Sunday, November 8, 2015

October 2015 Entry




October was definitely a long month.

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- NXT Takeover: Respect (10.07) was amazing. The entire card was full of great talent and action. But the match of the night (possibly of the year) was Sasha Banks VS Bayley for the NXT Women's Championship in an Ironman Match. Everything about that match was spectacular. One of the highlights was Sasha Banks' interaction with Bayley's number 1 fan, Izzy. My goodness, that moment epitomized Sasha Banks' character and will be replayed many times. The congratulations the 2 women received from the locker room and from the audience...very much deserved. I cried tears of joy at the end of the match and afterwards. Very proud of those 2. I've rewatched their match multiple times and it still gives me chills.  


- Bought the Sting: Into The Light blu-ray (10.13). Took me a little over a week to finish watching all of it. Great documentary of Sting and him coming to the WWE. Very much recommended to all Sting fans.


- During an unexpected day off from work, I ended up watching Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F (10.24). I was always told it was one of the better DBZ movies and I agree. Fun action and good fights. Highly recommend it for any DBZ fan.  

- Hell In A Cell was a good PPV (10.25). All of the matches were entertaining. Highlights for me was the surprise return of Alberto Del Rio (and he won, yay), the Divas match (Nikki and Charlotte put on a heck of a brutal match), and Lesnar VS Undertaker (nice end to their feud and nice lead in for Survivor Series with The Wyatt Family).  

- I finally got to meet my cousin's son for his first birthday (10.31). I don't even remember when they last visited, but I wasn't able to attend. It was supposed to be a costume party, but only myself and 2 other cousins dressed up. I used my Discount Demon outfit again (mentioned later in this post). When I came in, I was greeted by one of my other cousins in her wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man costume she made. It was hilarious. I told her later that obviously she would be the one that would do that, ha.

It was good to see my cousin, her husband, and her son (he's a cute fellow). We played some kid games (pin the eye on the Monsters Inc character, the party decorations theme was Monsters Inc), ate food, played games (I played Mortal Kombat X for the first time), had cake, pet some dogs, caught up with others, talked about HER, opened gifts, found out one of my other younger cousins was dating someone, and it ended with most of the party guests leaving and only the cousins/sisters staying to watch/nap the movie Home. And the most important thing was that we all laughed a lot at/with each other.

This was a much needed day off. Didn't worry (too much) about work and just enjoyed being with family and having a good time with good people.

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- Thanks to a recent sale on ThinkGeek, I impulse bought the Mega Man Mega Buster (10.02). It is cool. I was very impressed with build of it and the accurate sound effects it plays as you use it. Glad to have it. Perhaps I'll get a helmet one of these days.
  

- I beat Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (10.05). As I mentioned last month, it was very fun playing. Definitely delivered a different challenge from the original Shovel Knight. Great free content from Yacht Club Games.


- Super Mario Maker (Wii U) - Review 

It's a super fun game that I was playing daily. But I did hit a ceiling with it once I capped the awards for beating the normal courses in the 100 Mario Challenge. I attempted to do a set of expert courses and it was taking a long time, I died a lot, and I skipped tons of courses I could not beat. I ended up not finishing one full series of expert courses. Since then, I have only come back to check out the stats of my courses after a week.

I will definitely come back to create a new course once the new set of free DLC additions comes out on the 4th of November.

- I only bought 2 new amiibo this month (10.09, 10.18); Chibi-Robo and Light Blue Yarn Yoshi. I might add the Green and Pink and Mega Yarn Yoshi amiibo to my collection soon. We shall see.



- Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash (3DS) - Review

While I really only bought the game for the amiibo (which will be sold separately soon), the game was not that bad. My biggest beef was the ending portion, which I mentioned in my review. Other than that, I enjoyed my time playing it (around 16 hours). Never cared about the other Chibi-Robo games, but I might be in for a sequel to Zip Lash.


- Bought The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes (10.24). The demo was fun so I was amped for playing the full version of the game. I ended up finishing the game on November 1st. The review is already out, but I'll post it and talk a little more about it in next month's entry.


