the game I had. So what would have been a one shot video ended up being split. Other than that, I'm glad I got to play this and beat. 



- More demos with Demo Showcase 25 (11.25). No theme this time. But we are still going with 1 retail game and 1 Kairosoft sim game. 

Cafeteria Nipponica - Another fun sim from Kairosoft. I really enjoyed this one as you manage a restaurant. Shout out to softguitar for helping name the restaurant (MOMMA Givin') and for helping with some decisions. 
Grass Cutter - Mutated Lawns - Simple puzzle game where you mow all spots of a lawn without dying. The one big thing that caught my attention was a victory theme that played that was just like the victory theme for Naval Warfare, ha. 
KILL la KILL -IF - A fun fighter based on the anime. It seemed to follow the story in the anime and the battle system was fast and frantic and fun. 
SCRAP RUSH!! - A Bomberman clone that wasn't bad. It felt slow, but I do think I would have had more fun with actual players instead of all CPU. 
Strikey Sisters - A fun take on the break out genre of games. It had interesting abilities you can use to attack your enemies, has a lot to collect, and really good voice acting (yes, a break out game has a story and voice acting). 

For this one, it was tough to choose because 3 of them really got (Cafeteria Nipponica, KILL la KILL -IF, and Strikey Sisters). In the end I chose KILL la KILL -IF. The fact that I watched the anime helped a little even though it has been 5-6 years since then, but it really got me interested in it again. 


- Our SNES game of the month was Super Metroid (11.26, 11.29). So...this was an interesting one. I think it didn't help that I saw how well I played it last time. Back in 2013 was when I played it on the Wii U Virtual Console. I collected 76% of the items in under 5 hours. That set a bar that I didn't need. In the first stream, I did hit a brick wall and got incredibly frustrated. One was the sand that I could not easily jump out of and two was being told I was where I needed to be when I actually wasn't (didn't have the Gravity Suit or Grapple Beam). Then I tried referencing the FAQ I had opened, but it was good if I had followed it step by step so I couldn't find out where I was supposed to be. I don't being lost in general, but the extra pressure of being stuck on stream...don't remember if that's ever happened before. At the time, no one was active in chat to help, but thankfully Taycake came in around that time and helped find videos for me. I was grateful for that, but also a little dumbfounded that I didn't look at videos like I normally would. Thing is...this all happened after so many cool things happened on stream. Multiple gift subs and multiple raids and more kept happening. An hour later, I hit that brick wall. 

The second part of the stream, I had some determination. Sand was still problematic at times. But I was making tons of progress and finding things. The day before the stream, I actually scrubbed through the last one and marked down which items I found alongside an FAQ. There were only a couple items I messed up in keeping track of so there was a little bit of wasted time. But I also ended up taking the longest break I ever did because cousins I had not seen in 20+ years made a surprise visit. I told chat what was going on and that I was catching up with them. I just didn't think it will be 2 hours, ha. It was great catching up with them (old memories, stories, etc). I came back to the stream and then it took about another hour to complete it 100%. So this stream of Super Metroid was very interesting and very memorable. 



- I started uploading old Twitch streams to YouTube (11.17-11.25). These are unedited and will go up as is. I had thought about doing this before and was going to start it and announce it on my anniversary stream, but I didn't pull the trigger on it. But when I had the flu, I wanted something to do that wasn't strenuous and so I started. It took 8 days to upload all the streams from when I started streaming up to Demo Showcase 25. All are uploaded and scheduled to post. For the rest of 2019, a stream from 2018 will be published every day. Once 2020 hits, every stream will be published on their one year anniversary. For example, if a stream happened on January 2nd in 2019, it is scheduled to be published January 2nd in 2020. And now after every stream is finished, not only do I highlight it for Twitch archives, but I upload and schedule it to YouTube as well.

There were a few issues while doing this: 
1. Some videos won't let me edit the information any more. Even after they go live, I get the message that an error occurred. And this happened for several game titles. I believe it was because some of the game category titles were very long such as Child of Light: Ultimate Edition/Valiant Hearts: The Great War. 
2. One stream can't be uploaded. It's Part 08 of Travis Strikes Again. The reason being is that part of the conversation were Japanese artists and laamb_s introduced us to one...and that resulted in 5 copyright strikes on YouTube. One was enough, but wow...5. Other streams had copyright claims for songs being played during the stream, but the video will only be blocked in some countries.
3. 2 videos ended up having the message "Processing abandoned. The video could not be processed." That sucks because there was no message prior or during their "completed" uploads. I only found out after thinking to look back on the videos for some reason. The 2 videos that happened to were Part 01 of Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2: Last Mission. I'll reupload those soon. 

