May 2014 Entry

A lot happened in May, but something felt off about this month.

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- Son of Batman was alright. The story was fine. There were just a few things I wasn't fond of (voice acting, animation). It's my least favorite Batman animated movie, but it's not the worst of the DC animated movies. That goes to Superman Unbound.

- A friend gathered a few of us to go to the beach on 05.10.14. The month prior to it, I was working out more than I had been to get my body ready, ha. It was actually tough because I started lifting weights again and my body has not done that for a long time. For a while, push ups were troublesome (heart couldn't handle it). But I gradually got better and things were easier. I didn't bulk up in the end, but I had gained some of my lost definition I was proud of years ago as well as lose a couple of pounds.

I ended up riding with another friend I had only met a couple times. She didn't want to go alone either and unfortunately her husband wasn't able to go. She and I actually ended up being about an hour early. We actually walked to the beach after parking next to the restaurant we were to meet everyone else. I didn't mind though since the weather felt great. The wind was hitting us just right. We headed back to the restaurant, ordered our food, and then the others arrived (7 more). After eating, we all made the short drive to the beach.

As I said before, the weather felt great. The sun wasn't too hot (still got tanned), but it wasn't intolerable by any means. One of the big highlights was playing volleyball. I did step away for a while to calm myself down (ugh) and I came back to see everyone from Taiwan VS the one white girl there, ha. She had been serving and earned way more than 10 points. I decided to join her to make it us versus Taiwan. We also took silly pictures/videos and even made a football boob sand castle.

 

After half the group split, the rest of us made plans to have a cookout back at one of our homes (the one I rode with). We headed back home, she and I went to HEB to pick up meat and beer, we arrive at her house where her husband was ready and waiting to fire up the grill, he and I caught up, I played with their cute puppy, the friend that set up the beach event arrived (minus one), and we had dinner outside by candlelight. One of the girls from the beach rejoined us as we were playing Munchkin. That day ended around 1AM. Definitely a fun day. I was super tired and sunburned, but it was a memorable day.

- Gathered with a few friends I normally don't hang with to watch Godzilla on the 17th. I enjoyed the movie. The story was...meh, but the monster fights were exciting to watch. I would have taken 15 minutes from  the human story and added it to the monster fights. That final deathblow was great and earned an ovation from our theater, ha.

Afterward, we ate dinner nearby and started having a good long talk about relationships. We decided to continue the conversation elsewhere at a Starbucks. It was pretty good to get different perspectives outside of others (whom I might already know what they're going to say beforehand). I think I made it home around 2AM that night.

- The following week I saw X-Men: Days of Future Past with most of the same crew with more on the 24th. X-Men was amazing. There were a lot of clever call outs, great casting, a good story, and it actually encompassed all the previous X-Men movies. I would definitely watch it again.

Unfortunately, this movie viewing reinforced one thing I don't like about watching movies in a theater. Unless it's a comedy, I prefer the audience shut up. It didn't help that those talking were people that were invited. They didn't talk the whole time, but that's more than I want.

- In wrestling watching, I picked up the Wrestlemania XXX and Greatest Wrestling Factions blu-rays. I actually was able to finish all 8 hours of Wrestlemania in one day and it was great to see again. Greatest Wrestling Factions was alright. I had hoped they would talk more about the factions, but they did go through a lot of them. The selections of matches were great too especially the last extra involving the Shield.

NXT Take Over was amazing. It topped NXT Arrival. My favorite match had to have been Charlotte VS Natalya. Best women's match in a long time. Great athleticism, great emotion. And it was an amazing shot seeing Ric Flair with genuine tears in his eyes celebrating with his daughter becoming the new NXT Women's Champion. NXT definitely needs more of these PPV type events. At least 4-5 a year.

This isn't a new thing, but I've been crushing hard on Renee Young a lot more recently (don't worry, Song Ji Hyo is still at the top of the crush list). I had always liked her even before she made it to the WWE. She definitely has been an asset to the company. She had a super cute moment when she got called out by Triple H for not wearing shoes during interviews. Her reaction, priceless and adorable.

And in one of the classiest things the WWE has ever done, this video was made for one of the youngest fans of the WWE and his experience before unfortunately leaving this world way too early. Connor, you are a champion to us all.

- On the 26th, my long time friend since high school graduated. He is officially an RN, MSN, BS. I had originally asked a few friends to come with me and surprise him at his graduation in San Antonio. Only one out of the 7 I asked was able to go and he was actually heading there a day early and staying a day after with his family. So in the end, I drove up to San Antonio alone, which made it my first solo road trip.