- I also downloaded Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water (10.24). I was excited to get back into the Fatal Frame series, which is my favorite survival horror series. While I wanted to always play it at night to have the proper mood, I'm having to play to play during the day while I have time for it. So far, so good. 


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- One of the big things that happened this month at the Houston Escape Room is that we started to have beta testing for our new room; Episode 3: The Scarlet Scam. One thing we were worried about was if the room was too difficult for first timers. So we put a few things in place. We made sure to put on our website that these were beta tests. Another thing was that we made customers answer a question as the sign up and that was if they had been to an escape room before.

Unfortunately our first team (10.09) was full of first timers. 1 had been to our original location and invited 2 friends. Another couple had been to another escape room and invited a friend. And the last 3 were 12 year old girls that have never been to one before, but heard about escape rooms from their teacher. And...it was bad. A few of the first timers broke things, a lot of things got bypassed or opened up when they weren't supposed to be opened, and overall there was just a bad vibe.

With each beta test, we also tell the group we will talk to them afterwards to ask questions and get feedback. The 3 girls couldn't stay since their parents wanted to them to leave. They at least told me they had fun. The rest...gave a lot of negative feedback (like 75% negative). One guy in particular was just a douchebag from the start. It didn't even look like he wanted to be there and that he was just a third wheel to his friends. Other staff members agreed on that. He just did not get into the game and questioned many things like "why would someone have a security system that does ___? It doesn't make sense." While it was an overall bad first public beta test, it was good that we saw them do things we did not consider or think of. But it did force us to cancel the next day's testing since things broke and needed to be repaired at least in time for the testing the day after. I called the owner afterwards to let him know how it went and yeah...I was not happy with it. 

- We did get things fixed and repaired for the next group of beta testers (10.11). I mentioned going to League City with Agent M to speak in front of a class of kids about escape rooms. This group was the teacher and her friends that really liked when they did their first escape room with us.

This was definitely better than the previous test. They also gave a lot of great feedback. They actually were very talkative and we (and even their own members) had to pull on their reigns to make sure they weren't going off topic. But they all really liked it and it definitely made me and the staff feel better after the disastrous test a few days prior. 

- We unfortunately had a power outage (10.13). We had minimal power so only a few rooms had lights (none of the escape rooms though). Those of us there spent time setting up some of the Halloween decorations and calling customers to let them know we were cancelling. A few hours later, we went to Tout Suite to send out emails to customers and send out refunds. I think we wrapped up around 7PM and just went home for the day. The power was restored the next day.

- Agent M was sick so I had to fill in for him for a few days (10.14). Those were long days since I essentially had to be there from opening to close to cover for him. At least they were productive days, but I was getting tired. Thankfully he was back to work after a couple days of absence. 

- We were contacted by a local media crew, Channel 8, to do a feature story on HER (10.17). The emails went back and forth for a while and weren't the smoothest. But the staff was ready (all with their company shirts on) and I was to be the liaison for the camera crew when they arrive.  

They were actually late by about half an hour. But after that, things went rather well. The film crew (college students) were alright. I wasn't that high on the director as he was treating his crew kind of rough. I did let them know I had previous filming experience so they were actually open to me giving suggestions and directing them and (of course) to tell them what they cannot film. The family that was going to be filmed were contacted ahead of time and they were actually jazzed to be filmed (some more than others). 

After the session, they also interviewed some of the family members and some of the staff. Everything went well. We're still waiting on the final video product (even as of typing this 11.08). Hopefully it turns out well. They did say they would let us see a preview in case we want them to change things. I hope they stick with that.

- I received download codes for The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes demo and I offered the extra 2 to Agent Blue and Agent Gig. We had been talking for a while about figuring out a day to get together to try it out since you have to have 3 people to try the demo. And while I was randomly checking who would be working (10.17) and saw that all 3 of us were closing.

We made sure to do all our closing duties before trying the demo. It turned out to be a short demo (level 1-2) and we did pretty well as a team. It was fun, but again, short. So we decided to try it again, but without talking out loud and using the communication icons the game has. That turned out to be hilarious. Even though we already knew what to do, it definitely was a different experience. There was one part where we needed to totem and Agent Gig and I ended up running in circles chasing each other trying to start the totem, ha. Good fun.


