Friday, August 1, 2014

July 2014 Entry



I don't think I'll forget this month for a long time.

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- Originally, I had no July 4th plans this year. I actually wasn't sure if work was letting us off that day (since they have a record of taking away holidays). So after finding out, I asked around and most already had plans. I ended up meeting with a friend I had not seen for a few months at the City Centre. We chilled outside and caught up for a bit before deciding to go to Crawfish Cafe. I had not been to the one in Katy yet. Our friend (the owner) was there as well and we caught up a bit with her. Other than that, it was just eating and talking. Probably the most chill July 4th I've had in a long time.

- The fifth of July was meant to be a bike ride outing with a friend and I. The heavy rain changed those plans completely. I suggested we go eat at George's Pastaria, but they just happened to be closed until later at night. We ended up going to get shakes (can't remember the name) while waiting for the rain to let up, which it did not. We drove out to Katy Mills mall since we both have not been there in a long time. We walked the entire mall stopping at certain stores (arcade, comic store, shoe stores, etc). I was actually amazed that the mall was still good and had a lot to do (massages, food, trampoline area, etc). I wouldn't mind going back and doing more as we didn't do too much even though we were there over an hour. After that, we picked up food for his sister and went to Crawfish Cafe. Yes, he suggested we go there. I didn't want to go there twice, but I can't complain about it either. More eating and talking. The last stop was Fry's just to look around before I dropped him off. I enjoyed the miscellaneous ventures that occurred, but was hoping we could have done more and with others.

- Julie Zhan is a wonderful dancer and cheerful soul. I've always been a big supporter of her work. But I never expected to see my face in one of her videos. My "cameo" made me freak out when I saw it on the 9th. If you haven't seen it, I'm towards the end of the video.


- Got two new hats via ThinkGeek. That brings the total to 14. I need a better way to display them though.


- The 12th was the celebration of a friend's birthday. Saw a few faces I had not seen in years during dinner at Buon Appetito Ristorante Italiano. The food was good, but the place could do better with more parking. After that, a few of us went to Houston Escape Room. I had wanted to go there ever since hearing about it. It was a tough place to find (at night). We were actually a little late. We were teamed up with 4 strangers to have a full team of 10. The goal was to find and decipher clues, find the hidden treasure, and find the key to escape the room all within an hour. It was so much fun. Finding clues was always good and solving them was always a rush. There were a few frustrations as we couldn't figure out how to open locked items or figure out certain clues. Unfortunately, we did not find the treasure or find the key to escape in the hour. We were so close too. I enjoyed this experience a lot though and have recommended it to friends to try out.


I forget the name of the ice cream place we went to afterwards to talk, but I do remember we tried Bean Boozled since I gave a couple boxes as presents. Yeah, I have bad luck with that game, ha. I swear I've eaten the bad flavors 90% of the time. Anyways, that ended the night.

- I was supposed to meet with a friend on the 1st, but it got delayed to the 13th. She came over so we could plan part one of two for our dual early birthday celebrations. Part two was to be discussed and planned later. The plan was to go to Dallas to King Spa. She never had been and she was interested and I really like that place. Plus the indoor water park recently opened so I was looking forward to that. After we figured that out, we watched parts of my Roast since she was interested in throwing one for a friend. Other than that, we were just generally catching up.

Unfortunately, all those plans we made (and were to be made) had to be cancelled. Hopefully we figure out something to do in the near future.

 - On the 15th, a few of us gathered at a friend's apartment just to catch up and talk silly talk over martinis. The mango cream martinis he made were pretty good. And we sure talked about a bunch of dumb stuff that night, ha.


- I got 3 packages in the course of one week. I decided to open them a week later (27th), which will be explained later. One will be mentioned later in this post. The first one I opened arrived on the 26th. It was the blu-ray of Make Your Move starring BoA. Just bought it in support of her just like when I saw the movie in the theatre. Not the greatest movie, but I would recommend watching the dance scenes.


The second one that arrived (25th) was the second one I opened. It contained SNSD's The Best (first press limited complete edition). Pretty good package with cool content. I ended up watching the blu-ray the same day. I forgot that SNSD had so many Japanese music videos. It was a blast to see them all again and more.


