Wednesday, January 31, 2024

January 2024 Entry

January 2024 Entry: 

2024 started with a rollercoaster of emotions and events. 

MISC========================= 

- Thank you for commenting, sb. 

- Met up with a long time friend. I have known him since my second year of college. We'd been tight throughout the years, but had not contacted each other much in the last few. With the car troubles I had been having (3 doors making loud grinding noises when locking/unlocking), he was the person that I thought of to go to. Made small talk through chats and eventually brought up my car issues and scheduled a time to meet at his shop (01.07). It was good to see him again after such a long time. He gave me a tour of the place and then he inspected my car and immediately knew what was wrong. Then he looked up the parts to order and gave me a price, which I was expecting to be way higher. Thankfully it wasn't so bad considering they are old 2015 parts. Other than that, we caught up and it was as if we never had any time apart.

The parts came in on different days so it was just waiting for all of them before settling on a day for him to replace them (01.22). It may have been a cold and rainy day, but we spent the hours talking. I had to assist a few times mainly by holding one of the windows up so it wouldn't fall. He replaced the first part and there was no longer noise in the passenger back door, but the other noises were still loud. But when he replaced the one for the back driver side, the noise was significantly decreased and I could not hide my elation. The majority of the hours spent were for the front passenger side because of the panel itself and the window I had to assist with. That and he needed to stop a few times for some meetings for his other businesses. Those served as good breaks and I even took advantage of a massage chair they had. Everything was done by 7PM. It's amazing how the loud grinding noises no longer exist after a year or so. Thank you, friend. 


- More friend time with one of my best friends' birthdays (01.13). She invited me and a bunch of others to Chama Gaucha on a Saturday. I made sure to work the morning shift that day so I can make it to the dinner event. I had never heard of the place, but apparently it has been around for many years. While I've met plenty of her friends over the years, I wasn't acquainted with a bunch. Thankfully I immediately met someone I was familiar with and we ended up sitting together with a few others I was more familiar with. 

I didn't know it was a Brazilian Steakhouse where they bring the food to you and you decide to keep eating or not. Lots of good food all around. Got into a lot of conversations about my work and other similar activities. Some of the friends I knew for years even brought up old stories such as dancing and singing etc. When it was time for the cake, she made a speech and there was something she said that made me fake cough and she looked at me knowing why, ha. We all sang and then the rest of the night was final food as well as everyone taking photos with her as people were trickling out. When it was my turn, I said something to her that I even said that I wasn't sure I never said to her before and she reciprocated. She is a true friend of 20+ years and it's wonderful that we still are after all this time. It was between 9PM-9:30PM when I made my leave. Good night, good food. 
 

- Spoke with a friend I made in middle school (01.14). We kept contact over all this time by being connected via Facebook. Chatted a few times, but I wanted to ask him again about something silly we did back in the day. If you're familiar with older episodes of The Simpsons, we mimicked something Bart and Milhouse did. While we talked about it a few years ago, I brought it up again. It led to a conversation about self-reflection and giving each other advice and talking about our experiences. It was good to talk about stuff. And now, I have my soul back. I mentioned it to him that even though it was something silly we did as kids, I wanted to eliminate any small/dumb reason for why things aren't going the way I had wished in life. Do I feel different, not really. But I have no excuses for things that I may have blamed on "not having a soul" or "the universe" anymore.  

- We had some internet issues (01.15). Woke up to be informed that 20+ unknown devices were added to our wi-fi. For about 3 hours, the process of removing them and even changing passwords helped. But there were still momentary blips of more devices connecting. Some were apparently hard-wired, which made no sense as no one was connecting anything. I even got booted off at one point. In the end, more passwords were changed and the modem was replaced. An occasional blip popped up for the next few days, but everything was fine maybe 5-7 days later. 

- There was a freeze warning for our city. Preparations were made like previous times. Everything was okay until we eventually had frozen pipes (01.17). When that happened, I needed to take a shower before work because it had been a few days so I took the extra water we had in buckets and had a cold scrubbing at best. An hour later, the pipes were back to normal. Took a normal shower just because. 

- Driving to work, I started to hear some rumbling noises. The car also felt a little off. This was halfway into my normal drive. I pulled over to check the tires and didn't see anything. But when I got to work, the wheels ended in a rotation for me to see there was a nail in the tire (01.18). It was on the back driver's side. Called my dad and took a photo for him to see and he assured me I'd be okay even driving back home. I drove the speed limit on the way home, but hit many green lights so I didn't stop as frequently. Thankfully the tire stayed intact and didn't pop. The nail was removed and the tire was patched the next morning. 
 

- I wasn't able to go to a friend's gathering for the holidays so I didn't receive presents until later (01.19). The majority were snacks, which I have been rationing since then. I might not have mentioned it aloud, but I did remove any new games from wish lists as I didn't need more. But games for collection purposes are still up. So I was surprised to see a copy of Battle Chef Brigade there. Same with the Daria Funko Pop. I kind of had a feeling I'd get an amiibo, but I'm glad the packaging didn't make it obvious so I still was surprised to see Detective Pikachu. Thank you, friends. 
 

- Signed up for the nectar app (01.23). I've been following Jubilee and nectar for a long time so I was interested in what the app would be. It's kind of like a dating app. So far...lukewarm about it. It's cool to now check your loveprint that way and search for others with similar or different loveprints...but there is no way to talk to them. We can connect and compare, but that's it. Unless I'm missing something, we can't chat with anyone through it. Can't even put much in your profile for someone to find you through social media or whatever. Maybe there are more updates, but right now there's not much to it. 
 

- Ordered a copy of Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One (01.24). I specifically say ordered because most retail stores don't have them in stock physically anymore. Cheers to a friend for allowing me to use their Prime account for it. Watched the movie a few days later 01.26). I'm intrigued. Don't know when Part Two will be released, but I'll be there for it. But I didn't know I missed out on a few movies leading up to it. I did think at one point that I wasn't see that many DC animated movies the last couple of years. I knew I was skipping a few, but that might have made me miss out on new trailers. So at some point between now and Part Two, I'll watch Green Lantern: Beware My Power and Warworld. 
  

- Met up with Kpop friends (01.26). It was raining hard going to meet them, but thankfully we all made it. A few of us met at EvePink first. Some bought things. I of course did not even though I was tempted. Then we walked to BBQ Chicken, which happened to be playing TWICE when we arrived. The other two members eventually joined and we all enjoyed some good food. Throughout our time there, other than normal chatter, we commented on the music videos being played. I was surprised to see a few songs being played as I think that most places that play Kpop would play current songs. The oldest thing played was probably 2NE1 and SNSD. If there were songs I knew the dances to, I'd do the gestures. After paying, we walked over to 10X Boba Tea Lounge for drinks and more silly talk. At some point I asked if there were any groups with 6 guy members. I thought of Shinhwa and the others mentioned a few more groups I wasn't familiar with. There were talks about our subunits (3 of us ordered the same drink, ha) and our roles in the group. I was dubbed the Main Dancer. As we left, I put my hand in for a silly gesture and they all followed suit and we dubbed ourselves HeXagon, ha. Our group chat later had mentioned our motto and our debut concept. Silly fun. Until the next meeting, HeXagon. 
 