- And the beta tests kept happening (10.18). We had a few happen, but the one on this day was spectacular. They comprised of some of my friends, Agent Yeti's boyfriend and some of her friends (some first timers), and Agent Audrey. It was great seeing Agent Audrey again after so many months. And it was funny seeing her and her brother, Agent Incognito, interact with each other.

The test went over well. They provided some really good feedback and all had a great time. After this and a few other random tests we had (corporate), I started to feel better that Scarlet's room is actually suitable for first timers. 


Although during a random beta test that happened, a vital thing broke and we've had to pump the brakes on any testing until it is fixed.

- Agents ECx2 arrived for their monthly visit. It's always great when they're around. Other than them being around, we had our monthly meeting (10.22). I actually chose this month's activity and had the Agents play Spin The Bottle: Bumpie's Party. I moderated and helped explain the games as everyone else participated in the hilarity. I'm glad everyone had a fun time.

Afterwards, the Agents were busy setting up the rest of the Halloween decorations. At one point, Agent Blue tried out some of my Super Mario Maker courses. I understand how it truly feels to see people play your levels. Fun night.  

- Now I can't speak in detail about what happened on the 23rd, but it was in direct response to what happened on the 22nd. It was a very unfortunate series of events and definitely stands as the biggest thing we've had to deal with at HER.

As we were closing up that night, a lot of us were dumbfounded and out of it. I ended up going to eat with Agents ECx2 to decompress. It was good though. We knew we weren't going to let this keep us down. Funny enough, 2-3 of us got very appropriate fortune cookies that night (mine is the one on the left).


We also had to close down that same weekend due to the impending hurricane. It was a few rough days, but we were able to get things back on track. We also are on the road to making improvements that needed to happen sooner rather than later. 

- A few days later (10.28), I had a meeting with Agents ECx2. It was essentially for them to thank and congratulate me for my one year of service to the company. It was very heartwarming to listen to their appreciation. I was feeling very proud. As I've told them, this is the best job I've ever had. I thank them for being a part of a great team.

We had a follow up meeting a few days later with the Senior Facilitators to talk about the future of the company and the direction we may be heading. It's an exciting time. 

- Halloween! Agent Yeti was in charge of setting up decorations and theming our rooms to have a Halloween vibe to them. It really did get me excited for Halloween more than in the past few years. It was definitely cool to see everything come together.


 


And during the week of Halloween, I decided to dress up for each day of work. All were characters with my own spin on them. I was Business Casual Goku, Modern Day Jump 'N Shoot Man, Fancy Sub-Zero, and Discount Demon.


I actually attempted to do face paint for Discount Demon. I applied black paint all over my face and was getting ready to use some red to outline my face. It was at that time that the paint started to harden and it felt uncomfortable. I kept going for a while, but I started to feel claustrophobic. So I ended up washing it all off. Next time, I'll have to get help with any type of paint job on my body. Some day.

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- Ailee - Insane (MV)

Sucks that Ailee got injured before her performances. At least she still performed. I think it was for the better as she got to focus on the vocals.

- TaeYeon - I (MV)

It's been a long time coming, but TaeYeon finally has her solo album. And of course, it's really good. It was also cool that she got her own little concert, but I would have liked to have seen her do more stage performances of I.

- Stephanie - Up and Up (MV)

Cool to see Stephanie performing again. I kind of like her previous song better than Up and Up though. But I do like that she made an appearance on Running Man. It has been a long time since she had done any variety shows.

- f(x) - 4 Walls (MV)

f(x) returns as a 4 member group now. Great to see them back. The album is not so bad with some good tracks. 4 Walls hasn't hooked me yet, but it is one of their better songs to me.

- In case you never knew what my 3 main hobbies are, I got all 3 of these items on the same day (10.23).  


- I've had really dry eyes over the last month (continues in November). For a while, I didn't do anything about it because it was a short lived nuisance. But the dryness started to last longer and longer. Finally bought some eye drops and they have helped. The dryness doesn't happen that often, but it still occurs more than I would like. It does force me to (at least when I'm home) stay off my computer. It sucks the most when I'm driving. I have plenty of eye drops to last for a while though.   