- I had bought tickets to see RAW on the 28th. I was feeling a little under the weather and fatigued that weekend, but was mainly just coughing that Monday. Met up with my friend so we can carpool like usual. We caught up and I was surprised one of his photos got published in a wrestling book, very awesome.

RAW was good. We were on the side with the hard camera pointed at us so we could've easily been seen on TV if shot right (so far I've only seen us a little, oh well). That also meant that during promos, the wrestlers were showing their back to us, ha. We've sat almost every angle except where the hard camera is. Hopefully we will one day, but those tickets go away the fastest. Fun show.


- I pre-ordered the Chogokin Hello Kitty back in April. It finally was released in July and mine arrived at my door on the 30th. This thing is great. Amazing quality. It's small and very heavy (I don't pay attention to measurements, ha). While you can set it up in a number of positions, it took me a while to figure out. I'm overall impressed with it. I'll be watching out for possible future Chogokin figures to add to my collection.


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- Sting is finally in the WWE. "It's show time, folks!"

- Shovel Knight (Wii U eShop) - Review
I had a gaming drought after finishing Pikmin 3. I had heard all the praise Shovel Knight had received and decided to download it on the 6th (beat it on the 12th). I made a great decision. It's such a fantastic game harkening back to old school games. Read my review and download it if you haven't already.


- The Club Nintendo end of the year rewards were all downloadable titles. I opted to get Dillon's Rolling Western for my 3DS on the 16th. I chose it mainly for the fact that it was different from most games I would play. I don't really like tower defense games, but this one had some charm.


- A dear friend of mine surprised me and got me a Luigi Nendoroid. I've never had a Nendoroid before (eyed quite a few over the years). The quality of these figures are great. While I am running out of space to display these things, I'll keep my eyes open for a few select ones I would "need" to get. Thank you, friend.


- Nintendo Minute held a Twitter giveaway contest back when Mario Kart 8 was released on May 30th. I thought nothing of it and just entered like I have for a few other giveaways they've done.


On June 17th, they actually DM'd me informing me that I was one of the winners. I gave them the information they needed and then we communicated via email on the 24th. What I did not know was that all the winners were getting all the prizes they mentioned in their video. I thought I would just be getting one of the items mentioned. I was surprised when they asked for my QR code because I knew why.

I received the first set of prizes on the 7th of July. 5 Mario Kart 8 flags (bigger than the ones given away at a Best Buy event), a Blue Shell trophy, and a thank you card.


Honestly, that would have been enough. But the last item arrived on the 21st (but I didn't open it until the 27th). It was my very own Mario Kart 8 Mii figurine. That's why they needed my QR code. They asked whether I wanted it on a Kart or a Bike. At first I said Bike since I used it more in the game, but opted for the Kart since the name of the game is Mario KART. It's so awesome. The fact that it's a special customized one of my Mii just makes it rare and unique. I'd venture to call it the greatest prize I've ever won.


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- f(x) - Red Light

I actually prefer All Night off their new album. The album itself is pretty good, but I thought Pink Tape was just a little better. And it's unfortunate that they had to cut their promotions short.


- Girl's Day - Darling

I'm glad I'm into Girl's Day. They're all very talented. Minah is my favorite with Yura being second (plus the reason I watch We Got Married right now). Their latest mini album is good. My favorite is Look At Me. I'm embedding two of those performances. The first being a full performance of it and the second is when Minah's voice cracks. Her reaction was too cute.



- Sistar - Touch My Body

There aren't that many concepts and songs I dislike from Sistar ever since I started following them. Touch My Body is no exception. OK GO and Naughty Hands are my other favorites off their latest album.


- Hyuna - RED

While I've been a fan of Hyuna for a while (inside and outside of 4Minute), I never really had liked much of her solo stuff. But this latest one is pretty good. RED and Black List are really good songs.