- Caught up on the Royal Rumble (01.28). I did my best to stay away from spoilers while at work, but I knew I'd see results when I got home, which I've always been okay with. It gets me more excited to see how things unfold. If I were still doing predictions (no real reason I stopped), I was correct on all except the Men's Rumble match, which I was going for CM Punk (even wore his shirt at work). 

- Back on Tinder (01.30). While I'm seeing new people because of being in a different area for work, it didn't take long to remember why I stopped. It's boring to swipe endlessly one way or the other and get no reciprocation. Sucks even more because I see it in real time working for others around me. We'll see how it goes. 

- I'm trying to get back in shape. Not just physically, but stamina-wise. I originally tried to start in December, but I was getting more hours at work. The regimen is nothing big, but here's the rundown: 

50 push-ups per day 
1 session of Fitness Boxing per week 
1 session of dancing per week 

It may not sound like much, but I can maintain it. The push-ups are done around noon. I used to have them scheduled at night, but with working nights, I'd get lazy and not do them when I got home. And at first it was 30, but I added more when I started to feel comfortable. 

Fitness Boxing is the same, but only for one day. Depending on how I feel that day, I'll either do Normal or Hard. The dancing was the main addition. In general I wanted to get back into it. I had always been learning from my chair, but rarely did I ever get up and do them. It was tough at first because I was jumping straight into tough ones. Then I realized I should see if I had any muscle memory for older choreography and that has helped ease me back into it. There are 3 specific older dances that I'm doing; 

BabyVoX - Game Over 
SNSD - Mr. Mr. 
Shinhwa - Perfect Man 

Game Over is always my warm up as it's not too intensive. Mr. Mr. is similar to me in difficulty, just need to remember the movements. Perfect Man steps it up and that is usually when I start to feel tired. After that it's been 1-2 songs of whatever I feel like. More often it's been ITZY's new stuff (Born To Be or Untouchable). I make sure to take a break between each song so I don't over do it. The session itself is under an hour, but if the progression goes well, one hour will be the minimum. At some point, I want to put BoA into the mix (Sweet Impact, Quincy, Do The Motion, etc). 

I might add more such as minor weight lifting or add another day of Fitness Boxing or dancing. 

GAMES========================= 

- 2023 Games Year In Review. See all the games I beat and my top favorites for multiple categories. I'm not sure if I'll still do a summary like this for 2024, but we'll see. It should be easier, right? 
 

- Demo Showcase Shorts continue. By the end of the month, I had done 28 (what would be close to 5-6 Demo Showcases). I bumped it up like I said I would. As long as I have nothing important to do in the morning (work, appointments, etc), I will play a demo and type up something about it and schedule it to post. I've only made one mistake and that was for Ultra Mega Xtra Party Challenge. I accidentally left it as a thumbs up when copying and pasting. It should have been a thumbs sideways. 

And I have added a few games to my wish list since this project started. 3 to be exact. I believe each has gone on deep sales (over 50%), but I didn't want to pull the trigger on any. Maybe next big sale. 
 

- First purchase of the year and first game beaten; Ravaa and the Phantom Library (01.01). Good sequel. They definitely went for bigger levels this time. It's speedrunnable, but I didn't feel the need to try. If you liked the original, you'll like the sequel. 
 

- Guardian Tales was our free-to-play game of the month (01.04). It's not bad. I find it cool that others reached out after I posted about how they spent many hours playing the game. I honestly never heard of it beforehand. But it's a good free title to try. 
 

- XEVIOUS was our NES NSO game of the month (01.05). For some reason, I thought there was an ending. There is not. It loops forever. Once you play the first few levels, you pretty much have seen everything it offers outside of different enemy variety and difficulty raising. 
 

- Blaster Master: Enemy Zero was our GameBoy NSO game of the month (01.08). It's a very good rendition of the NES Blaster Master. Controls really well and doesn't sacrifice much to fit the handheld screen. Backtracking is a chore. Other than that, it comes highly recommended especially if you liked the NES Blaster Master. 
 

- GoldenEye 007 was our N64 NSO game of the month (01.14). This was tougher than I remembered. I used to be able to do all the missions for the hardest difficulty, but I was struggling. I screwed myself a few times with accidentally save-stating at points where I or the companion character can die in one shot. It did radiate the nostalgia I knew it would, but I wish I enjoyed it as much as I did back then. 
 

- Picked up my copy of Another Code: Recollection (01.19). When this got announced, I was super excited since I never played the originals. 
 

- Also picked up the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 amiibo (01.19). The first Xenoblade amiibo to not be from Smash. Noah and Mio look fantastic. I am a little extra careful with them because they feel fragile compared to other amiibo in general. I include the Detective Pikachu amiibo in this as I knew I was going to get more soon. Detective Pikachu is a large amiibo. I knew about the tail coming off, but I didn't know the hat felt like a different material. 

Only 5 amiibo left to acquire. 
 

- Finally dove into the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters with the first FINAL FANTASY (01.21). For those that don't know, the first Final Fantasy was the first Final Fantasy (and maybe RPG) I've ever played. Rented it a few times and I think I owned a copy at one point. I knew how tough it was because I used to use Game Genie codes. So knowing that there were boosts in the Pixel Remasters, I turned those on right away. Nostalgia was strong as there were a lot of familiar things up to a certain point. I also found a good guide to use for all the Pixel Remasters and it served as a helpful reference. At first, I didn't aim to get 100% because I could have beaten the game earlier than I actually did. But the bestiary being accessible from the start was handy as well as the guide stating where all the monsters were. It was all down to Warmech with its 3/64 encounter rate. Spent at least 2-3 extra hours alone trying to get it to spawn. When it did, I jumped out of my chair. By this time, my team had been at level 99 for a while so the fight lasted only a few seconds. But I'm glad it happened because out of all the Pixel Remasters, this was the one I knew I could possibly 100% compared to the rest. Good start to one Pixel Remaster game a month. 
 

- My copy of Castlevania Advance Collection from LRG arrived (01.24). As much as I'd like to dive into it right away (who knows, things can change), I have it scheduled for October. Yes, I still keep a schedule despite not streaming anymore. 
 

- Picked up my copy of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy (01.25). This may be sprinkled throughout the year. Or at least start after all the Pixel Remasters are done. Regardless, using the auto mode the whole way through to simply enjoy the story. I've played the original Apollo Justice 2-3 times while I've only played Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice once. 
 

- Initially I had planned for the Pixel Remasters to be the last game I play each month. But the first Final Fantasy was short so I figured not to limit myself too much. So I pushed up playing Another Code: Recollection | Another Code: Two Memories (Trace Memory) (01.26). The only thing I had to look up were the QR origami (QRigami) locations. Other than that, I used the in-game assist option to figure out where to go. It felt slow at first, but I was interested in seeing how it all played out. I was correct about one of the characters and very wrong about another, ha. And I was surprised to see that credits don't roll and that it immediately starts the second game right away. Once I realized that, I stopped to save it for next month. Curious to see how it ends. 
 