- October is over. So much happened. I've been busier than ever. I'm glad to say that the goods are outweighing the bad. The one thing I could ask for is a little more free time to hang out with people that want to see me. 

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

 
 
 

PS: BoA with dark black hair, gorgeous. 

"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."

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Thursday, October 1, 2015

September 2015 Entry



September felt long.

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- Thanks to certain people. I also chopped off 5 inches of my hair.

- Got some new Finn Bálor merchandise (arrived 09.03).

- Made plans to meet up with 2 different sets of friends (09.06). The first set was to meet 2 girls from the flash mob who I was still in contact with. They offered to take me out to lunch. Ended up meeting them at Jupiter (had not been there for a while). It was a long wait, but we just shared stories and caught up. When we finally did eat, we each ordered a waffle and shared a pizza (didn't take photos, but they were all good). We were also witness to some gathering where a large group was standing in line to take photos with local celebrities (didn't see who they were).


Went back home to rest for a couple hours (it was hot outside) before meeting with my other friends for dinner. Met them at their place. Caught up a little and played with their kids before going to Gringo's. It was during dinner that my friend started referring me to her son as "Uncle Arnell." It was really uplifting to actually be called that. Back to their place after dinner to play Mario Party 10 (now I've played all console Mario Party games). A fun and memorable day.

- My Ranma 1/2 Blu-Ray collection is now complete (09.10). Have I watched a single episode ever since I started collecting these? No, ha. But it wasn't that long ago that I watched all the episodes (English) on YouTube. If I'm ever afforded a long period of rest, I would probably start trying to watch all of Ranma again, but in Japanese.


- More merchandise arrived in the mail (09.17). Seems that I collect posters now instead of displaying them now.


- NXT came to Houston for the first time (09.17). Insanely fun. Went with a friend I had not seen in a long time and we met with others we knew there. It was pretty much all floor seating unless you were in the upper deck areas. It was also in a small building, which I only recognized once we were there. Last time I was there was to watch roller derby.

Our initial seats were great, but we sat directly behind a tall and big guy so we couldn't see much when he stood. Not only that, we were sitting next to a guy who was "smart" and was trying to be funny most of the time. I noticed that the final rows behind us weren't being filled. I told my friend that we should switch and move back there during intermission, which we did. We sat in the final floor row at the back towards the middle directly where the wrestlers would direct themselves were there a camera there. Every time I stood up, I pretty much was jumping around in the aisle since there was no one around us. And I screamed and chanted so much that night. NXT, please come back to Houston.   

Enzo Amore & Cassidy VS Jason Jordan & Chad Gable
I knew they would open the show. Enzo definitely gets the crowd hype. It was so fun to actually spell out SAWFT with a rowdy crowd.

Tye Dilinger VS Bull Dempsey
Everyone was behind Bull (screaming Fit along with his entrance theme). But everyone was also behind Dilinger (screaming out 10 at proper times).

Solomon Crowe VS Apollo Crews
A nice singles match. Crowe and Crews have excellent chemistry in the ring together. Good to note that after the match, Crews pointed to a banner in the rafters that said "Performance Center > Power Plant."

Baron Corbin VS Samoa Joe
When Baron Corbin came out, I turned to my friend saying "Oh my gosh, we're going to get Samoa Joe." It might have even been us that started the "Joe's gonna kill you" chants. Never thought I'd ever see Samoa Joe perform live so this was awesome.

Carmella VS Dana Brooke
Coming in from intermission, they had been showing clips of the Divas so we knew we were getting one next. Carmella looks incredible in person. She has improved a lot in the ring, but not at the level of the 4 Horesewomen. Carmella was actually the only Face that lost this whole night.

Blake & Murphy VS The Vaudevillains
Great tag match. The crowd was into posing with The Vaudevillains as well as counting as they did squats. And while the crowd had chanted "test of strength" during other matches that night, it finally happened in this match and got a great ovation. And Alexa Bliss looks incredibly pretty in person.