The original plan was to leave Sunday morning to save money on a hotel. So that plan stuck even with the last person I was supposed to carpool with that had to cancel the night before. I was awake at 4:30AM, left at 5AM, and fought tiredness even though I slept early the night before. I did sing a lot, which I normally do in the car alone. The only big hurdle was finding a proper place to stop for a bathroom break, ha. Buc-ees was about 40 miles out when I realized I had to go. I didn't think I would make it and there wasn't another exit for about 20 miles. But it didn't seem long before I hit that 20 mile mark so I attempted to just hold on until Buc-ees. But I had more doubt and ended up pulling over. Pulling over was a good idea as I felt better after stretching. Too many cars were passing by so I didn't relieve myself, ha. I was only 5-10 minutes away from Buc-ees at that time. Thank you Buc-ees for having very clean restrooms.

Finally made it to San Antonio after a 3 hour drive. I found St. Mary's University, which was the same place my friend graduated from 4 years ago. Our other friend was already there. I met up with him, but we switched to the opposite side of the arena so we could see the graduates as they walked off the stage. We were pretty much where I was 4 years ago. We were able to hold the top row for our friend's wife, son, and family who arrived minutes later. We were all proud to see our friend graduate. The added bonus was that his son and nephew were there to see him graduate.

After the ceremony, we met up with him to take pictures and then split up to have a celebratory lunch at the Cheesecake Factory at the mall. I was very hungry since I had only some snacks in the car. We split after lunch except for myself and the other friend that drove to San Antonio. He and I went to the Lego store and bought some Simpsons blind bag toys. I was hoping for Mr. Burns, but did not get him, ha. We also went to See's Candies. The worker gave us an amazing dark chocolate sample. I then asked for them to open a store in Houston. There already is one, awesome. I'll have to find it some day.

We then made plans to go play miniature golf with our friend. First, we went to where my friend's family was staying, his sister's place. It was my first time meeting his sisters. They had some friends over and I introduced myself as another son. The dad said I wasn't tall like his son, ha. I changed into the shorts I brought (so I would be dressed comfortably on the ride home) and we were all watching the Lego Movie while waiting for our friend to tell us when he was ready. I got to see maybe 30 minutes of the movie and it was very good and funny. I need to finish it some time.

We met up with our newly graduated friend at the Embassy Miniature Golf course. It had been years since I last played putt putt. Thankfully we all sucked, ha. The people behind us were definitely better than us as they were waiting for us to finish most of the time. Good thing we didn't make a bet of push ups we had previously suggested because we all would have had to do a bunch of them. It was really fun though.

After our 18 holes, the graduate invited us to dinner with his family at Red Lobster, yum. We met up later since he needed to pick up his family. My friend and I just went around to a local Best Buy and Target to look around and kill time. Dinner was good. I had a little fun messing with our cute waitress. The food was delicious, but I couldn't finish it all. I got stuffed fast. And it was also the graduate's mom's birthday so we did a cheers for her.

We said our byes to the graduate's family as we went back to my friend's sister's place so I can get my car. The graduate and his family insisted I stay the night at a hotel and they got a room for me. I was later told my eyes were bloodshot red and that they didn't want me to fall asleep on the drive home (dinner ended at 7 and I would have made it home around 10-11). So I met up with the graduate at the Best Western, got checked in, and parted ways. I got a much needed shower and went to sleep around 11PM. Keep in mind that I didn't plan for an over night stay otherwise I would have packed more clothes and my laptop at least.

Woke up the next morning around 8AM. I checked a few things online before getting ready to leave. I was originally going to leave at noon, but there was no reason for me to stay around longer than I needed. So I left at 11. Unfortunately, it had been raining since early morning and the rain picked up heavily just as I was leaving. I got soaked running to my car. Thankfully I still had my formal wear in the car. I spent a good 10 minutes changing and drying off before setting off.

Wow, I drove in the rain the whole way. According to the forecast, it was going to rain all day. I thought I would be driving away from it, but it seems I brought it along with me. If only I left an hour or two early, the beginning wouldn't have been so bad when leaving San Antonio, which was the worst part. There were times where I could not see a thing in front of me. It was all white and bright due to the rain. I also forgot that it can easily flood in San Antonio. Luckily I didn't hit any flood spots. And thankfully other drivers were smart as we were all turning on our warning lights just so we could see anything on the road. It was very stressful. I think it was a good 45-60 minutes before I was out of that rough patch and heading straight down the highway towards Houston.

All drivers were going 10 miles lower than the speed limit turning a 3 hour drive to 4 hours, but that's okay. Better safe than not. Throughout the whole drive, there were a good 5-7 spots where the traffic grinded to a halt. I took one stop just like before, but at a McDonald's. Once I hit the Katy area, I let out a sigh of relief. I got some Chick-Fil-A and made it home a little after 3PM.

San Antonio was a fun trip. I am very proud of my friend and it was great spending time with his family. I was proud of myself for completing my first solo road trip with no issues. I was nervous going alone because...it was lonely and boring. Plus I didn't want a stupid health issue to kick in and then I had no one to help me. I sang a lot, but having one friend would have made the trip easier to deal with especially that rain situation coming home. At least I know I can do it and would travel solo given the proper reason to go, but I'll opt to have anyone accompany me if possible especially for anything exceeding 2 hours to drive to.