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On July 19th, my Grandma Gina passed away. I wrote my thoughts down in a post that day just to get it out of my mind. You can read that via the following link if you haven't already and so I don't have to repeat myself.

http://forevergracefulimpact.blogspot.com/2014/07/rest-in-peace-grandma-gina.html

That night, my ex came into town with her husband and we were planning to go out. I wanted to go and forget things for a while, but we ended up not hanging out. I also cancelled on them on going to the Colombian Festival the following day on the 20th. My ex did suggest that I puppy-sit her dog Machete in hopes that I would feel better. She dropped her off.

Machete was a good puppy. Very quiet. I'm pretty sure she only barked twice the whole 8-9 hours I took care of her. It didn't take long for us to get accustomed to each other. I wasn't sure if she would run away so I only let her run around in the backyard a lot. I'm also glad she could eat human food so it was easy to give her some leftover chicken. My dad also took care of her so I could eat my own meals. I'm sure taking care of Machete was good for him as well. It was easy especially the latter hours of her stay since I had worn her out by running around the backyard many times. She mainly fell asleep on my bed, ha. Overall, I'm glad I was able to puppy-sit. I needed it for my sanity and to not just be depressed about my grandmother. Thanks, Machete. You're such a good dog.


On Monday, I did decide to go to work. Plans for the family had not been set other than our family from New Mexico was arriving that day to stay with us. I told work I needed the rest of the week off due to a death in the family and they granted it. I was also receiving texts, calls, and online messages from family about stuff concerning the funeral.

The family from New Mexico (aunt, cousin and his wife) had arrived earlier the day and I greeted them when I came home from work. My cousin actually filled me on grandma's final minutes and what actually happened as the three of them were there. The doctor suggested a surgery to help a deteriorated vein/artery with a 50/50 chance of success, but she opted against it. Apparently she always said she never wanted to have tubes or anything put into her or be a vegetable. She felt it was her time to go and she was ready to go. And minutes later...she peacefully passed away. I could see it in his face and hear it in his voice...it was hard for him to tell this story.

The plan was made for some of the family to get together and discuss things. My parents drove my aunt (dad's sister) and my cousin's wife while my cousin and I rode together. He and I caught up a lot and just laughed a lot about dumb things. While at another aunt's, the adults were to talk about arrangements for the viewing and funeral while the kids were looking over pictures to select for a memory board, slide show, photo album, and anything else. It was good to connect with the cousins as we rarely do get together (not all were present). It was mostly just sharing memories and stories of grandma as well as general catching up and planning. This went on way into the night and we all left around 9 to end the day.

Tuesday was the day of the viewing. There wasn't much to do in the day earlier except to take my cousin and his wife to buy a few things. During some of our free time, my cousin was playing a Dreamcast emulator I had with old NES games since we talked about old games during our drive the previous day. He mainly played Double Dragon II. It was a good distraction which he took in every day.

The viewing was at 6PM. We were one of the first to arrive. I'm glad we were because I had a good amount of time just to look over Grandma Gina and say what I needed to her without that many people around. The tears flowed early and did throughout most of the 3 hours there as I saw almost everyone's reactions to seeing her. It was good to just be in the company of family and others that loved our grandmother so much. I was surprised to see members from my mom's side of my family show up.

As more people gathered, emotions were all over the place. We cried, we hugged, we laughed, everything. One of our cousin's that was living out of state with her husband flew in that day. She recently announced she was pregnant and announced to us that day the sex of the baby, a boy. We were all so happy since our family was low on males, ha. But it was definitely one of the brighter parts of the viewing.

One of my contributions was setting up my laptop to play the video clips I recorded during Grandma Gina's 90th birthday. Knowing how I felt watching it the day of her passing, I knew those watching would want to see these video clips as well and just watch as she was enjoying herself.

After the viewing ended, a lot of us went to an uncle's house to eat. Good food, good stories, and good laughs. One of the hilarious things that happened was a couple of my aunts asking the other to "speak in English since some of us don't understand" only to have them immediately respond afterwards in Tagalog and me responding with "speak in English since some of us don't understand." Then a lot of the stories (due to our cousin being pregnant) were about how long all our child births were and how much we weighed. Apparently, I weighed the most at over 8 pounds. I always knew I weighed a lot, but I didn't know I weighed the most out of all the cousins. I think we left around 10 and got home around 11PM.