- Sue and Puchi have arrived (01.31). They are from Rakuen by supershigi, one of the last games I played on stream. Won't spoil her role in the game, but I did make sure to listen to her song again (and tear up again). I don't know why, but I felt she arrived at the right time for me. 


WORK========================= 

- Had a stressful day from the start (01.12). After a short series of events and not getting any help, I took a lap around our shopping center. I didn't take it upon myself, but I ended up being a game master the majority of the day. I didn't want my demeanor to be apparent in front of customers or to accidental death glare at any coworkers. 

- This part will be vague, but I was pulled into a meeting (01.17). Something seemed off as soon as I walked in and I was worried because the last few days I felt not as welcomed by a few (that could have been me overthinking though). I listened, I told my side of things, I didn't make excuses, I took responsibility, and I shed some tears. That day of work was tough and so were the next few. Each day it got easier, but I overall felt miserable. To this day, I'm still worried because a definitive answer has not been given and I'm watching everything I do and being cautious of everything I say. 

Friends did come by to do one of our rooms (I knew ahead of time). Because of the meeting, I wasn't able to greet them or even watch their session. At least I was able to talk to them after. Thank you for the gifts and the hugs. I needed them. 

- Got an extra day off (01.24). No bookings, that's just how it goes. Business definitely became slow again after the holidays.  

ETC========================= 

- ITZY - Mr. Vampire (MV) 

- ITZY - UNTOUCHABLE (MV) 

I promised myself I was going to dye my hair pink like Ryujin's if ITZY won first place. They actually did. I wasn't too sure about it so I figured just the tips of my hair. I texted my stylist to see what she thought and she heavily suggested not to. Not only would it take a lot of time, which I knew it would, but she mentioned how unhealthy my hair is. It's not impossible, but I'm taking a risk if I did do it. So no pink hair unfortunately. 

- 2024 started off rough. It can only get better from here, right? 

That's a wrap on January 2024. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind. 



"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 

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Monday, January 1, 2024

December 2023 Entry

December 2023 Entry: 

Much of the year went by fast, but December came and went. 

Here's a call-to-action right off the bat. If you read this, contact me however (comment, DM, etc). I know people read this, but I never know who outside of a few instances. It's been like this ever since I've been keeping a blog. Yes, this is mainly for me, but if this is a way that you keep up with me, I'd like to know. 

MISC========================= 

- Started physical therapy (12.01-12.22). Mondays and Fridays for 6 sessions. While it was mainly for my left knee that was popping, it was also to improve strength in my lower body. Most of the time I saw the same person, but the third to last one was with someone that doesn't work at that location and she was my favorite. It was her attitude and demeanor that made it fun. Then the last 2 sessions were with someone different as well and she was also very good and was talkative. Those last 2 were the most I sweat for these. 

Over time, my knee was obviously getting better. There was a point that I forgot my knee popped at all. It happened very few times during the latter half of the month. Not only that, but I was scaling the stairs like I used to. 

- Similar to the Pokemon Musical video, I said a few lines for the Gizmondo: Life and Death documentary (12.01). I recorded my lines towards the end of July. I almost forgot about it. I do remember thinking some people might give me guff about how I didn't want to be part of streams/videos for the rest of the year after wrapping up the last stream. But I figured this would be fine since my part was done while I was still streaming. 
 

- Watched Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (12.10). I had some digital credit left on Amazon and it was about to expire. This was really good. Much like Into the Spider-Verse, the visuals and music were amazing. The story threw me for a loop as I didn't expect it to go where it did and end the way it did. Definitely going to watch the next installment to see how it all ends. 
 

- Volcano Hot Pot dinner with ONCE friends (12.15). Made some new friends as we ate and shared stories and biases. I was so full and those couple of hours flew by. I'm not big on hot pot in general as well as KBBQ that you prepare yourself because...you prepare it yourself, but this was really good. Cheers to the ones helping with the meat. As we were leaving, I took a look at the crane games and it seemed like one was doable. There's video footage of me missing the first attempt, but (as far as I know) no footage of me getting the plush on the second attempt. Coincidentally that was my last single dollar in my wallet. 

We then walked to Somi Somi to get ah-boong/taiyaki. Got the same thing I had last time I went there. Still really good, but I was still super full that I didn't finish maybe the last 8th of it. We chilled outside talking. It's obvious I'm not into all the Kpop things like others, but it's still nice to meet new people into Kpop. 

It took a while for me to name the plush. I simply couldn't think of a name that matched well (to me) with hot pot and KBBQ. One of the friends referenced it being Mina as it has a penguin faced pouch, but I wasn't feeling it. For about a week, I kept looking at it whenever I came home from work thinking "I don't know what to name you." And then it hit me; Iono. It's kind of inspired by comfcomf's Iono emote, but I liked how it fit with the fact that I didn't know what to name it for such a long period of time, ha. 


- A small CAB DJ meet up at Jupiter (12.22). It was only ABD and it was B and D's first time eating at Jupiter. Other than catching up and eating well, we also walked to a bar because D wanted a drink. We gave advice for D's latest photo jobs and dating ventures. I actually took his phone and did a predictive text (which I don't even have on my phone) and it produced a great message to send to someone he had met. I was so tempted to send it for him, but I left it and hoped (by now) he sent it). B left and D and I walked for a bit and I opened up about a few things. He gave me an earful on certain things, but understood that I wasn't being completely dumb about what I'm doing. Then we split around 11PM (I think). 


- Came home from a long day of work to find my room reorganized (12.26). I'm not going to get into everything, but I have never liked when this has happened. It wasn't as much as previous times, but to see multiple little things moved and to still see clumps of dust around right after coming home from work is not welcoming. While I understand the reasons for cleaning and making space, it also comes with clutter, things misplaced or thrown away, and more. I have a reason for everything even if the reason is no reason, but that can not matter to anyone else. A sentimental empty box can seem like trash to another. Things being in certain spots can look like wasted space. The only person I would be okay with ever doing this is a girlfriend/wife because I'm sure there would be lots of intention behind it.  

- Decided to re-up my Prime Video service for a week to watch Invincible Season 2. Only episodes 1-4 are released so I'll probably re-up my Prime again when the final four episodes come out. I'm liking it. Still full of shocks and emotion. Can't wait to see how it wraps up. 

GAMES========================= 

- Continuing Demo Showcase Shorts. 12 total this month. Not bad. Close to almost half a month. Part of me feels like I need to speed it up because it's still on pace of doing 2-3 Demo Showcases a month. Maybe I'll extend it to work days when I don't have to work early to make more headway. If I do that, I'll start in 2024. 
 

- Finished The Lightbringer (12.04-12.05). It was the favorite from Demo Showcase 97, stream 786 back in September 2022. It wasn't as good as I recalled the demo being. I was liking it alright until I had a couple of deaths. Dying means starting a full level over from the beginning. That means solving all puzzles, collecting all collectibles, and defeating all enemies again. If they were shorter levels, it wouldn't be so bad. Most are at least 10 minutes long even if you aren't trying to find everything. But on the second day of playing, I noticed that levels unlocked as long as you played the previous level. You didn't have to beat it, just play it, exit level, move on to the next, and repeat all the way to the final level where you must defeat the final boss. I did that for the last 2 worlds (8-10 levels I think) and I had no issue doing so. The exploit is actually well known in that community and has not been fixed or patched. It sucks because it's not a bad game overall. It's just underwhelming. 
 