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- I played a lot of games this month, but first...

- DAYTONAAAAAAAAA!

- Bravely Default (3DS) - Review

I already mentioned beating Bravely Default last month, but I wrote my review in May. I always seem to forget stuff when writing these. That includes the next game I beat.

- Child of Light (Wii U eShop) - Review

Child of Light was amazing to look at. Much like Wind Waker HD, I wanted to screen cap everything. The soundtrack is amazing as well. I listened to that a lot the week after beating this game. I think this would be a game for anyone to try even those that don't play games that much. One negative I forgot to mention was that the text was very small to read. It might just be my eyes, ha.

- I had not completed everything by the time I wrote my review for NES REMIX 2. But completing the rest of the stages and beating Super Luigi Bros didn't change anything I mentioned in the review.

- I finally had some down time to play A Link To The Past, which I downloaded back in January. I could have done it all in one sitting if I only realized it the day I booted the game up. Literally, I was doing stuff online and remembered I had this game and immediately stopped what I was doing and turned on the Wii U. I am proud that I remember the majority of the game to this day.

- Mega May happened all month. They released a new Mega Man VC game for the 3DS each week. I was thinking hesitant on getting them at first, but I ended up downloading each title. I didn't play them all right away, but tried to play and beat each one the weekend of their release. All were done in one sitting since they were usually around 2-3 hours long. The only one I haven't played as of typing this is Mega Man Xtreme 2. I do have it downloaded though.

Mega Max Xtreme was amazing. I thought it would be a cruddy port of the SNES classic, but it was pretty faithful. And like all the classic Mega Man Game Boy titles, it took half of the bosses from the main game and the other half consisted of half of the bosses from the next installment. But everything about Xtreme was great. The stages, bosses, and music were faithfully recreated (for a GBC title). I was extremely impressed with this one.

Mega Man II was alright. The controls felt smooth, but the biggest downside to the game was the music. Definitely didn't capture the attention like the much acclaimed tunes did on its NES counterpart. It was still a good game though.

Mega Man III...for some reason...I had a lot of trouble with this one. I know I spent a good hour alone beating Dust Man's stage because of one area, geez.

Mega Man IV had to have been the best of the classics. Game play, music, and recreating everything else about the NES games were pulled off really well.

Mega Man V was actually all new (for the Game Boy games). I didn't know that at first. The bosses were all named after the planets in our solar system. The stages were all different, the music was all new, everything about this was new and I liked it. Worth the extra dollar.

- I compiled a ranking list of all the Mario Kart games in honor of Mario Kart 8 being released. Check it out via the proceeding link.

https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/631050073649663

And Mario Kart 8 itself is so much fun. Everything looks gorgeous too. I'm having a lot of fun using the highlight editor. It's such a simple and easy tool to use for creating highlight videos to share. I've been uploading them to my WingedVoX YouTube channel so you might have seen some. They're all short. 30 seconds is the shortest you can upload and a full race (possibly 3-4 minutes) is the longest.

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- On 05.28.14, I forgot to wear a hat when going out. That's the first time this whole year. I was a little bummed that I actually forgot to do something that had become so routine. No big deal though. I wore one at home for the rest of the day, ha.

- My health has been weird all month. One thing that has happened a lot lately (not consistently) is being dizzy or having my left arm feel numb after eating a big meal. Each time, I also had issues sleeping. I would have to use some of my sleep tactics to help me somewhat slumber.  I have started to eat smaller portions and not stuff myself. That has actually helped a lot.

I did have one bad scenario happen. A coworker offered to make me some tea. I took it and it tasted really good. What I didn't realize until later was that he loaded it with sugar. The last hour of the work day was a little tough to complete. The rest of the day I felt light headed, things felt like they were going slower, and I couldn't really do much. Everything was fine the next day, but it had been a long time since I had something like that mess my body up that much. It really sucks though because as much as I had exercised the month prior for the beach, I pretty much can't do that anymore. And I was very happy with my progression with that. Per usual, things reset to 0 when stuff like this happens. Thankfully, things have been getting back to normal, which is good. I'll just have to monitor myself a little more than I have been.

- While I typed about a lot of events this month, a lot of things got cancelled. I remember in April, it was easier to meet up with friends. This month, it was difficult or impossible to see them. I know we all have our lives and priorities, but it was nuts how many scheduled meet ups didn't happen. Oh well. Here's to hopefully seeing them more in the near future.

- Comicpalooza happened on the 23rd-26th. I opted out on going. I'm just a little bitter about all the work I did last year for the gaming community I was once a part of that went under appreciated. Like I said on Twitter, the new people we recruited to help were great and I appreciated their hard work with this being their first big gig they did for us. The main guy...I only realized it in retrospect that he did nothing for us even though he was the one that wanted to do the event. He only did stuff for his job, the TV station he works for. He didn't do a thing for us and didn't promote all the videos we did like he normally would (and he pretty much was that way for anything he didn't have a hand in). I personally did so much (training the new crew on the spot, scheduling their tasks, finding people to interview since all we wanted to didn't go through because of the same person mentioned earlier, etc) and got so little out of it. Plus I was in a lot of pain since I wasn't used to going around such a big convention.