Wednesday was the funeral at 10AM. Like I said to a few family members that day, it was weird waking up knowing what we were going to do. I believe we were first there arriving a little before 10. A lot of us grand kids took to task to doing individual things to help out. On top of that, all the grandsons and one in-law were to be pall bearers. The first hour was mainly for attendees to arrive. Once it was getting closer to 11, you could see the mood shift.

All the granddaughters that were there as well as all the daughters of Grandma Gina were given roses to place in her casket before it was to be closed. The outpour of tears could not be contained. I was fighting the tears watching them go up, but when my cousin came back to sit next to me with tears in her eyes, I couldn't fight it anymore. Her casket had closed and all of us were sad to be losing her. One our uncle-in-laws spoke to all of us on stage. A few months ago, his mother had passed away and here he was going through this all over again. He noted how it was different though. While his mom was fighting a painful journey, Grandma Gina had made the choice to go. While they knew it was only a matter of time for his mom to finally pass, Grandma Gina's happened out of the blue. While his family had time to prepare for his mother's passing, none of us were ready for Grandma Gina to leave us. He said more, but those were the more memorable parts for me.

He then passed it over to the pastor. The pastor spoke well of Grandma Gina. He mentioned that her pansit was the best, her two favorite TV shows were The Price is Right and Wheel of Fortune, and that any time she walked into any church she always had a smile that radiated out to everyone.

Soon after, it was time to move to the cemetery. Emotion was still coming out of everyone as we were hugging and thanking everyone that was there. The pall bearers stayed behind and were given instructions. We all put a hand on the casket as we wheeled it over into the hearse. We all then drove to the cemetery. The pall bearers gathered again to wheel the casket into the mausoleum. Everyone took their seats as the pastor told us what was to happen next. As we were leaving the mausoleum, much like I did for my grandmother in Canada when she passed away, I kissed the casket before leaving. We then stayed outside as we saw the workers place Grandma Gina's coffin in the compartment next to our grandfather. Emotions were running high again. When the wall was sealed up, many of us placed flowers next to it and stood by to say any final words. It was a long 5 days...and then it was over. Rest In Peace. We love you, Grandma Gina.

We all met at an aunt's house afterwards to eat and just be with each other. Us grand kids took over one of the rooms and just had fun with each other like we always do. Many hours in, we tried to make plans for the following day for just us. The choices boiled down to Schlitterbahn or Main Event. Many had left a while ago. I left around 5PM. A lot of us turned in early that night to try to regain a few hours of sleep we had lost.

The plan for Thursday was mixed. Some cousins went to Schlitterbahn. I took my cousin to finally get the Whataburger he had been craving as well as to take him around to a few places that aren't in New Mexico (First Colony Mall, Main Event, Fry's). A few hours later, we met up with the rest of the grand kids at where I suggested to eat, Korean Noodle House. My cousin and I were there early and I ended up helping the lady owner rearrange the seats we reserved, ha. It was good to have all of us just together without the adults.

After that, one cousin wanted to go to Petite Sweets. Then we went to Chocolate Bar close by as almost none of them had ever been there before. They absolutely enjoyed themselves. Everyone pretty much bought something (some more than others) and we were all happily sharing with each other and taking photos. I actually ran into a friend there who I assumed I would see as it was Chocolate Bar's Thursday dance nights. Overall, it was a fantastic night. Probably the first day for all of us to be normal. Besides, our grandmother wouldn't want us mourning forever. She would want us to be having fun with each other and celebrating her life if anything.

Friday ended up being the final day for family. The family from New Mexico that as staying with us was leaving that so it was our turn to host the rest of the family for the day. Unfortunately, not all could make it. Most of them showed up around 1-2PM. We all ate, but it was definitely different this time around. You can tell that most of us were fatigued and emotionally drained. Not only that, but almost every time an aunt left, they cried. We all knew it was the final day and the start of the healing process after the passing of Grandma Gina. Hours after everyone left, the family from New Mexico started to pack up their car. Around 8PM, we said our goodbyes with tears in our eyes. And that was it. Family time was over and it was time to continue on with our lives.