Emma VS Bayley
Fantastic women's wrestling match. Emma was well received and the crowd absolutely loved Bayley. I was jumping up and down so much for her. I even held my hands in the shape of a heart above my head during her entrance and exit.

Tyler Breeze VS Finn Bálor
Obviously a great match from these two. While we wanted to see the Demon, it's obviously reserved for Takeover events (and should stay that way). Being part of a live crowd and raising our arms up in the air during his entrance was amazing.


- The wrestling did not stop after NXT. Night of Champions happened the following Sunday (09.20). It was rough trying to find someone to go with to this as a lot of maybes turned out to be no and there were last minute purchases that happened that I wasn't a part of. I ended up texting a friend who wasn't into wrestling thinking that he would at least enjoy it and he took me up on the offer. Treated him for this event and bought our tickets two days before the PPV. He met me at my place and I drove us there. During that drive, we talked about what he did know about wrestling and his interest in going. I caught him up on a bit of things and then we just had normal conversations as we were waiting in line outside of the Toyota Center. Got to our seats (section 107, row 9, seats 1-2) and waited for the show to commence.


Stardust & The Ascension VS The Lucha Dragons & Neville
Fun match on the preshow to get the crowd hyped. I was only disappointed to not get a chance to see the Red Arrow live and in person.

Ryback VS Kevin Owens
The crowd was definitely behind Owens. The place went crazy when he won the IC Championship. Props to him and Ryback for putting on a good opening match.

Dolph Ziggler VS Rusev
Solid match. I thought I spoiled the ending of the match for myself. I saw the hanging mechanism for when and where they would drop Rusev's flag for when he would win, but that didn't happen. So I was surprised to see Ziggler get the win.

The New Day VS The Dudley Boyz
Excellent tag match. I'm glad to see The New Day being well received by the crowd. Woods on the trombone is so silly, but it works. Never thought I would see the Dudley Boyz in person let alone a 3D through a table. 

Nikki Bella VS Charlotte
The ladies delivered a great match. It was unbelievable to be there as Charlotte won the Divas Championship. And then having Ric Flair come out and celebrate with her, incredible moment. Paige and Becky Lynch look very good in person.

The Wyatt Family VS Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose & Chris Jericho
Everyone erupted when Y2J's countdown hit. I don't think anyone expected him to be the mystery partner. The match was good and it's good to see the Wyatt Family getting more momentum.

John Cena VS Seth Rollins
Cena and Rollins always put on great matches together. This one was no exception.

Seth Rollins VS Sting
And I never ever thought I would see Sting in person having a match. It was so good to see him still being able to put on a great match. Props to Rollins as well. Although you really could feel the arena get deflated when Sting collapsed. It was a scary sight. Glad he was able to finish the match. The craziness of Sheamus and Kane afterwards was fun and had the crowd on their feet until the end of the show.

My friend had a great time and I was screaming my head off almost the entire time. My friend mentioned that this was the most passionate he had ever seen me, which he enjoyed. He also saw things about wrestling that he never knew about like the connection with the fans especially the kids. We went to eat at FuFu afterwards and just talk a bit more before heading back to his car and split. Such a fun night and memorable week of live wrestling.

PS: Our seats were on camera. When I rewatched the PPV, I spotted myself a good 5 or so times in quick shots. But I was clearly visible when Seth Rollins came out for his match with Cena.


- After a late night of work (09.23), I had to get gas for the car. Stopped inside to get a drink and chips and a person next to me was staring at me. An exclamation from both of us came up as we recognized each other. Although I felt bad that I only remembered his nickname we gave him, Grando. It was cool seeing him after 14-15 years. Last I saw him was after he graduated highschool before he joined the military. We spoke for a bit before parting ways saying that we needed to catch up (soon hopefully). The whole way home, I was still in shock seeing Grando, ha.