And there were a lot of wrestlers I wanted to see that were there (Kevin Nash, Bret Hart, Lita, etc) and other guests like a lot of the original Power Rangers and Stan Lee. But I just couldn't get myself to go, not even just for one day. I'll probably go next year though. Just couldn't this year. That gaming community (mainly the top guy) really took a lot out of me looking back on everything. I'm glad I left them. Not everyone was bad and I still support those people (some who left after I did), but not that community. Feel free to unfollow them unsubscribe to them, and unlike them because I did. Thank you for supporting me during that stint though. I appreciate it.

- Maken-Ki was suggested to me by a friend. After he told me about how much he liked the anime, I checked to see how long the series was and then decided to watch it all for the month of May, Maken-Ki May. What I didn't expect was the amount of fan service it delivered. Now, I have nothing against fan service, I just didn't know there would be a lot of it. The second season toned it down a bit (no nipples or panty shots). All in all, it was only an okay anime. Season one was at least building up to something, but then it felt rushed since there were only 12 episodes and was anticlimactic. Season two wasn't leading to anything. They were just random episodes that you could watch out of order and not miss a thing. I really wouldn't recommend it unless you just like fan service.

- I've gotten more into 2NE1 lately. It's not that I didn't like them before, but I didn't have a song of theirs I really liked. It took listening to Come Back Home a lot and then looking up their performances of it to make that my favorite song of theirs (as well as Gotta Be You). I'll keep my eyes on them a lot closer from now on.

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

Take care. DFTBA.

April 2014 Entry

April has come and gone. I know I said that March was a long month, but April really felt long. Long days and sometimes long nights.

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- I don't like acknowledging this, but work sucks. I've slowly realized that I now feel the same way I used to when I last worked at this company and that's a bad thing. I've already spoken to a couple of key people at work to let them know and basically have given them a 3-month notice. I did assure them that my work won't suffer because I've never been that way. If things get better within the next 3 months or some changes happen, I'll stick around. But for now, it's getting harder going into work. My eye had been twitching a lot this month (hasn't twitched in a while) and I have been losing a lot of sleep.

- I have been trying to exercise a bit more. I started lifting these dumbbells I have again. My back was killing me after the first day. A back belt is needed now when I do these. That at least keeps the back pain low, but my heart issues factor in some time. Basically I don't do these exercises for long, only a few minutes before I feel I have to stop before my heart explodes. But things are progressing fairly well. Some progress is better than no progress.

- Wrestlemania XXX happened on the 6th of April and it was amazing. The Hall of Fame the night before was great (especially Jake "The Snake" Roberts and Razor Ramon's speeches). The beginning to Wrestlemania XXX with Hogan, Austin, and The Rock set the tone and I was freaking out like a teenager again, ha. The majority of the matches were great. Capping the night off with Daniel Bryan hoisting the titles in the air with 80000+ people chanting "Yes" was a fantastic sight. He deserved it. I jumped out of my chair when it happened.

The Undertaker's Streak ending...wow. That was the biggest and most unexpected moment of the night. My breath was taken away and I felt like a part of my soul left as well. The reaction from the live audience in attendance was the most real and guttural thing I have ever seen. That moment will live on in infamy as one of the definitive Wrestlemania Moments ever. I watched that scene 4 times and it still shocks me that Paul Heyman's client, Brock Lesnar, conquered The Undertaker's undefeated streak at Wrestlemania.

I made a prediction for the following night on RAW regarding a possible Undertaker/Sting interaction. It didn't happen, but it became one of my most retweeted and favorited tweets I've ever made.

RAW: Undertaker gives farewell speech, Sting appears, challenges him for Wrestlemania 31, double farewell match #Wrestlemania #ThankYouTaker
— Arnell (@ArnellragasA) April 7, 2014

Keeping with the Twitter talk, a week later I made another popular tweet regarding the new Divas Champion, Paige. One of WWE's twitter accounts actually retweeted it and it helped get more retweets and favorites because of them. Thanks.

Paige's scorpion cross lock submission looks amazingly painful. Looking forward to AJ getting her rematch against Paige. #RAW
— Arnell (@ArnellragasA) April 15, 2014

And sadly, 3 days after being inducted into the Hall of Fame, 2 days after appearing at Wrestlemania XXX, and 1 night after gracing the audience on RAW after so many years, The Ultimate Warrior (Jim Hellwig) passed away. It's was so odd reading the news. After coming back and doing all these things, he's gone. In a weird way, it's as if he knew. The Ultimate Warrior was one of my favorite wrestlers when I was a kid. He exuded this energy that you couldn't deny. That and just the kind of person he was is what will keep him in the minds of all his fellow Warriors. You will be missed.