One last thing that happened, due to a lot of us losing sleep and being generally fatigued, most of the family got sick that weekend. As of typing this (07.31.14), most have recovered. I myself finally feel back to normal health-wise. And ever since hearing of grandma's passing, I have yet to fall asleep normally. I had to have something playing in the background so my mind wouldn't think. Hopefully I'll get back to sleeping normal soon.

I didn't make it public that my grandmother passed away. I only told a handful of friends and coworkers. I still haven't told a lot of friends what had happened. Some did notice my absence from social media. That and a few other things I changed during this time with family. To those that did send kind words my way, thank you very much. And to anyone that read all of this, thank you. I needed to write all this as part of my healing process.

Genoveva Ragasa
December 1, 1922 - July 19, 2014

8 children (5 daughters, 3 sons)
14 grandchildren (8 granddaughters, 6 grandsons)
7 great granddaughters
4 great great granddaughters


We all love you and miss you, Grandma Gina.

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

Take care. DFTBA.


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Saturday, July 19, 2014

Rest In Peace, Grandma Gina

She would have been 92 this year. Honestly, I thought she would reach 100.

I saw that a cousin posted a photo of her on her Facebook saying that she was in the hospital. Then there were calls trying to reach my dad. I told my dad to check his phone. When I saw him again as I was going to eat dinner, he informed me that she passed away. My mom explained that grandma was in the hospital last night complaining of chest pains. She ended up having a blood clot. Today between 7-8PM, she passed away.

I actually couldn't eat. I just went back upstairs to my room and cried as I was thinking about her. Soon after, I checked my harddrives to specifically watch video clips I had taken during her 90th birthday. It was very heartwarming, but hurt to watch. Seeing our family laughing and with smiles around her, seeing her with 7 of her 8 children, seeing her with her grandchildren. At that point, she lived to see 4 generations under her. I don't know if she ever met her great great granddaughter though. I hope she did.

Slowly, my cousins started posting photos of her on their Facebook. They changed their profile photos and cover images to her. In that same vein, I wanted to post a video of her, but I couldn't. I think I'll just leave the videos most likely for her funeral. I can find all the clips I have of her and have the whole family around watching together. I don't know. We'll see. I just feel that those moments are just for us to remember her.

This was a day I did not look forward to. We all have our day when we will pass, but she was still living a great life and visiting her family all over the world. She was also my last living grandparent. I never met either of my grandfathers as they passed before I was born. My mom's mom passed away over 10 years ago when I was still in high school. That was rough as well. This one hurts more. I hated thinking about it, but I knew that when this day were to come that her funeral would be one of the saddest days of my life.

I also knew this would be the one time I'd see my dad not all together. It really hurt to see my dad not knowing what to do. He walked around a bit and was trying to figure out what to do next. He already asked if I could go with him to where she passed, in New Mexico. Once a plan is figured out, I'll do whatever needs to be done. And I know he's not big on showing sad emotions so all I could do was offer my arm around his shoulder. I saw him later outside digging and taking care of his plants and it brought tears to my eyes. I really admire his strength. It was also difficult not to cry in front of him myself since talking or asking about it brought the tears out. I also became a facilitator of calls as family was trying to contact him, but only had my number. I could listen in on some of the conversations between him and his siblings. They're all really strong. Grandma was definitely proud of each one of them.

There was only one thing I ever wanted for her and unfortunately it can never happen now. I wanted her to be there when I finally got married. Anytime we were together for family events, she always asked if I had a girlfriend and that she wanted more great grand kids. I'm sorry that I couldn't do that for you, Grandma Gina. The only thing I can do for you now is find someone I know you'll be proud of and a woman that makes me happy.

You were loved by so many and you loved us all in return. If we could all be happy and lead amazing lives like you did, we'd be lucky. Thank you for everything you ever did for us. Rest In Peace, Lola. I miss you and I love you, Grandma Gina.


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Tuesday, July 1, 2014

June 2014 Entry

June. June was very memorable.

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- I know I didn't talk about work last month. There wasn't anything to report. I did mention the 3 month notice I put in. That 3 months has passed and I'm still there. I've been there for a year now. As much as I wanted to quit, it would have been an idiotic decision to do so since I couldn't find work elsewhere. I did not want to repeat history that happened 3-4 years ago when I first left. It cost me a lot.