- Punchman Online was the free-to-play game of the month (12.10). Simple controls. Knock your opponents off the field to earn points within a time limit. But no one else was playing. I spent at best an hour doing the tutorial and then waiting in the lobby to play 2 games. The first game ended right away as the only other player quit before the match started. The second match was against one other person and once the time limit was over, I was done. If there was at least an active player pool, it would have been fun. 


- Twitch Recap was interesting (12.11). I was surprised at my top 3 played games, but the hours match. Cheers on being the top 10% for Spiritfarer. And those 4000+ hours watched were definitely lots of lurking on multiple streams at the same time. 
 

- ALISIA DRAGOON was the Genesis NSO game of the month (12.12). This was originally supposed to be played on stream as G requested it. I even had it penciled in for September. It was short. Not bad. I get why others like it, but I'd give it a sideways thumb. 
 

- Nintendo Switch Recap had me scratching my head for a few reasons (12.13). First off, the game it said I played first, I did not own, ha. The second was the pie chart of categories until I realized how much I left Crush Crush on. I'm sure it would have been balanced better. Also, no one commented on the almost 5000 hours of gameplay (thanks to Crush Crush). 


- Suika/Watermelon Game was the latest Game Trial (12.15). Knew about this one from watching others stream it. It is addictive. While I probably could have squeezed in a couple more hours here and there, I had my fill after the initial play. 
 

- Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island was the GBA NSO game of the month (12.16-12.17). Yeah, still not big on this game. Maybe I didn't like it back in the day, I don't know.  


- Natsume Championship Wrestling was the SNES NSO game of the month (12.21). I'm glad I didn't stream this one. I thought I would play it around Wrestlemania or any other big wrestling PPV/PLE. Tutorial went well as the opponent didn't attack back. But the CPU was relentless on Easy difficulty. There was some potential, but I think it would be fun with another human player. 
 

- My Nintendo 2024 Desktop Calendar (12.23) 

- All stream clips have been posted on Instagram (12.24). 1143 posts. I did like that the last post happened during the last month of the year. I did think to simply wait it out to make it closer to the end of the year, but the attention garnered with that project was minimal at best. Until I switch things to post other content, it's another platform with my digital footprint. It was also nice to completely delete this task from my phone. 
 

- Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly was the final game I played in 2023 (12.27). I really liked the first Coffee Talk and was excited when a sequel was announced. This was penciled in to be one of the last streams in September, but the physical copy kept getting delayed. I think it worked out for the best. I could play at my own pace and not have to worry about chat and just soak it all in. In actuality, there were a few times I was falling asleep, but I'll blame that on the relaxing music (good stuff). As I continued and more familiar characters returned, I was recalling the voices I gave them. In my last stream, it was asked if I hear the voices I use for characters when I don't stream and the answer was no. But almost every single one came back for Coffee Talk 2. I do think I enjoy the first one more because it was new and I was meeting a new cast of characters. Again, it was awesome to see some return and meet a few new ones, but I knew what I was in for for the most part. The stories told were still good and relatable. I had an itch to try and 100% the game, but once I saw everything I needed to do, I decided to look up the true ending instead. Not that it would have taken way too long to do, but I figured I couldn't do it by the end of the year. I am definitely interested in more installments if they ever happen. Until then, cheers to Coffee Talk. 
 

WORK========================= 

- I have officially earned more than I have in 5 years of streaming (12.02). I had a long paragraph typed out, but I deleted it. It's not all about money, but I think anyone can understand or put themselves in this type of time spent relating to money earned. 

- Worked my first Sunday shift (12.03). I was worried at first because I had heard how Sundays were, but it went rather smoothly. I even asked a few coworkers how it was compared to other Sundays and they were elated with how much better it was. Side note; kidnapping, ha.  

- TaeYeon - To.X (Escape Room). While this doesn't specifically pertain to work, the escape room theme had me excited to watch this video. Afterwards, it made me want to do something similar or at least to make puzzles or another escape room. 


- A manager meeting was held (12.14). My first one. I won't go into all the details, but we were all given time to vent, express concerns, talk about certain team members, and come up with plans/solutions. We also had one session that occurred around the time of the meeting. I took the initiative to be their game host and game master as I had said almost everything I wanted to say in the meeting. There was only one thing I added after the session started before parting with them to concentrate on it. 

Since then, all that were present in the meeting have gotten to work on their specific tasks. Mine required old HER documents so I actually worked on mine at home when I had time and emailed them when I was done with them. One is already in play and that involves training. The other they like, but are weighing out how to implement it with the current company policies. 

- The Company Holiday Party was fun (12.17). On the way, I missed my normal turns I take multiple times. It was dark so the route did seem off. I think I ended up taking a way similar to the first time I went to the building. The majority of the staff were there (Midori Hoshi ended up getting sick that day unfortunately). At first, everyone was sitting, talking, and waiting around. Once one of the owners came by, I asked if there was anything to wait on before eating and she said no and to tell them to eat. I grabbed our lobby bell, rang it 3 times to get everyone's attention, and simply yelled "EAT," ha. Food was good (I should have had more than one plate). 

When the other owner came by, she started a powerpoint presentation. It went over some good things and bad things (how much Saving Santa was pulling in, low star reviews, etc). A contest was announced for fastest resets with a money prize. Standing outside the party room and seeing the reactions was interesting. Those that were excited and those that weren't were kind of obvious. While the intention of getting the team better at resetting, I do think a bonus like this is not necessary. They should be good regardless. A bonus was given to the S-Tier Employee of the Month (shout out to them). And a bonus was given to anyone that received a shout out that quarter. That went to me. While the owner was handing me the bonus, I decided to accept it with my mouth to the surprise reactions of others, ha. 

We did some type of white elephant game in the lobby. We all got an envelope with a number and a question. All questions were about passwords/codes for various things in any of our escape rooms. The owners gave us a couple of minutes to check anything to make sure we knew the answer and to write it down. We removed the question and then had to pass our envelopes around so we didn't have the same one (left to right to left etc). One by one according to the number on the envelopes, we said the answer and then had to say what lock it went to. If we were correct we got to take a random gift from the Christmas tree. The gifts ranged from snacks, board games, and money (the most popular). Someone could also choose to steal a gift, but that same gift can only touch 3 hands (original owner and 2 stealers). When it got to me (cheers to Agent Ocean for telling me the answer prior), I was close to stealing chocolates another coworker got. He mentioned "steal mine, girls like chocolate." To which I replied "if it was your girl, I'd steal your girl" to the surprise of those that heard that, ha. I opted to get my own gift which was a board/card game called Over-Rated. I should have taken the chocolate, ha. By the end of everything, we were told it was okay to swap gifts with anyone. 

We took a group photo and then the final reveal of work sweaters were handed out to the delight of the team. Most chilled afterwards slowly trickling out bit by bit. I ended up staying the latest with the owners, but I did want to mention a few things to them because I would usually forget or they weren't around long enough for me to have a conversation with them. Overall a fun time. 