 

- I went to the Japan Festival on the 13th. I think this is the fifth or sixth year in a row going. While it's usually the same thing, I just like going. I always run into people I haven't seen in a long time there.

This year, I ended up taking some of the young kids from the flash mobs with me. They asked to hang out again when we reunited at Anime Matsuri so this was a good time to do it. We went a little later than I had hoped, but the festival does have a different feeling with less people and vendors shutting down. I only took one photo there and it wasn't even Japan Festival related, ha. We went to eat ramen afterwards at Tiger Den. The ramen was pretty good. I wouldn't mind going there again.

 

- I did manage to have about a week where I caught up with friends. Saw 6 of them and it was good catching p with them. One of them and I had an adventure day for Easter where we watched a movie, had Italian, went to the Waterwall, went to the Buffalo Bayou, and ate sushi. Seems we have a new Easter tradition. Let's see if we can continue it.

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- I ordered these 2 figurines of CommanderVideo from the BIT.TRIP series. They're really cool. Unfortunately, the legs are small and the figures started to lean after a couple of weeks. I'm currently keeping them upright with some strategically utilized hair ties.

 

- Two Fit Meters are now in my possession. My first one wasn't calculating my altitude steps accurately. I noticed it after the Japan Festival. It shouldn't have just been 3 steps. I kept track for a week and yeah...I needed a new one. I dropped that one close to 10 times. At first I was impressed that it was still working, but al those drops eventually took its toll. But my new one came in recently and has been working properly.

 

- Game Boy Advance games started to be released on the Wii U's Virtual Console. The one I was looking forward to getting was Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. That was definitely a fun adventure. I never played it before on the GBA, but had played all the ones after it. I'm kind of thinking it's the best of the 4.

 

- NES REMIX 2 (Wii U eShop) - Review

NES REMIX 2 came out. I really enjoyed the first one. Unfortunately, I think the charm has worn off. It's not horrible by any means, but even with a better selection of games it just wasn't as exciting. Read my review. I did something interesting with this one.

 

- I finally beat Bravely Default (04.30.14). My goodness, I put 117 hours into that game. 134 hours if you count the time collected after the party wiped out many times. No review written yet so you'll have to wait for next month's entry to see it on this blog. I did max out all levels and jobs. Pretty close to 100%, but I had to skip some of the last sidequests because they were very difficult. I just wanted to finally beat the game since I was so close. I'm excited to play the sequel whenever it comes out.

My final team (I couldn't get a Miiverse photo of since they blocked the last battle and ending, which is smart) was: Tiz - Performer/White Mage, Agnes - White Mage/Time Mage, Ringabel - Dark Knight/Freelancer, and Edea - Templar/Performer.

 

- Now that Bravely Default has been conquered, the next game on the list is Child of Light. I downloaded it the day before I beat Bravely Default and considered it my prize once I beat it.

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- The Batman short videos for the 75th anniversary of Batman have been phenomenal.

- The Best of RAW: After The Show is a must have for any wrestling fans. There was so much unseen footage that happens after RAW and this collection shows off some of the best. While the majority is great, the best segment has to be the Takeroonie segment, ha.

 

- Anime April happened. I watched anime every day throughout the month of April (except the last day).

First up was Kill La Kill (2 episodes a day). I really enjoyed this one. I knew it was nuts, but I didn't realize how off the wall it really would be. It has to be one of the sillier and crazier animes I've seen in a long time. Definitely recommend it.

Then I rewatched The Vision of Escaflowne (2 episodes a day). I saw it when it originally was released back in 1996. I remembered very little going back into it. The pace was slower and there was more drama than I could recall. The best part of that anime has to be the soundtrack. Familiar tunes were definitely memorable.

Next was Pokemon The Origin (1 episode a day). I really liked this retelling of the Red/Blue/Green game. The crammed it all into 4 episodes and even tied it a little to the recently released X/Y games. I wouldn't have minded had this series been longer or if they did more in this style.

And Anime April ended with me rewatching My Neighbor Totoro. I think I chose this one because of my Fiend or Fauxx Totoro bag. I didn't remember much of this movie since I saw it back in high school. But it is still a wonderful movie. I also find it funny that Totoro and Kill La Kill both have main characters named Satsuki, ha.

For the month of May, I will be watching all of the Maken-Ki series (1, OVA, Special, and 2). I'm calling it Maken-Ki May.

- BoA's movie Make Your Move came out in theatres in the US. I went into it with low expectations and that helped me enjoy it more. Of course it was a dance movie so the plot wasn't the best. I will say though that the movie would have been the same with or without BoA. Her accent is very heavy (which I don't mind), but it was emphasized more because no one else in the movie had an accent. It made her lines sound forced. Her accent isn't even that heavy in her English album, but that's probably because she was singing. I love BoA and everything she does, but Make Your Move isn't a good highlight. I still enjoyed it, but it's hard for me to recommend to anyone that doesn't like BoA or dancing.