- A fishing trip was planned at least a month or two ago to happen on the 7th. The plan got cancelled due to being the main planner getting sick. He fortunately got better and the fishing plan continued, but it was only him and myself just like last year.

We went out farther than usual. While I still wasn't able to catch a fish, I did catch 9 crabs. 210 minutes out there, we caught 13 crabs and my friend caught one catfish. On the ferry ride back, we actually played  4 Swords and Steel Diver Sub Wars on our 3DSs. Both were fun and we were both surprised with how much we got into Steel Diver. Unfortunately, we got caught in traffic on the way back, but that led to tons of catching up and silly conversations including talk about having to pee in a bottle while on the road, ha.



- Another friend and I had been trying to catch up with each other for a long time now and it finally happened on the 11th. We planned to eat at Zushi, but they were mysteriously closed. So we went to Nori (had not been there since her birthday a few years ago). We caught up and talked a lot about doing a Roast and mine in particular.

Then we went to her place to play games on the Wii U. First time we actually played games together. After she made her own Mii, we played Super Mario 3D World, Spin The Bottle: Bumpie's Party, and Nintendo Land. Good fun. She has huge dogs, ha.

- Met up with another friend on the 17th. She suggested Fat Bao (never been there before, very good food). Of course we caught up as usual and then we continued talking at Bite Macaron (first time for her being there). I was hoping my friend that owns the place would be there, but she wasn't. She and I still need to catch up.


- I was invited to a pre-screening of Transformers 4: Age of Extinction on the 25th. Wasn't planning to see it, but it was free. Met up with one of my dear friends and he and I finally got to have a talk session we'd been wanting to have for weeks. It really felt good. That talk continued on the car ride. We met our third party member at the theater around 5 and got to our place in line and waited. More talking occurred and we got our free passes close to 6. They let us into the theater at 7. Transformers then started at 7:30. The movie ended at 10.

As soon as the credits rolled, my friend whispered "let's get out of here." Yeah, we three did not enjoy the movie. As I tweeted out, Transformers 4 was not great. Some good parts, but a lot of unnecessary scenes and about an hour too long. Glad I didn't have to pay for it. Jeff Canata (formerly of The Totally Rad Show) did not like the movie as well.


- Caught up with another friend on the 27th over pizza and a puzzle. I tried getting her to come out to dinner earlier in the week, but she couldn't. But this was a good talk. I sucked at the puzzle, but the long talk (until 2AM) was a great.


- 2 WWE PPVs this month. Payback was fun and Money In The Bank was crazy. Reading stuff online in regards to wrestling, I feel like I'm watching a different product from them. Maybe I just don't complain that much. Yes, the wrestling business isn't perfect and it could be better, but I still enjoy it. If you don't or haven't for a long time, just stop watching.

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- I recently posted on my WingedVoX Facebook page that I'll be toning down on what I share on it. Basically, the content I've been posting there has drastically decreased. Instead of posting all the gaming related articles I'm interested, I'm mainly posting stuff I have to actually write about (reviews, Miiverse, etc). I'll still share some videos and articles from others, but just not as frequently. I will still retweet everything gaming related I like though. The analytics do look way better, but the participation and activity is still low. Still haven't reached 100 Likes since starting the page in 2012.

- E3 2014 was exciting. There's too much to mention, but all 3 big companies did great. If I were to rank them...Sony last, Microsoft second, and Nintendo first (because I'm biased). I only added a few games to my to-buy list, but I'm excited for more fun games.

- My RetroN 5 was finally delivered from Amazon. I was lucky to get in on the pre-orders in January. I took a lot of photos and posted my thoughts about it. Click the proceeding link to see if it's worth it for you.

https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/641277315960272?ref=notif&notif_t=like

- Imported Namco X Capcom for collection purposes. I really enjoyed Project X Zone and was always hoping that Namco X Capcom would come stateside, but it never did. But I at least now own a copy of it.