- It took 1 hour for a customer to pay for their party room bill (12.20). That's the end of the story. Rewinding to the beginning, a company booked a room and the party room for their company's holiday outing. Some of their staff were arriving and they were all nice. The owner and his wife arrived last citing traffic as the reason for being late. He seemed frazzled not in a bad way, but just out of sorts. I mentioned he should stop and breathe and order a drink. That seemed to do it. He joined his team and later came out to talk about how there were a few no-shows and sick employees that couldn't make it. Originally they had reserved 2 rooms, but would be reduced to one. He had some concern as it did exceed the 8-person limit. I showed him the room and even mentioned that he and his wife could join and play since they had the extra slots from those that couldn't make it. They still opted out of it and stayed in the lobby to relax while their staff played. 

It was also at this time that I bought food for our staff (5 of us including me). One went to pick up the Chick-Fil-A order while the rest were doing their respective tasks. 

As it was winding down, he came up to me and wanted to take care of the rest of the bill. That's when he seemed hesitant and frazzled again. I mentioned how much was left and he was silent as he pondered. Already at that point I could sense something was wrong. He asked for a print out of his bill. The printer is in our control room so I had to go back and get it. The staff was enjoying their food and mentioning where my food was, to which I was blunt and said something like "remind me later" as I took the bill I printed out. Before I left, I asked one staff member that wasn't game mastering to leave the lobby up on the monitors. I didn't tell them what was going on, but I wanted one to at least keep an eye on the guy that needed to pay. I also asked another staff member to stay outside with me doing miscellaneous tasks (organizing, cleaning, etc). That was purely to have someone other than myself outside. The customer constantly kept asking to knock the bill down. I had recalled at some point he said that he wanted to leave us a big tip and review. The review never happened as of typing this (12.29). Shouting out the company on your company's Facebook is not the same. But if his intention was to leave the staff a tip, you should know that you can afford to do so and not by hacking away at every single dollar and cent to make it happen. He asked about the drink tickets and the ones that weren't used because of those that couldn't make it. Those extra tickets were given to the staff that were present so they could enjoy more drinks. He asked about compensation for the no-shows and sick people. We give refunds and reschedule 48 hours before your booking, but I gave him some money back because the original booking said 15 and 14 was the actual number. He showed me numerous email threads to show what he was quoted. I read them and said that I'm relaying information I was given as I was not part of the booking process. Eventually, his team escaped and he heard them. So he specifically said that he's leaving his phone, ID, and credit card with me so I don't think he's skipping out while he celebrates and sees his staff off. That's when I told the staff in the control room to also put the outside cameras on the monitors. 

I explained how I was ready for something because I felt this guy would not pay one way or another. Either he was going to sneak out because he gave me a fake phone, ID, and credit card or he's going to punch me in the face and run. Once he bid his team a farewell, it was back to business as his wife waited. He asked if money could be refunded because someone had to leave early. That's not how it works. But he really was trying to get as much as he could taken off. I ended up taking the cost of one more person off and told him something along the lines of "I'm eating $100 right now." At that point, I was fine owing anything if the company felt I handled that poorly. I just wanted this guy to pay. And I had not mentioned it yet, but he was already saving 40% by being allowed to use a promo code. He was already saving so much. Again, if his intention was to leave a big tip for staff with that $100 he saved, the staff would have actually received more had he written an actual review and mentioned all our names. But he finally settled and paid. The whole process took more than an hour. I went back to talk to the team after that guy and his wife left. They expressed concerns and their thoughts about it. They said I handled it well, but I was so drained. I brought up the hypotheticals of "what if he did punch me and leave, what if he had a gun, what would you all need to do as staff, etc." I thanked them for doing their jobs as I was entangled in this situation. I did get teary-eyed and needed a few minutes. Called Agent Ocean to let him know and he agreed that there was something up with that guy when they were making the booking. Finally sat down to eat my Chick-Fil-A about an hour later. 

That was a crappy situation. Thank you to the team that was there doing what they needed to do and for trusting me. 

- Cryptic note to self; Christmas gift/quest and birthday present delivered successfully (12.22). 

- 3 things about this day (12.23). One, everything was booked from 5:40-9:50. Midori Hoshi worked the morning shift and offered to work a double if needed. Originally I said yes and they took a break to get food. During that break, 2 other staff members said they'd work doubles. When Midori Hoshi came back, I mentioned how they now had a choice to stay or not. They decided to clock out to take care of last minute Christmas shopping, but offered to stay on call if needed. While I definitely could have texted for them to help, we managed. It would have been easier and less stressful if they were around, but I was glad we pulled it off. 

Two, there was a pretty customer that came through. There have been plenty of good looking customers that have walked through the doors, but the number that I've actually thought to possibly approach is less than 5. She caught my eye with her bright pink sweater, but my immediate thought was that she looked like a streamer I knew. But then her and (who I assumed was) her little sister started playing Shoot The Moon. I never caught it when pink sweater hit the moon, which apparently was a lot. But I almost caught it every time her sister did. I even challenged to see if she could do it again in two tries. If she did, I'd give her a free drink (she asked if she could have a Dr. Pepper when her mom ordered a drink). And she did it. Again, I missed when pink sweater did it. Usually when people play Shoot The Moon, I mention how I've never been able to hit it in 4 years and how most of the staff can. Pink sweater mentioned that she should be able to work there then joking how she was trying to steal my job. That's when she had my attention. I can't remember what else we said, but I'm sure we quipped back and forth for a bit. When I brought them to their room (Scooby) it was warm so she took off her sweater. Not going into details, but wow. After I gave my briefing and was leaving, she quipped once more saying "you better practice that game out there." To which I stopped and mouthed "wow" right at her. I wanted to make sure to host them out and did. Took their photo and tried to figure out when to talk to her. Thankfully her little sister went back to Shoot The Moon and pink sweater joined her. Unfortunately, I didn't think of a good moment to simply ask for her name. I thought about it afterwards. I would ask her little sister's name and congratulate her on Shoot The Moon. Then I'd ask for pink sweater's name. The family was leaving and they were the final two of the group, so I walked a few steps behind to maybe tap pink sweater on the shoulder and ask for her name and tell her she's pretty while the rest of her family were out the door. I didn't do that. Simply wished them a good night like I do for other teams. Darn. Hopefully they'll return and we can banter back and forth again and maybe I'll make an attempt. We shall see. 

Three, I shot the moon. It was towards the end of the night and we're slowly closing things. Me and another coworker were talking and the topic of Shoot The Moon came up. I mentioned how I haven't shot the moon in 4 years, took a random try, and it happened. I stopped and smiled big. I texted Midori Hoshi and Agent Ocean. I hugged my coworker who was there to witness it. My only regret was that I did not make a wish. I started doing that shortly after we got Shoot The Moon and I wished for the same thing every time. And...I didn't wish for it. I didn't think I was going to shoot the moon randomly like that, but maybe because I didn't have that wish as pressure is the reason it happened. Either way, I was very elated for it to finally happen. I have yet to try again, but I kind of like that being my last interaction (outside of moving it around or watching others play it) with Shoot The Moon. 

