May Entry 2022:
May was busy. Kind of good, kind of not good.
MISC=========================
- Spent a good hour with GameStop customer service in regards to the Min Min amiibo I ordered (05.01). I was told previously that it couldn't be cancelled and was already on its way, but that I could return it to a store. I checked again as I was still getting email notifications about it in general. And through that I was able to get refunded (not the shipping) through the phone and they said I could still return the amiibo or keep it. It later became a gift for G as he mentioned he liked the design of it.
- Wrestlemania Backlash was fun (05.08). Not a bunch of matches, but they were all worth watching.
- 700 Instagram posts (05.10). Follow if you haven't yet because you see something daily until we're all caught up with the current timeline.
- I started rewatching Invincible Youth (05.15). It's something I've wanted to do for years, but never did. I don't know what specifically made me do it now, but I'm really enjoying it again. A flood of memories came back and it was nice seeing things unfold after 10+ years. While I only had the Soshified subs versions of the episodes that had Sunny and Yuri, the rest have been uploaded elsewhere with subtitles (used to have them, but they are lost). I do plan to watch season two afterwards as I only watched a few of those episodes.
- My Shantae and the Pirate's Curse merchandise arrived (05.17). It's been over a year, but they're here. I was surprised that those showed up before the Risky's Revenge items since those were ordered first.
- Got 3 Japanese exclusive amiibo (05.19). An eBay seller I found last year in Japan had lots of rare stuff, but I never saw any amiibo. I reached out to them as I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask if they took requests. They said they get requests every now and then, but they never had amiibo requests. Within a week, they were able to find all of them and shared prices with me before attaining any of them. All were used so none had boxes. I was surprised at the price differences as some that were usually cheaper were on the higher end and vice versa. I ended up getting the 3 cheapest ones; One-Eyed Rathalos & Rider (male), Qurupeco & Dan, and Berioros & Ayuria. And as usual, they shipped them out super fast and were well protected. I was surprised to learn that the riders actually come off and can be mixed and matched (didn't know that). So unless I can find them cheaper elsewhere, I know where I'll get the rest of these Japanese exclusive amiibo.
- Got my 3rd iceTokki polaroid (05.21).
- Cris Tales was on sale for $10 new (05.22). Called my GameStop to see if they had it and they did. Went to get it and used my $5 coupon to get it for only $5 (normally $40). This was my favorite from Demo Showcase 49 and I had reserved it, but didn't end up getting it. Well, now I got it for such a great bargain. Currently scheduled to be played in October. I also forgot my credit card in the machine so I had to go back, ha. I was 10 minutes out when they called.
On that same trip out, I stopped by a CVS on the way home to cash in on some bits given in chat specified for Arizona drinks, ha. I also saw they were selling 3D Doritos so I got a bag as I was curious to what the fuss was all about. Even the cashier asked if they were good. They are. Tasted like normal Doritos, but reminded me of being as thick as Bugles.
- I now own the mini massage gun I gave to my parents for Christmas (05.25). They never used it and even tried to give it to me after I handed it to them as a present. I'm glad it still works.
- A couple of cousins stopped by the house (05.27). They stayed outside in their car as they dropped off chocolate snacks that had a special message on them. Had they not mentioned it to me, my mom wouldn't have seen it. But one of my cousins is having a boy in November, yay.
- A friend from highschool came into town and we made plans to meet up (05.29). Originally tried to meet on two days out of the weekend, but more things came up for her in town so it was only her last day. I gave her options of food places and she ended up choosing Jupiter, which I was very glad with as I had not been there in a long time. Picked her up and drove there and spent hours catching up and reminiscing. Per usual, I appreciate that she tries to hang out with me whenever she comes into town and that she's still one of the few friends from highschool I'm still in contact with.
- Double or Nothing was awesome (05.29). My main gripe was that it was too long. 13 great matches, but I lost focus halfway in and mainly had it in the background.