 

- As I had mentioned earlier, there were some low parts in April where things just sucked. So I found myself listening to a lot of the Genki Rockets. Listening to their songs always puts me in a good mood.

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

 

Take care. DFTBA.

March 2014 Entry

It's already April. March felt like a long month. By the way, all photos will now be uploaded onto here rather than linked (unless I need to provide a link). I just never figured out why I was able to upload/link photos (Twitter) before to show up and not anymore. I'm still able to do it via Miiverse.

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- Work has been okay. Nothing super interesting to talk about. It has been rather boring. Actually, we recently moved the site to a new address. What that did was make a bunch of links I created for 2-3 weeks obsolete. I'll be fixing those soon, but I wasn't too happy with that.

One cool thing was that work bought lunch for us one day and a coworker suggested we get a super large pizza from Russo's. Never heard of it before, but we enjoyed the XL Pizza. I forget the size, but look at the photo. The 2-liter bottle of coke is for reference. I ate 8 slices.

- I had a minor car accident on the 10th. Not going to get into details, but it was my fault and I hit another car in the family. It's all cosmetic, but any type of car accident sucks. The main thing that was damaged was my passenger side view mirror. It completely shattered. It took a while to get used to driving without one.

We also went through some really trying times with insurance. They were very slow to get to my case. Understandably so since I damaged two family cars, but the missing side mirror was a sure fire way to get pulled over and get a ticket. And I had to drive without it for 3 weeks. At the time of typing this (04.02.14), my car is still getting repaired and I've been driving my rental since the 31st.

*edit* 04.03.14 I got my car back fully repaired.

I actually felt the accident was bad karma. I had a lot of things done, progress of things was going well, and I had a lot of plans prepared. Then this happened. It was horrible timing considering the week it happened. But I digress, things are finally working themselves out.

- Two more secret recordings happened in March. One on the 7th and one on the 28th. I'm liking our progress. Hopefully these secret recordings will soon be something we make public.

- Been watching a lot of the WWE Network. It's great for a long time wrestling fan like me. One thing I've started to do is watch all the Royal Rumble matches (the Rumble itself) in reverse chronological order. It's interesting to see certain wrestlers devolve or who has returned or left.

Another thing I've started to do is listen to the WWE Network while at work. Mainly the Legends of Wrestling round table discussions. I've only seen a few previously, but now I'll catch up this way. I already listen to a lot of podcasts by wrestlers at work so this is just like another one to add.

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- I finally beat Shadow of The Colossus on 03.08.14. I made a lot of progress after the last time I spoke about this. There were actually a few things about the ending I did not know so I was still surprised by the events that unfolded. Great game. Deserving of the adoration it receives.

- Before beating the final Colossus, I actually went out to buy Bravely Default (3DS). I had contemplated buying this for a while. A friend of mine and Vampy talked about the game a lot and it got me interested. My initial reason for not buying it at first was because it fell on the same month as Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. If you recall what I mentioned last month, Tropical Freeze didn't take long to beat. So I needed a game to fill in that gap.

At first I was looking online for the collector's edition, but online stores were sold out of it (obviously) and copies on eBay were going for twice the normal price or more. The day I bought it, I actually went to Best Buy, Toys R Us, Target, and Walmart to check just in case they had a collector's edition lying around. I ended up going to GameStop and picked up the last copy of the game.

After beating Shadow of The Colossus, I dove into Bravely Default. Ever since then, the majority of my free time was spent playing that. As an example, I had Norende rebuilt within 10 days and I was still in Chapter 2, ha. As of today (2nd of April), I'm 78 hours in and have just started Chapter 6.

Unfortunately, I'll have to put Bravely Default away for a while since GBA games will be releasing on the Wii U Virtual Console. I'll finally get to play the first Mario & Luigi game, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. That supposedly takes 18-20 hours. After that, I'll get back into Bravely Default.

- Sonic Lost World released more DLC with a Zelda themed one. I'll give them credit, this one was really well done. A lot of details related to the Zelda universe were crammed into this short level, but it was good. The best parts of this bad game have been the DLC.

- And I still haven't played Spin The Bottle: Bumpie's Party or A Link To The Past (VC) after downloading them back in January. Still waiting for a group gathering to play the games in Spin The Bottle. And I'd probably have played and beaten A Link To The Past were I not playing Bravely Default. It's okay. Eventually I'll get around to both.