- Every Street Fighter fan should watch Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist. Everything (except the subtitles) was done tremendously well. I do hope they continue it or maybe do a new series based on other characters from the Street Fighter universe.


- Mega May ended last month and you read how psyched I was about it. I got around to playing the final offer, Mega Man Xtreme 2. That was a tough one. It was very good though. I just couldn't complete it in a few hours like I did the others (took a couple days).


- Mario Kart 8 (Wii U) - Review
I played a lot of Mario Kart 8. It actually hurt because I would hold the accelerator button down hard (didn't have to) for a long time. I did almost everything in that game. I got 3 Stars on all cups (the last few took a lot of tries). I did not get all the gold pieces or all the custom vehicle parts and I did not get all the stamps from beating all the Time Trial staff ghosts.

I did participate in 2 GameXplain world wide tournaments. Those were tough. Even though I got 116 and 123 coins at the end of 16 races, I was only around the halfway mark in the rankings. It was fun though. Same with playing with others online. Other than that, I think I'm done with the game. Took it out of the Wii U the day after the latest tournament.

Check out the highlight videos I uploaded from playing the game.


- It happened. I finally played Spin The Bottle: Bumpie's Party. I mentioned it above that I played it with a friend. She actually wanted to play it not knowing what it was, ha. I will say, it definitely is silly/awkward like videos have shown. We were stupified and giggling a lot while playing. I definitely want to play it again with more people.

- Wii Sports Club released Baseball and Boxing. And they offered free passes to play everything so I got to try Golf. Golf is way harder now. The Motion Plus means you need to be incredibly accurate with it, which I couldn't get a grasp on. Boxing works fine although you need to be super accurate as well if you're going to box online against others. Baseball is the best offline and online. That's my favorite out of the three. Tennis is probably the easiest for anyone to play while Bowling is still fun.

I did find out that the gyroscopes on my newer Wiimotes go off sync a lot. My older Wiimotes with the Motion Plus attached to them work way better.


- The free game I downloaded thanks to Mario Kart 8 was Pikmin 3. I started playing it on the 18th and beat it on the 29th. My first Pikmin game (not counting Nintendo Land or using Olimar in Brawl) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There was a lot of charm and challenge and the game was amazingly gorgeous. That timer, man...that definitely adds to the challenge and that's the only issue I had with the game, which isn't even that bad. I think I'll be buying future Pikmin games from now on.


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A friend threw together a Teacher Karaoke party on the 12th. I didn't expect much from it other than just a fun karaoke gathering on a Thursday night. To my surprise, I was reunited with a friend I had not seen in 12-14 years. When my friend was introducing everyone to her, she stared at me and said "I think I know you" or "you look familiar." Yeah, we did know each other.

So other than singing, she and I were mainly catching up. It got to the point where she was hungry so we decided to bounce and leave karaoke early. A quick stop at HEB to get something for her ailing foot and then we went to House of Pies to eat and talk more. We actually established whether we were going to date or not that first night. The answer, no. It's okay. It was great catching up and realizing that while we've both gone through a lot in the 12-14 years of not seeing each other, we were back to how we were, instantly clicking. We reminisced a lot, which involved me having to remind her of a lot that we did. Mostly random adventures like "I want cookies. Let's get cookies" to much more. I even said that if she needs someone to have more random adventures with, I'm up for it. Great night for me and a happy birthday for her.

And then the random adventures started again on the 14th. Originally, I had typed out in detail what we did, but it was running long. So I'll just list out what we did over the course of 2 weekends. All days also had time to just chill.

06.14 - West Oaks Mall, Memorial City Mall, Panda Express, 429, dinner
06.15 - Bean Boozled
06.19 - Lakewood - Hope & Faith/Love (Hillsong), Pink Berry, Nachos
06.20 - Original OKRA Charity Saloon/FYP, 429 Homeless Donation, almost getting hit by a car, Lakewood - Hope & Faith/Love (Hillsong and service), Pho 24
06.21 - Shopping, 429, Applebee's
06.22 - Sally's, Mall, Phoenicia, Dinner, Hair Dye (the dark blue is too dark to see unfortunately)
06.27 - Talk



Living 7-10 minutes away helps with getting together to do stuff. Coincidentally, we work about 10 minutes from each other as well. But we had to pump the breaks on our adventures for a while as she has gotten busy with church stuff. We both knew that was going to happen, but I'm looking forward to the adventures starting back up again. It was probably good timing since we wanted to squelch dating rumors (I know I've been asked, don't know about her). My parents even questioned if we were dating since they saw her a lot (we both have told them we weren't).