- After hanging out on the 29th, I had not been feeling super well. Mainly had body aches and a raised temperature. It got me more on the 30th so I figured to see how I felt the next morning. I felt a tiny bit better the next day, but still scheduled to get a COVID test (05.31). Since it was last minute, I had to adjust stream time. The appointment was to be at 1PM, but when I got there, they said they were waiting on a supply shipment and to come back an hour later. During that hour, I tried to see if any other place could schedule an appointment, but they weren't available anymore for the day at multiple locations and companies. Delayed stream again and went back at 2PM. After a small wait in the drive-thru, I was assisted and did the swab. Went back home to stream and got the results a couple hours later, which thankfully were negative.
- Round 26 of free content was rewatching Soul Hunter. It was one of the anime series that was passed around back in highschool. I couldn't recall much of it prior outside of how a few characters looked. As I was rewatching this, I don't think I finished it. The ending wasn't familiar at all as were a huge chunk of the characters. It did one thing I don't like in any series, which is introduce too many characters. The other thing was that the quality of animation changed. It wasn't exclusively from episode to episode as it happened within actual episodes. Not one I'd recommend. Round 27 is back to movies.
H.E.R.========================
- I went out to scout a location sent from our realtor (05.22). She had mentioned driving by it and seeing for myself as the windows weren't tinted. I'm glad she did as that place was small. Sure, she had given us the square feet beforehand, but I'm not good with sizes. I need to see it with my own eyes. That wasn't going to work. Also learned how different the area was compared to Google Maps.
Since that was a short update, I'll add an additional story since I haven't shared one in a bit. This is stemming off a recent meeting (06.04.22), but back when the business was still running, we had monthly meetings. I don't recall the main topic that was brought up, but there was a thing about reducing our time with the customers in favor of taking care of other tasks that were given. While I understood that, I mentioned how I actually liked talking to the customers, getting to know them, joking around with them, and getting them hyped for their visit. And I feel everyone there totally understood that because they had seen me do that and know me for doing that. But I was almost immediately met with a reply from the operations manager saying how she doesn't like talking to customers. I totally saw that as she would prefer minimal interactions with them. I get how she wanted to reduce time with customers as she always had stuff to do, but I did not agree with cutting off a bunch of interactions with customers. Of course all the staff had different opinions and capacities on how they interacted with customers (some were more open, some weren't). In the end, it was decided that whoever had lobby duty obviously stayed out there when customers were around. If multiple groups came in, one extra person came out to help. If it was a corporate thing, it was coordinated with X amount of people to help with restrooms and such. But I didn't reduce my time with customers. If the customers were cool, I'm going to have fun with them. If they weren't as open, I'd let them be.
GAMES=========================
- BIT.TRIP FLUX was next alphabetically, but last in the series (05.02). Going to continue going alphabetically. Too late to go back now.
- Portal Dogs was a sponsored stream (05.03). I played the demo years ago, but it was my Instagram post that caught the developers eye and they reached out and gave me a code despite me not liking it. But it wasn't that bad. Almost 100% it, but some things required being too precise for my liking.
- Wario's Woods was our NES game of the month (05.04). It was interesting, but I hit a part in the story that I couldn't beat. And it didn't seem like many wanted to play along so it was a short stream.
- Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince was the reason we played the Trine Ultimate Collection (05.07-05.08). It was the best by far. It does everything right and is a great ending to the series.
- Mr. Shifty was recommended on the Kit & Krysta Podcast last month (05.10). Got it on sale and really liked it. Great action. The downsides were the game crashing when too much was on screen and how the game just ends.
- It's happening! Rakuen announcement is coming to the Switch (05.11). I remember asking years ago in her chat if it was ever going to be ported and someone replied that they were working on it. It won't be a day one play, but it will take priority in scheduling once a release date is revealed. I actually have this on PC, but haven't played it. Only bought it in support.