- Stayed longer than my shift (12.29). Not that it would have been impossible for the team of 4 closing could handle when I was supposed to leave, but I did make it a priority for Midori Hoshi to finish a project I gave that involved social media. Could they have finished it if they were hosting and resetting; possibly. But I think being afforded the time to sit down without multiple interruptions was beneficial. I even clocked out once things settled down to the last few sessions and stayed until closing even though I was still helping and giving feedback for Midori Hoshi. PS: Sharks.  

- These last 2 weeks of the year, I've worked 5 days per week. This happened during Thanksgiving week as well. But 2 weeks in a row was draining. I'm glad it never was 5 days in a row although it came close on one of those weeks. Agent Ocean also pulled a few 5 day work weeks and even did 6 days in a row before Christmas. I do hope the team appreciates our efforts. 

Have I been perfect throughout it all; no. I have been making some mistakes in resetting. I thank others for catching my mistakes after I rectify them. I forget to do certain closing tasks. I thank those that pick up my slack. I do hope that everything else I do isn't overshadowed by those few things I drop the ball on. Because there are times I think all the little things I do, all the things I don't complain about out loud, or the fact that I don't sit down and take as many breaks go unnoticed. 

During these weeks, my energy is super low towards the end of the shift. The drive home isn't bad, but once I walk into the house, my body realizes it almost right away. I need to be quiet to not disturb others, I need to eat a late dinner, and I need to catch up on a few things. I usually stay up for about an hour when I get home before deciding to end the night. 

- And on the final day of work, I game mastered the most I ever have thus far (12.31). Not only did I facilitate 6 (I think) sessions, but it was the first time I did two at the same time, which I'm not as good at yet. 

ETC========================= 

- TWICE - Dance Again (Special Video) 

- Nicole - Gravity (MV) 

- Jessica - Get it? Got it? Good (MV) 

- ITZY - Born To Be (MV) 

- ITZY Yeji - Crown On My Head (MV) 

- ITZY Ryujin - Run Away (MV) 

- 2023 is over. 

Streams have ended and I don't miss them. I currently don't plan on coming back to it. The door is always open, but I don't see a need. I do think I'm pulling away from streams in general. I am less active in others' streams and mainly lurk. I can see myself doing that more in 2024 especially as more of the final year of streams are live on YouTube. 

Work has begun and I'm all-in. It hasn't been perfect. I still make mistakes. I can still improve. But I'm hitting a stride where I can take on more responsibility and motivate the team. A lot of confidence has been regained. Two special shout outs. Thank you, Agent Ocean. Thank you, Midori Hoshi. 

Life...I'm lonely. It hasn't gotten easier. Has it hit me like it did going home from work on Saturdays? Not as much. But especially as the year is ending, I'm reflective. I see what is happening for/to others around me. They have plans. They're doing things. It's hard to make plans with others. It's rare. And if I plan to do something, it's simple and done and not a big deal. Plus I still would rather do stuff with others than being solo because I'm tired of being solo. I don't know where the assumption of "I'm always doing something" came from, but that's never been true. If I was busy, it was because of streaming or work. The in-betweens were me mainly doing nothing outside of routine. 

My big thing now is work and it's important, but it may not seem like much to others. If I haven't mentioned it, I am earning money, but don't know what for. It's not like I'm buying more either, but it was nice to put a large chunk of my earnings so far with the rest of my savings. And I do have one big expense that will happen at the beginning of 2024. That might be a kickstart to other things from a mental aspect. Outside of that was gaining self-confidence back. It's not all there, but like I mentioned it's getting better. I'd like to say it's around 80% now, which was what I was aiming for back in October. 

I keep hoping I'd find a reason to do the things I do, but there is not one presently. I really hope I will have a reason or reasons to do what I do in the new year. 

That's a wrap on December 2023. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind. 



"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 
Posted by at 1 comment:

Saturday, December 2, 2023

November 2023 Entry

November 2023 Entry: 

Oh, November. Emotions were all over the place. 

MISC========================= 

- We've had two tall pine trees in our front yard ever since we moved here. I didn't know we were getting them cut down (11.09). I realized when I heard the sawing outside, heard the timber fall, and felt the force of them hitting the ground. It needed to be done as the pines always got stuck in the gutters and it was never easy cleaning them out. The first 24 hours without the trees was odd, but now it's normal.  

- We had a power outage (11.11). It lasted 2-3 hours before I had to go to work. But the thing is, the power went out while I was using the bathroom, ha. Never had that happen in my life until that point.  

- Helped Agent Ocean move (11.12). I knew of him moving, but he asked the day of, which I was open to. From around 12-6 was helping load up the cars, driving to the new living space, and unloading the cars. It's been years since I've helped anyone move. I was surprised I wasn't low on energy especially since I didn't sleep much the night before.  

- I don't remember what the catalyst was, but I decided to try and relearn a few magic tricks (11.16). I know the thought crossed my mind when mentioning to a few coworkers that I can eat fire and used to know tricks in the past. Other than rewatching a few videos, I also decided to clean out my old magic bag. It was a specific bag I used to carry around with tricks and props at the ready. Unfortunately for some of the props, they are broken. For others, I couldn't remember what they were for. I salvaged what I could and threw the bag away. 

- 41 spam calls in one day (11.22). Normally I get 3-5 a day, which isn't horrible, but I could not believe the frequency of these calls. Even my coworkers were amazed every time I took out my phone for one of these calls. From as early as 8AM to around 4PM was how long it lasted. 

- Watched Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (11.29). Cheers to the person in a Facebook group that was giving out free movie codes. I've always heard tons of positive things about this movie and now I totally get it. I can't think of a single thing I did not like about it. Can't wait to watch the sequel at some point. 
 

GAMES========================= 

- The last of the THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE DLC was released (11.02). I predicted a long time ago that one of the last two mystery games was going to be Final Fantasy XVI and I was correct. A fitting bookend. With all the DLC out, I don't have strong reasons to come back to the game. There are a few things like completing missions, but trying to collect everything and even pass some of the harder difficulties is always what makes doing everything in the Theatrhythm games next to impossible for me. The game itself, wonderful as expected. Maybe if my backlog lowers, I can at least revisit this one for fun. 
 

- Started doing Demo Showcase Shorts on Twitter/X (11.03). Originally it was going to be 1 Demo A Day, but I mentioned how I can't commit to that (work, etc). Although I could have made that happen if I played multiple demos a day and then scheduled the posts on busy days. So far I've played 15 demos. While there have been a few thumbs up, I have only put one on my wish list (and it was on sale, but I'm waiting for a deeper sale). As excited as I was to do this as a way to go through demos, I'm disappointed by the lack of interaction from anyone. We'll see if it carries over next month or not. 


- Tears of The Kingdom amiibo (11.03). Ganondorf is hefty while Zelda is fairly light in comparison. 
 

- Bought WarioWare: Move It! (11.03) and it didn't take long for me to finish the single-player mode (11.05). It's good. Very reminiscent of Smooth Moves on the Wii. But it definitely would be more fun playing with others. 
 