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- The weekend of my car accident, I attended Anime Matsuri for the first time. I had not gone previously due to lack of interest and being loyal to a dear friend (won't divulge his reasons for not supporting the event). I actually asked for permission from him to go and he said it was okay because he knew why I wanted to go. My reason for going was to finally meet Vampy Bit Me. I only knew the weekend prior that I'd be going. I asked a few other friends if they were going because I knew I'd need to be around others to want to stick around and in case I fainted upon meeting Vampy, ha. Totally serious about that. A friend of mine had been attending Anime Matsuri for years as an artists selling sushi pillows and prints. I asked if she needed help (even though she already had others) stating my reasons and she was cool with it. I bought my pass the following day, had the accident the day after, and had a hard time sleeping the rest of the week. I also asked to not work that Friday so I could attend all three days.

On the 14th of March, I arrived at the convention around noon on Friday and there was already a line wrapped around the building. Later on I found out that there was a weird process going on with registration and they were letting a few people in at a time. I called my friend to come out and get me with a borrowed artist badge so I could get in with no problem. After situating myself and figuring out what they were selling at the booth, it wasn't long before I ran into friends/acquaintances. While walking around with one, I found Vampy's booth and she was not there yet. I checked a tweet from her shortly after saying that she just arrived in Houston and would be at the convention in about an hour.

So I went back to my friend's booth and helped out while checking StreetPasses I had collected. I collected a lot in a short amount of time. Whenever I had free time throughout all 3 days there, I would dump a lot of my StreetPasses. Mainly Mii Plaza (Puzzle Pieces, Flower Town, and Warrior's Way) and Bravely Default (Norende rebuilding). I pretty much got around 100 Bravely Default StreetPasses each day and that's why I was able to rebuild Norende so fast.

Helping my friend with her booth was fun. I like interacting with people in a silly manner and this was a good environment for that. I'd be saying silly things, doing silly gestures, and just whatever I felt like just so customers would have a good time with us as well.

During one of my many walks around the convention (to see if Vampy arrived yet or not), another booth helper and I were heading back downstairs after going to other floors to see what was going on. We ended up going down a stairwell with a few others. I noticed someone that looked a little familiar going down with us as well, but wasn't sure if it was him. I asked if he needed help and he said something along the lines of he was looking for a way down to the convention floor. He then said "nice hat." I was wearing one of Vampy's Fiend or Fauxx hats (which a few people asked about throughout the weekend). I thanked him and then mentioned he looked familiar. It was JRYU. I knew of him from photos and art pieces he and Vampy worked on together. We found our way down and out and back into the building. I ended up showing him to Vampy's booth and he invited me to join him and talk while he setting things up. We talked about a good half hour about a lot of things like how he met Vampy, how he got into art, cosplay, what I do (we exchanged business cards), stuff about Houston, and just general talk. I learned a bit about Vampy too that I didn't know about. I also met Stella Chuu, another famous cosplayer at the convention (I knew of her, but was not following her work...and I StreetPassed her, ha). He left later to go check up on Vampy to see if she was ready. But that was very awesome to meet JRYU and learn more about the guy. I immediately followed him on Twitter afterwards, ha.

Among the friends I ran into were some of the kids I taught in flash mobs a few years ago. They were actually excited to see me as well since it had been a long time. Caught up with a few of them and met some of their friends as well. I actually had the last part of my day with some of them as we waited in line for Vampy.

Vampy showed up to her booth after her scheduled events around the convention, which was around 7PM. She was cosplaying as the latest iteration of Psylocke. Seeing her actually there made me super nervous all over again. A lot of my nerves calmed down after meeting JRYU and talking with him, but I was glad my flash mob friends were with me in line. They helped keep me calm. While waiting in line, JRYU came out at some point to regulate the line. As he was going back to the table, he greeted me first. Glad he remembered me. The line was super long and the convention was closing. Staff had said that those from this part of the line need to leave and that she'll be back tomorrow and Sunday. Unfortunately for me, I was behind the cut off point. I ended up sneaking next to the booth where a friend that was a staff member was with other staff members, which they were cool with. My flash mob friends left to do other things. At one point, Vampy did turn to me and said "Oh, cool. He's wearing the hat." I blushed and laughed trying to contain my excitement. After some time had passed and the line got shorter, I asked them if it was okay if I was the last one in line. They gave me the okay and I went back in line.

It was finally my turn...and I couldn't think of what to say. Anything I had planned to say was not said. Vampy was just excited as I was. She exclaimed to JRYU "This was the guy I told you about" referring to stuff we talk about on Twitter. She apologized for the posters I ordered not shipping out since she had been busy. So they were going to give me the ones I ordered there. I couldn't remember all of them at the time so they said to tell them tomorrow. She and JRYU complimented me on my shirt (Cloud walking to his motorcycle ala Kineda walking to his in Akira). I also asked her to sign my BAKA hat, yay. I did mention that a few people had asked about the hat. Too bad they couldn't bring any Fiend or Fauxx stuff this time around. I did tell anyone that asked to check the website for them and other items. I can't remember what else we said, but we took a photo. Before that, I gave her my Donutella as a gift. Had Donutella for about year. I'll miss her, but she has a better home now. We took a photo with Donutella. I said my goodbyes to Vampy and JRYU.