Another thing, my spiritual side has been reawakened. I'm not religious, but I do believe in things. My friend could tell that I had a spiritual side to me. That combined with going to church has definitely made me more emotional whether it's good or not.

Thing is, I just haven't interacted with anyone like that in a long time. Doing random things, hanging out a lot, talking and texting on a daily basis...I haven't done that with anyone in years. I don't even talk to my close friends on a daily basis. So having reunited with her is great and I'm glad she's back in my life (as a friend).

=========================

- I wrote a post on my Facebook (06.12) about quitting as a videographer. It had been something I thought about for a while now. I even talked to a close friend before posting it just to get an opinion beforehand. While he wasn't thrilled to hear it, he encouraged me to do what I needed to do. I posted a few reasons why (there's a lot) I quit and did thank those who supported me and were in any of my videos. Plus I linked 10 videos I am still proud of so it's not like I can't watch any of them anymore.

https://www.facebook.com/arnell.ragasa/posts/10152575765026929

One thing I was surprised by was the lack of response I got from it (not to discredit those that did). But I chalk it up to not many noticing my Facebook posts since I normally just post videos rather than type out things. But it does speak to how the support was in my videographer career. The important thing is that it is done. Only a big opportunity will ever make me want to professionally do this again.

I did sell one of my video cameras, my Sony NEX-VG10 (last video camera I bought back in 2011). The plan was to ask my coworkers first before going to Facebook to see if anyone else was interested. Thankfully one coworker was. I let him try it out for the weekend and he liked it. So he got the friend discount which was almost half off plus an extra battery, memory card, and carrying bag. I'm getting biweekly installments until it is paid off. It felt good selling it and knowing it is getting more use out of it with someone else. Will I sell more equipment? Maybe, we'll see.


- The World Cup does have a lot of the world talking. I'm only keeping up with scores thanks to the desktop page of Twitter. At first I wasn't rooting for any team in particular, but when Japan VS Colombia was happening, I chose Colombia and I'm sticking with them for sentimental reasons.

And speaking of Colombia, I'll be going to the Colombian Festival (to celebrate Colombia's independence day) on July 20th with my friend/ex. She reminded me that we went to one when we were dating. I vaguely remember it. She said it rained and we left early. That jogged my memory a little. I'm glad she told me about it. I recently told her I missed Colombia. Maybe I should go back there some time.

- My Zotto Mola hat finally arrived on the 28th. I ordered it May 1st. The online shop did say it would take a while, but I didn't think it would take almost 2 months. I'm glad I finally have it though. It also came with a free Running Man key chain.


- I finished watching Invincible Youth 2. It originally aired in 2011, but I only saw a few episodes since some places weren't doing great in their subbing. Not that I got the best subtitles with what I watched, but at least I could see it.

Season 2 really could not live up to season 1. Not that it was horrible, but they got new hosts, lost members, and they retooled the show a couple times that it definitely wasn't what it used to be. My biggest take aways from this season was that I like Bora more now and that Suzy is dorky and awesome.

While we're on the subject of Korean variety shows, I'm also watching We Got Married since Yura (Girl's Day) is on it. And of course I'm still watching Running Man. Congratulations on 200 episodes.

- Last month I said my favorite 2NE1 song was Come Back Home. That has changed to Gotta Be You. Come Back Home is still an awesome song, but I think it's the rapping that makes me really like Gotta Be You.


And speaking of rapping, Hyomin's solo activities are kicking off. I actually like Overcome more than Nice Body. I'm hoping she at least performs Overcome a couple of times during her solo run.


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


Take care. DFTBA.

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Sunday, June 1, 2014

May 2014 Entry


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

=========================

- 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.

=========================

- 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.



=========================

- 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.

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