- All the Game Summaries I wrote for games I beat on stream have now been archived (11.05). There were a total of 311. I only started doing them in 2020 so any that I beat before then didn't have a summary written. Combined with old reviews I made in the past, there are 449.  

- Tricky Doors was the first free-to-play game of the month post-streaming (11.07). It would have been played on stream, but there was a point that I stated I wouldn't play these find the hidden object games on stream. I used video guides to help as you couldn't adjust the difficulty to have unlimited hints (had to pay, which I put $2 into). Hours of game time for free. 
 

- The Mysterious Murasame Castle was the first NES NSO game of the month post-streaming (11.10). I knew of it, but never had access to play it. It's not bad, but I don't think I would have enjoyed it without online maps or stuff like rewinding available. 
 

- And much like the Theatrhythm DLC, the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC came to an end. I was able to get gold trophies for every Grand Prix (11.13). Not all had 3 stars because I could barely pull that off on 200cc. At least with this game, I could return to it if others play it on stream and I'm not too busy.  

- Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution was the only thing I cared about during the latest Indie World (11.14). Not that there wasn't anything interesting. Although I can't recall any Indie World or even a Nintendo Direct where I only cared about one game featured. 


- Castlevania Legends was the first Game Boy NSO game of the month post-streaming (11.14).I kept double checking beforehand that it wasn't part of the Castlevania Collection and then wondered why it wasn't included. It's not bad by any means and it's not a must play game. Plus it's not very long so it can be something simple to work your way through in a few hours. 


- Excitebike 64 was the first N64 NSO game of the month post-streaming (11.17). I mainly chose it because it had a time of 2 hours on How Long To Beat. Wanted something simple and short. But I did not have a good time with this one as I could not get used to the controls at all. And I had heard good stuff about it from others, but I didn't see it. Oh well. They can't all be winners. 
 

- Finally got the Splatoon 3 Deep Cut amiibo (11.22). I say finally because it took a while to get them even though I had pre-ordered them. When I got Super Mario RPG, they only had Frye and Shiver. They mentioned Big Man was in transit and wouldn't be there until the end of the day. While I could have bought the other 2 then and there, I decided to wait and get all 3 together. Went the next day and now they only had Frye, no extra Shivers, and Big Man had not arrived yet. They had no ETA on when their packages would be delivered. Not their fault, but disappointing. So I left with only Frye. A few days later on my way back from work early, I remembered to call my GameStop and they mentioned they still had not received them. But they offered to check other stores that might have had them. It was low stock, but one had the 2 I was missing and they called them to hold it. It was on the way home thankfully. I checked out and asked if there was a way to transfer my reservation money, but the clerk said no. However, the (who I assume was) manager said he could do it. He had to do a long way of doing it that required refunding the purchase made minutes ago, giving me cash instead, making a call to my normal store to get confirmation, ringing up the purchase again and taking my cash I was just given, and I left with ten extra dollars in my wallet. Finally had the amiibo. 


- Picked up my copy of Super Mario RPG (11.17). Figured not to play it yet and make it the game I end the month with. It was amazing from start to finish. This is a prime example of what a remake should be. It's very faithful to the original (I recalled story beats, recognized areas, etc) and it had enough modern incorporations to make it a smoother ride. My big critique was that I felt overpowered without trying. It did make the latter half a breeze and never saw a Game Over screen. I probably could have finished it sooner had I not taken a few moments to do some sidequests such as Toadofsky, finding all the hidden chests, Culex, etc. Then the credits rolled (11.27). Sure, I could have tried some of the post boss fight rematches, but I was satisfied. Thumbs all the way up. 


- Fae Farm was the latest Game Trial on NSO (11.28). I had seen streams of it so I knew what I was in for. I finished up the first chapter and was fine putting it down. There was nothing wrong with it outside of long loading times. But if you know me, games like this aren't my jam. 
 

- For those that watched the streams, you'll notice I'm still following the NSO pattern of playing games as well as one free-to-play game a month. Demos are played on days off and no priority days. Game Trials depend because we never know when those come out. If I can fit them, I will just like I did for streams. And new games get priority for wherever upon release. Everything else, the order of how that goes is now: 

Backlog (digital - 8 as of typing this) 
Free-to-play (24 as of typing this) 
NSO (NES, Genesis - alternating months - 11 and 27 as of typing this) 
NSO (Game Boy, GBA - alternating months - 13 and 5 as of typing this) 
NSO (N64, SNES - alternating months - 12 and 20 as of typing this) 
Backlog (physical - 10 as of typing this) 

Once the Backlog shrinks more or is gone, I'll fill most likely work through more of the free-to-play stuff to shrink that number. Then once that gets lower to where it can be one a month again, I'll work through more NSO stuff. Or maybe more NSO stuff especially since some games are shorter and I could probably do two in one day if I have the time. We'll see what happens. 

WORK========================= 

- My first time opening and my first time picking up Midori Hoshi (11.01). Note to self, nice talk. This was also the start of the week that Agent Ocean took a week off so I was making sure I was doing my best. Other than game mastering, I helped Midori Hoshi brainstorm ideas for the project they were given. One of the owners came by and I had a good talk with her about how certain things were going process-wise for work. Another coworker came for their shift, the owner left, and shortly after Midori Hoshi left. 

Not long after, I asked the coworker for some help on game mastering our Star Trek room since we didn't have any sessions. But our system was disconnecting and wouldn't reconnect. We tried restarting the PCs and the iPads, nothing. Contacted the owners to get some advice as I was never told what to do in this situation. One of them picked up and suggested shutting down the main PC that always stayed on. I knew that one PC was to remain on so I didn't think to restart it. Now it's a weekly task to restart that one so it actually gets some rest. After making sure everything was working again, we waited to see if the last session would get booked. We already cleaned and did things and chatted for a bit so I was okay with just chilling for the last half hour. Someone called saying they were going to come and it was my fault for not creating their booking online. They never showed up and we left. Interesting first day of being in charge. 

- Got to try out our holiday escape room; Saving Santa (11.09). It took place of TH3 C0D3, which I had to help move the props out to our storage building along with Agent Ocean (that happened shortly after he returned and before this day). The room wasn't bad. I was expecting it would just be the previous room with a holiday skin, but the props and puzzles and codes were all different. We escaped, yay. It wasn't completely ready as some other props and goodie bags and the mural needed to be done. 

Agent Ocean and I were working on a light prop that required sticking Christmas lights through a cork board and hot gluing them so they stick. It was not fun. A bunch of the lights I was inserting kept falling out after time or if I wasn't careful enough with the slack I was giving it. Agent Ocean then decided to at least glue the important lights and we got that done. But after doing it for at least an hour my back and arms were hurting because of the odd position I had to be in to do this. At some point, the other coworkers that were working on the goodie bags asked if they could use the Christmas tattoos on us. I was down. Not only was it a nice break from what we were doing, but it was also a nice team bonding moment. Agent Ocean also decided we were spending too much time on our project and suggested to the owners to buy something simple and reliable (thankfully). I took a walk outside to stretch my legs and think. 