- A friend and I were going to meet up (09.27). She initially contacted me the week before when she was in town, but it was too last minute to make plans. So I was looking forward to this meeting. Unfortunately, she got injured and we had to cancel plans. She apologized a lot because every time we tried to get together, something big happens and we have to cancel. And we were disappointed that it had been a year since we last saw each other. I joked that we talk more about meeting each other than actually meeting, ha. But we're both determined to try and hang out more once she's all healed up.

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- In regards to my WingedVoX gaming accounts (Facebook, Twitter), I know I've mentioned a few times that I would pull back from it or eventually stop. But I still find myself using it. While I have been more busy with work, the Twitter account isn't as active with retweets. Facebook has been easier to manage as I actually schedule almost every post to happen within different intervals. Although any Miiverse posts go up almost immediately. At some point I might have my Miiverse posts just post on personal accounts, but we'll see.

- Runbow (Wii U eShop) - Review
While I was on the fence about this game after trying the Nindie demo, I still decided to get it. And it is pretty fun. I have yet to complete the single player though. I tried online a few times and was instantly caught up in the hectic pace having more people on screen was. It is a game I'd like to try with others sometime just to hear all of us screaming, ha. I recommend it.

- Don't know what it was, but I decided to rewatch all of the cutscenes from Final Fantasy IV (DS) (09.08). It might have been because I watched all of Crisis Core and Injustice last month. It was good to see again. It did make me realize that there were a few other key scenes I would've like to have seen voiced.


- Super Mario Maker has taken up most of my game time. Ever since I bought it (09.11), I have at least put in an hour each day (most I've played it in one day was 5 hours). At first I thought I would spend more time playing levels, but I think I've spent an equal amount of time making levels. There is something about it being so easy and accessible to do that draws you in to making more. As of typing this, I have 7 courses uploaded and 2 of them have yet to be cleared by anyone (other than myself). If you have the game, send me your course codes and try out the ones I created.

- Run Devil Run (V2) - 8DD5-0000-0042-3766
- 6 Coins - 1459-0000-0032-3553
- Learning How To Swim - 3BE0-0000-0042-39CB
- Castle Hassle - 4E73-0000-0042-4D4D
- Up In The Sky - 4895-0000-0058-FD29
- To The Left - 2B85-0000-0061-928D
- Confined Spaces - 8365-0000-0078-6599



- Thanks to a coupon from ThinkGeek, I bought the Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past comic for half the price (09.15). Unfortunately, I'm treating it like a strategy guide and have not opened it to read. Guess that qualifies it as a collector's item for me.


- Yacht Club games finally released their latest DLC for Shovel Knight; Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (09.17). Plague Knight plays completely differently from Shovel Knight and it's great and challenging. Makes it feel like a whole new game. I haven't finished it, but I think I'm a little more than half way done (as of typing this). Everyone that bought Shovel Knight should get and play this FREE DLC.


- Add more items to my Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney and DS collections. I ordered the Gyakuten Kenji Premium Edition DSi. It also came with the Japanese version of the first Gyakuten Kenji. I had my eye on this for a while but finally got it (09.23). Everything works and is in great condition.


- And add 6 new amiibo to my collection, which brings the total up to 33. Ganondorf, Zero Suit Samus, 30th Anniversary Mario Classic Color came in first (09.12). Then R.O.B., Mr. Game & Watch, and Duck Hunt came together in the Retro 3-Pack (09.25). Next ones I'm looking to get are the 30 Anniversary Mario Modern Color, Chibi-Robo (pre-ordered), the Yarn Yoshis (if not all, at least Light Blue), the 3 Mii Fighters (if they come in a 3 pack), Mewtwo (maybe), and Mega Yarn Yoshi (maybe).



- And there was new Smash Bros DLC that came out (09.30). This included new outfits (not planning on buying any) and new stages; Super Mario Maker, Pirate Ship, and Duck Hunt (3DS). It's always fun jumping back into Smash Bros when new DLC is released.

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- We picked up 2 new trainees at HER. Haven't taken photos of them like we had been for trainees in the past. I think from now on we will take their photo when they are done with training. Felt bad after a couple of them had left and we had touted them joining the team.