- Demo Showcase 89 (05.12)
- The 3rd Viewer's Choice done by spending over 100K channel points was by GToTheNextLevel and he chose Xeno Crisis (05.14). Technically he gave me 5 options and I whittled it down to 2 before ultimately deciding on Xeno Crisis. Here I thought I'd be able to get at least one ending. We did see one by using cheats, the bad ending. We couldn't achieve it in the 8 hour time block. It's a great game, but definitely has that old school hard level of difficulty.
Plus I didn't know that this was the kick off to multiple twin-stick games played this month. They were all coincidental, ha.
- CRSED: F.O.A.D. (05.16)
- Continued a yearly tradition of playing a game from the Wonder Boy series in May with Monster World IV + Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World (05.18-05.20). Had the physical copy for a while and slated it for May. The original Monster World IV was not a bad game, but it was a product of its time in terms of difficulty. Playing the remake afterwards made me appreciate it more similarly from playing Seiken Densetsu 3 to Trials of Mana. Asha in Monster World is amazing in almost every way.
- Demo Showcase 90 (05.22)
- Riddled Corpses EX was a favorite from Demo Showcase 15 (05.24). It was another twin-stick shooter, but was different from Xeno Crisis as there were only 5 levels, but you can keep making your character stronger. There were also weapons to get to help overall. Similar to Xeno Crisis, we could not beat it in the 8 hour block of time even though we spent time maxing out levels.
- Played the demo of Aperion Cyberstorm in 2019 and was given a code this year (05.26). Another twin-stick game, but this time we beat it, yay. It's crazy to me that we came back to this after so many years and enjoyed it.
- Our 5th Community Challenge was for a stream of Safety First! (05.28). And this was twin-stick too. Seriously, I didn't know all of these twin-stick games were going to be played in the same month. Unfortunately I had to put this one down too. I enjoyed it up until it went into zero gravity. I never felt like I fully grasped the controls at that point. And we spent a good 2 hours on the final level and even reached the final part of it, but missed our shot a few times. So I liked 2/3 of the game. It's interesting and challenging, but zero gravity could really turn people off it.
- Dr. Mario 64 was our N64 game of the month (05.31). It was tough. Bumped it down to Easy fast. Beat Mario's story, but not Wario's. But also played online with others...and that was not good. Lag, lag, and lag. I did blame my internet, but it may be the N64 NSO as that has been a thing since it launched. Don't have issues with other consoles on NSO other than a tiny bit of lag. Same with other online games that have even crashed. But I am now more solid on not doing N64 NSO with others.
ETC=========================
- HYO - DEEP (MV)
- BoA - The Greatest (MV)
- DAHYUN MELODY PROJECT - Monsters (cover)
- I hit one year of Ring Fit Adventure (05.01). Not only that, but I hit 100 days (05.21). It really has helped me stay moving and active. I did think to possibly 100% it, but there are a few sidequests that are too precise for me to do unless I do it in a nonconventional way. We'll see. But I'm still going through it to at least finish New Game+. It's also now a lower priority for fitness games.
- Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise is the new main priority fitness game (05.01). I've gained weight and Ring Fit wasn't helping with that. While I will occasionally break into a sweat with Ring Fit, I'm sweating every session with Fitness Boxing 2. Not sweating buckets, but I'm still sweating. There are some things I don't like about it mechanically, but I feel it is helping. Shout out to my main trainer Sophie.
- Nintendo Switch Sports also joins the list of games for fitness (05.05). It's fun and the online is solid (very few disconnects). It doesn't require you to move a lot, which is disappointing as I wanted it to be more for fitness than play. But I do make sure to stand up while playing it. This is one I wouldn't mind playing on stream sometime as I could do it sitting down.
And with these three fitness games, Fitness Boxing 2 is the priority to use when I'm not streaming. Ring Fit and Nintendo Switch Sports alternate to be complementary to Fitness Boxing.
That's a wrap on May 2022. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