Shortly after, I went to help Midori Hoshi with painting the mural. We were only painting the sky so it was all blue and little room for me to screw up. The blue was also similar or exactly the same blue we used for The Scarlet Scam, ha. It was also raining outside so the acoustics were amazing and relaxing in the building. Eventually the other coworkers left for the day. And since we didn't have any bookings, Agent Ocean took his leave as well, but made sure we had our stuff before locking up. Midori Hoshi and I were mainly quiet other than the music playing as we were many feet away from each other. Once they finished their section, they joined me and that's when our talking/therapy session started. Again, that's between us. But we kept painting and talking even when the battery powered light went out (used our phones at that point) and stayed longer than planned. Great times. 


- Saturdays are rough when I have to leave for home. If I haven't mentioned it before, it's quiet (whether I'm listening to a podcast or music) and I'm alone with my thoughts on my way home because there's nothing else to do. Well, loneliness kicked in hard (11.11). The work day itself wasn't bad. There were a few moments I enjoyed such as having to take out a big prop out of The Antidote because a group of kids were scared. But I wasn't closing so my mid shift ended at 8PM. Walked over to Happy Lemon to get a drink and say hi to Midori Hoshi. As I walked back to my car at work, that's when it all set in. 

At that point I went in to find Agent Ocean and simply ask for a hug. He was resetting with others. When he was done, I asked and the tears poured out. We went to one of the back rooms and I explained the recent issues of loneliness, worried about being forgotten, how I have nothing to do outside of work, etc. A lot of this was his first time hearing this as I've bottled it up a lot over the years. He gave words of encouragement, but did need to get back to work stuff as the staff was asking for assistance. I stayed in the back room for a bit before going out and letting him know I'll be outside of our door rather than taking up space in the staff room or lobby. When he was able to, he would join me out there and we would continue talking. I would also bid adieu  to any customers that were heading out with him. He learned of other things I did to cope. At some point I texted Agent PQ to see if she could talk and she was able to. Other than sharing a few laughs with Agent Ocean before he had to go back in, I let her know what was going on. We opened up about work frustrations at HER. Midori Hoshi was done at Happy Lemon and came back to chill at Escapology, but was surprised to see me outside. I didn't get a chance to explain since I was on the phone, but I'm sure they could sense something was wrong. 

After about an hour on the phone, I decided I should probably leave. Went back in to make sure Agent Ocean got a chance to say bye to Agent PQ. And I also made sure to say bye to Midori Hoshi who let me know I can rely on them. The ride home was easier with Agent PQ. I let her know of a few other things. She knows of something I never told anyone as of typing this (12.01). But...I could not believe how that all went. Thank you to those that were there for me. Thankfully the Saturdays since then have been okay. Not perfect, but okay. Maybe I needed to let it all out.  

- A customer gave us half the cake from her child's birthday (11.18). It was an Oreo cake too so I was excited to eat a piece of it later in the night. By the time I got to it, the staff had gotten their share, but someone decided to eat all the Oreo cookies. Not cool. Still a good cake, but c'mon. 

And today was the day I decided to try some magic tricks on the staff. One happened earlier in the day and it went off well. It was a new one I learned and I'm glad it went off well. The other I did with the rest of the team after we closed. This one I had done a long time ago. I had refreshed myself on it prior to this day and knew what I needed to do. While one coworker figured it out part of the way through, I made a mistake towards the end which ruined the big reveal. At least we all got a good laugh. Since I messed up, I explained what was supposed to happen so they could all try it if they remember it. 
 

- Lots of stuff happened the week of Thanksgiving. We opened up bookings all week except for Thanksgiving Day. I was only scheduled for 3 days. I ended up working 5 days, which included the whole weekend. The 21st and 22nd were opening shifts (11-4). Shout outs to a coworker for getting me food (11.22). That same day, a customer asked if I knew someone. I did. They had all done The Scarlet Scam back in 2017. He said that it's still his favorite escape room he has ever done. That made my day. 

The day after Thanksgiving, we had all except 6 sessions booked (11.24). I texted Agent Ocean if he and the scheduled team would be okay. We were limited as others had family in town of course. I said I'd be able to work if they allow. About an hour later, got the okay to come in from 3 to closing. Good thing I did join because all the sessions (+1) got booked. It was the first time all our sessions ever got booked so I was glad to be part of that history. 

A customer asked me if I was a ONCE (11.25). She saw my bracelet as I was doing my briefing speech and asked when I was done. I confirmed that I was and then the group asked who my bias was. I said I'll tell them after they escape, ha. After their session, they remembered to ask. Their guess was Jihyo (she's last). They were so surprised to learn it was Sana. Some of them went to the TWICE concerts earlier in the year and then I started playing their last album in the lobby for them to jam to. 

And then I had my first Sunday shift (11.26). I had heard stories about how Sundays normally go. I let the staff know that I want them to take initiative in doing stuff, but that it's okay to relax. I was given a list and I read it out so they all knew at some point. Some weren't taking the initiative as much, but at least they did something. Some of them opted to leave early on their own while others opted to stay to compensate in case there were last minute sessions. And I made sure I did my part and not just ask them to do stuff. And Agent Ocean was a call/text away as well as one of the owners, who I did end up calling to confirm one final task before leaving. But it was getting late so we left and then she called as I got in the car, ha. That call ended up being a good one as we talked for about half an hour as I drove him. It ranged from Sunday itself, some of the staff, as well as asking for advice. I ended it by saying something I've mentioned to a few in regards to how I feel about working there. "I think I'm where I'm supposed to be." And that's how my first 5-day shift ended. 

ETC========================= 

- Happy Birthday, BoA (11.05). 

- Happy Birthday, Momo (11.09). 

- Red Velvet - Chill Kill (MV) 

- Red Velvet Wendy - Leemujin Service 

- Red Velvet - Killing Voice 

Chill Kill is a good album. And while Wendy has always been my favorite in the group, her appearance on Leemujin Service and the group's appearance on Killing Voice has reminded me of why. 

- ITZY Lia - Blossom (lyric video) 

Get better soon, Lia. Anytime a new variety show video is uploaded and she's in there, I react with an "aww, Lia" or "yay, Lia." 

- Jessica - BEEP BEEP (MV) 

- MISAMO JAPAN SHOWCASE "Masterpiece" 

Even though I already watched it, I'm thinking of getting this for myself as a Christmas present along with an import of a game (free shipping). 

- TAEYEON Concert 'The ODD of LOVE' in Seoul 

How I spent my Thanksgiving; TAENGsgiving. 

- TaeYeon - To. X (MV) 

- In the past, I've mentioned how I interact less in Discord servers and streams. That is now leaking to social media in general. For example, I don't post my predictions for wrestling PPVs/PLEs anymore. I am sharing a bit more about work. And then all the clips from streams are almost uploaded to Instagram. So I don't know what I'll post on there afterwards. Maybe nothing? Maybe shift it to reflect images I post on Twitter/X instead of only sharing it as Stories. But then what of Stories? Although I may start converting all my VHS tapes to digital files in the near future. Maybe that can be the shift. Tune in and find out. 

That's a wrap on November 2023. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind. 




"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 

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