I think it's a funny coincidence that I started my admiration for Vampy when she first cosplayed Psylocke and that the first time I meet her is as Psylocke.

 

On the drive home, I smiled the whole way. I just couldn't believe that I finally met Vampy. You have to understand that I've never met any one I've idolized growing up like wrestlers or celebrities. And I haven't met anyone I was interested in and supported as I grew older. Vampy was the first.

- The second day of the convention, I stopped by my friend's macaron shop first, Bite Macaron. She wasn't there in person, so I texted her asking for her recommendations of the best flavors. Got 2 dozen macarons and 6 different flavors; sea salt caramel, vanilla bean, pistachio, passion fruit, black currant, and hazelnut. Then I arrived at the convention a little before noon.

I went to my friend's booth first and helped out for a good hour before heading over to Vampy's booth, which already had a line. This time she was cosplaying as Jun The Swan from Gatchaman. The line again had to be cut off since she had a panel to do. Luckily this time I was ahead of the cut off. JRYU again greeted me in line. Once I was standing next in line, another friend I made through the flash mob called out to me. She was waiting further down the line passed the cut off, which no one dispersed from yet. I greeted both JRYU and Vampy upon my turn at the table. She again mentioned her posters and I actually told her to just sell what she has to people at the convention. I'll get mine eventually and I mentioned that I'm super patient. After saying a few other things, I brought out the macarons. My friend in line said I was cheating by bribing her, ha. Both of them were surprised by it as I told them they are from my friend's shop. She then insisted to take a photo of us and the macarons on her phone as she had been taking photos with her phone with those that brought her food (which were later posted on her Instagram). We both took a macaron, bit into them, and took the photo. Although she pretended to eat hers...I actually ate mine. We took another photo on my phone as well. I insisted on taking a photo with JRYU as well since we were both wearing different Fiend or Fauxx shirts. I told her to share them with JRYU because she does enjoy her food, ha. I left and then went back to my friend's booth and carried on the rest of the day like the previous day.

- The final day was more lax. Went to my friend's booth and did my duties like the day before. Another friend and her sister were attending the convention that day and greeted us. I later saw her in line waiting for Vampy while I was walking around with the flash mobbers again. After leaving them, my friend let me join her in line. I told them about my experiences with Vampy the last two days while we waited. When it was our turn, I actually did a weird bow (down on one knee, arm raised chest level, and head bowed). Vampy was cosplaying as Harman Karn from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. I actually wore my MECHA hat to "match." We talked about a few things. She wanted to make sure if I really wanted my posters or not and I reiterated what I said last time. We also started yelling at a guy with a body pillow since he was holding it as if he were choking it, haha. My friend bought a poster (one of the Psylocke charity ones) and took a photo with her. I got my third and final photo with Vampy as well. She then noticed my Metroid necklace I was wearing and it clicked in my head that I wished she still had the Metroid babies that she and JRYU made a while back because I would have bought one. She told me one thing secretly and it made me happy and I hugged her.

 

After parting, I did booth duty and walked around a few times like before. On one of my final walk arounds, I actually caught JRYU and Vampy as they were leaving. I told them bye and Vampy grabbed my arm as they both said bye. Awesome.

The convention closed earlier the final day. After dropping off my friends at their car with their booth items, I was just recollecting my thoughts of the whole weekend. The few people I already talked to saw my residual excitement as I was recalling my encounters with Vampy.

This was the happiest I had been in a long time. It was great meeting JRYU and finally meeting Vampy. Now I have new friends and memories I will cherish. Thank you, Linda.

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- I'll be starting (have already started by the time I'm typing this) Anime April. I believe I started this last year. Basically, I'll be watching anime every day for the entire month of April. I'll be watching 2 new ones and 2 old ones. Kill La Kill (new), Vision of Escaflowne (I can't remember much that happened in that one), Pokemon The Origin (new), and My Neighbor Totoro (many years have passed since I first saw this movie).

- SNSD ended their Mr. Mr. promotions. It was really short unfortunately. I really like the song and really liked the outfits they wore for this concept. And I was super attracted to Tiffany this time around. I actually received my copy of Mr. Mr. on 03.15.14. It's a really good mini album. One of their best ones in my opinion. And despite not really being able to dance anymore, I do know the dance to Mr. Mr.

- And sadly my friend's puppy, who I fell in love with, is no longer with us. At first she had told me the puppy ran away or possibly dognapped. A few days later, she learned that the puppy was hit by a car. I learned about that from her mother during a phone call (oddly enough on the same day as my car accident). I called my ex later and briefly talked about it because I knew how much that puppy meant to her. I'll admit that I was getting choked up. I never grew attached to a pet that quickly before. She captured my heart in just a few short days. Nip Nip, you were a great puppy and you will be missed.

To add onto to this, Rest In Peace, Tiny. I hope you and Nip Nip are having fun running around and chasing each other in endless fields.

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

 

Take care. DFTBA.