Reasons for doing this and why in this fashion: 
1. Archiving purposes. I've always been like this with videos. I have all the streams on a harddrive, they're all up on Twitch still, and now they'll be on YouTube (minus that stream of Travis Strikes Again). 
2. Another way to reach a different audience and another way to view the content. 
3. Having Twitch streams go up a year later on YouTube doesn't take away from Twitch. Watching on Twitch allows for interaction and a visible chat while YouTube (in this form) won't. 

So if you need another way to see my old streams, you now have that ability. Subscribe and such. Funny story, I lost one subscriber after the first archived stream went up. I'm only a little over 40 so I'm not expecting views or subscriptions to skyrocket. 


=========================  

- Happy Birthday, BoA (11.05).


- RIP, Goo Hara (11.24). 

- It was good to hear your voice (11.28). I was getting worried and thought the worst had happened. We'll talk soon.  

- That's a wrap on November 2019. Thanks for reading and take care. 





"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 

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Saturday, November 16, 2019

October 2019 Entry

October 2019 Entry

Late post. One, I forgot. Two, I'm currently typing this while getting over the flu. 

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- Death Battle - Ganondorf VS Dracula


- I picked up my dad and aunt after their vacation in the Philippines (10.23). I think I waited in the car for 30-45 minutes for them as they were going through customs. It was good to see them again, but it wasn't all great. They did get assistance from the staff to wheel them out (both have bad knees) and helped with all their luggage. My aunt gave one of them a tip and then asked me to give the other person a tip too, but I didn't have much. I pulled out $3 and the person refused by pushing my hand away while saying "this is wrong. We gave them assistance and that's all they're giving us? No. This is wrong." The other staff member said nothing and still kept the tip my aunt gave ($5) and they left. The whole ride home, I kept thinking about that. Isn't it part of their job to assist the elderly like this (my dad is almost 70 and my aunt is in her 70s)? I've also picked up my parents multiple times from the airport where they required assistance and never had to tip before. I even offered a tip and it was refused when I could have given nothing. It really bothered me and a couple of my coworkers were in shock when I told them this story. 

- Bought Wonder Woman: Bloodlines (10.23). I didn't get around to watching the movie until the day that I'm typing this (11.16). 



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- NXT is now on USA (10.02). Every show has been great as each NXT show has always been. I do tune in to watch AEW, but I still need more time with them to be more invested in their roster.


- Hell In A Cell was interesting (10.06). Understand criticisms others have, but I enjoyed the show overall. The biggest highlight for me was the Kabuki Warriors winning the tag titles. Asuka and Kairi turning evil has been splendid. 



- Bayley, so awesome (10.11). While a lot of people predicted it would happen eventually, seeing her turn heel was so good. 


- Women's War Games, it's happening and I could not be more excited (10.30). It was something I did not know I wanted, but can't believe we're getting it.


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- Went to our Downtown location to help with sessions (10.01). It went smoothly. I really liked the Halloween decorations they had up, but it was also the first year we didn't change a room to be Halloween themed. This also marked the day one of our coworkers was let go at our Memorial location. I won't go into all the details, but I feel way better now.

- It has been a while since we had a company outing, but a few of us Agents and their significant others went to a haunted house together (10.20). This was also my first time going to one ever. I did cling onto Agent Blue's back the majority of the time. It was fun. 


- Agent Apollo helped us out for a couple days at the Memorial location (10.22-10.23). Didn't take him long to get used to how to run Dark Side there and how we do things. He was supposed to be there the week after, but got sick. Agent Striker tagged in (10.30). Luckily he was available and there were no sessions happening Downtown (plus it was game 7 of the World Series so parking and traffic would have been horrible for him). He quickly got acclimated to things at our location too and was a big help as I needed someone there while Agent Ocean was on vacation.

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- My SNES controllers for the Switch arrived (10.01). They are really good and are just like the original SNES controllers back in the day.



I also set up different webcam scenes for stream. These will have a different emote in them each depending on where I am on the screen. This is for if the webcam ever craps out again and thankfully that has only happened once since setting this up.

- Started our month of horror games with Resident Evil 0 from the Resident Evil Origins Collection (10.02-10.04). This game was harder than I remember. I did make some foolish mistakes such as not saving as much, but I slowly got into the groove of it. I remember liking it a lot back on the Gamecube. I actually remember last playing it when our family used to own a Filipino rental store. I brought my Gamecube there a few times to play during slow days and I remember doing the leech side quest one day there.




- Demo Showcase 23 was themed to have elements of horror or monsters involved (10.07).
Kitty Love -Way to look for love- - I had seen the Game Grumps play it so I knew I was in store for tons of grammatical errors that would be hilarious.
Monster Puzzle - A simple puzzle game where you guide your monster from one end of the map to another. Some of the puzzle paths were pretty difficult.
Professor Lupo and his Horrible Pets - An interesting point and click puzzler. You click on where you want your character to go while avoiding different monsters that have different movement patterns. It also had a great art style too.
Viviette - A 16-bit horror adventure game. The aesthetic really pulled me in and the demo ended on a cliffhanger making me very curious as to what would happen. 
The World Next Door - Nicely styled story that turned out to have an interesting twist on the match-3 concept.

This was a good batch of demos that had the viewers choosing their favorites as well. I ended up choosing both Viviette and The World Next Door as my favorites. And if either of them weren't in this batch, Professor Lupo probably would have been chosen. I downloaded The World Next Door towards the end of the month as it went on sale from $15 to $3. Viviette is still on my wish list. 


- Back to the Resident Evil Origins Collection with Resident Evil REmake (10.08-10.17). I first started by playing as Chris as I can't recall ever using him in the original or remake. It wasn't that bad. Then after beating it with him and then a game in between, I beat the game as Jill. My biggest worry was that the mansion wouldn't be easy for me to remember like in the past. But after some time in Chris' game, it was no problem (minus a few bursts of forgetfulness). It really was great playing this one again after so many years.






- Knight Terrors was the break in between Chris and Jill's play throughs (10.15). This was an addicting runner. I like that it had varying modes to unlock instead of being the same the entire time. I did hit a road block and could not unlock the final mode (came close a few times). Shout out to RaptorKitchen who ended up buying the game and was actually able to unlock the final mode.


- My copy of Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors arrived (10.17). I'm so glad I learned that there was a physical copy of it available. Can't wait to play it in November. And I got a cheap copy of SUPERBEAT: XONiC brand new, which I have scheduled to play in December.



- While randomly looking for price deals on games, I saw that GameStop was selling new copies of Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom for $20. No stores in the area had it new and you couldn't order it online. So I looked into price matching, which I had never done. With some advice from a friend, he suggested Best Buy and Target. I went to Best Buy on the 19th and found a copy. Went to ask a staff member if they would price match it, but he said GameStop wasn't listed in their system. That sucked. Had the copy in hand and was ready to buy it. And since I was on my way to work, I stopped at a nearby Walmart that had no copies. After work, I checked a Target on the way home and they had no copies either. I wasn't through that night as I decided to try Best Buy's online chat service. Didn't hurt to ask. Shout out to Rex who was helping me out and let me know that Best Buy's in store and online price matching services differ and that he could get me a copy of the game with free shipping. Such an awesome way to end the night. My copy arrived on the 22nd.



- I have never played Ghosts 'N Goblins before (10.21). Never thought I'd beat it either, but thanks to save states, I have accomplished a difficult feat. It's still tough as heck. There is no way I'd be able to beat it by playing the game normally.




- Back to the world of Resident Evil with Resident Evil 4 (10.24-10.28). This was very fun to come back to. Sure did die a lot, but I had a heck of a time beating the game, beating Separate Ways, and attempting Assignment Ada. And I totally made sure to keep as many eggs in my attache case as I could and even threw one at the final boss, ha.




- Found another good deal on a game. Toki: Retrolllector Edition was originally $40 new, but was being sold at GameStop for $10 only. The problem was that not many stores had it in stock. I kept checking on a daily basis and one a few in the area started popping up. Went to one of the stores I used to work at briefly and it was their display copy. Luckily they still had all the parts inside the big box. Add another game to the collection (10.26)



- To finish off this month of games, we tackled the tough as nails Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts (10.29). I had played this a few times back in the day and really enjoyed it, but never beat it. Similar to Ghosts 'N Goblins, I would not have been able to beat this one without the help of save states. This one wasn't as frustrating because I was enjoying myself more. Plus I was able to use my Switch SNES controllers for the first time.




There were 2 other games planned to be played this month. One was Wolfenstein: Youngblood and it would have been our free game of the month. However, I did not know that you needed a buddy pass in order to access this. I only found out an hour before stream and that's when I decided to move all games up. The other game that got axed was another SNES game and a favorite of mine, Demon's Crest. It was good that we were busy at work, but this day of streaming had to be removed. But I will definitely play Demon's Crest in the future.

- Bought my copy of Luigi's Mansion 3 on Halloween (10.31). Played and beat it in November.



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- Jang WooHyuk - WEEKAND (MV)

- Tiffany Young - Run For Your Life (MV)

- TWICE - Fake & True (MV)

- TWICE - Be as ONE (MV)

- Bada - OFF THE RECORD (MV)

- TaeYeon - SPARK (MV)

- Rest in peace, Sulli (10.14).


- That's a wrap on October 2019. Thanks for reading and take care.


"Reprise the theme son and roll the credits."
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