- We received a note from the parking company that the lots we normally park at (those of us with parking passes) will not be available for a week and that management was training. Thankfully they gave us an alternate lot to use. We also found out why the lot would be unavailable for a week; Taylor Swift. Her concert was in town and so were her stage trucks (09.08, 09.09). We did think it would be funny to invite Taylor Swift to HER. While I tweeted her myself, we didn't pull the trigger on HER contacting her. It would have been cool were she to reply. That would be the greatest advertisement we would had not planned, ha. 



- Since school is back in session, we had a few days where there weren't any bookings for all the time slots. While we remained productive, silliness did ensue (09.08).


- We had been emailing a teacher back and forth that is actually teaching a class in how to build escape rooms at school. She even got the kids in her class to take field trips to HER and she had come with friends (I wasn't there for any of it). But we were also invited to come speak in front of her class. Originally, I wasn't part of the plan, but since I am in charge of the 3rd Room, I was nominated.

Woke up early to head out to League City (09.14). Met up with Agent M and we waited for the teacher to come bring us in. Once the bell rang, we were introduced to the class. I was Agent 262228 for the day. The 40 or so kids paid attention as Agent M gave his slideshow presentation. I was mainly there to answer questions. Their questions and participation was good, but we did get some of the typical questions we get from customers. One thing I distinctly remember was being asked the escape rate percentage. I asked them how many had been to HER (2/3) and how many have escaped. The answer was 1 and it was their teacher and they were amazed by that number.

We took photos with them (haven't posted since we don't have permission yet) and the kids gave us some of their puzzles on paper. Immediately on seeing it, I already knew one of the answers, ha. Turns out most were plagiarized and that was something the teacher spoke about at the beginning. And the teacher's enthusiasm sparked my interest in having her be a beta tester for the 3rd Room. Once we start the next batch of trials, we'll invite her and her friends to come back. Plus the teacher can come back to her class and let them know how to ask for feedback.

All in all, it was a good experience. Never thought I would ever be invited to a school to talk about what I do for a living. 

- And it finally happened. We had our first batch of beta testing for the 3rd Room (09.15). Episode 3: The Scarlet Scam was put through the paces. I was a little nervous driving in to work that day. As we were doing final preparations for it, one important part of the room wasn't functioning and I was getting frustrated. Agent Ro could tell. I reminded him that I was feeling similarly frustrated like when we did the KHOU shoot. We were able to apply a "band-aid" solution, but it was definitely a big concern.

The first team to be our beta testers were actually Agent Ro's wife and friends of the business, a total of 6 (one of them had not done an escape room before). Agent Ro was there as well, but he wanted to just sit back and take notes since he knew where everything was (did a dry run through days before). It was cool to see the room in action. I did have to give them nudges as it was apparent at one point that they weren't making a lot of progress. After time was up, we asked them questions and got a lot of great feedback. I thanked each one of them for coming to beta test the room.

Before they left, I brought them into our conference room where our team meeting was in progress. For a lot in the room, these were all new faces. So we did some introductions and got some laughs from what some of us were saying. I now have the phrase "I brought that in" in regards to Agent Yeti, ha. The crew left and the meeting continued.

Afterwards, the staff were the next group to beta test the room. Everyone started acting like our common annoying customers and asked the typical questions. It was alright for a while. Unfortunately, I didn't know if some of them were still pretending, but I was disappointed with the team and how they were going through the room. Sure, I gave them an extra rule; to not solve puzzles they personally worked on, but to help others that didn't know figure it out. That took out some key players and also showed weaknesses of others. Not only that, the "band-aid" solution we put in earlier in the day actually fell and broke. A few other things happened that I was just frustrated by and I wasn't having fun. Agent Ro could see my frustration and said not to take it out on them. It was...overwhelming and I couldn't hide it. After the team escaped, I left the room to cool off. I did apologize for my b!tching, but in the end thanked them.

As we were all getting ready to leave, I did go up to a few Agents in particular to personally thank them for being integral in the 3rd Room getting to this point. Ever since then, we had been making fixes and changes to prepare for the next set of beta trials. We are a little delayed, but we'll hopefully get the next beta testers in soon.  

I did make it a point to apologize to Agent Ro because he had seen me at my worst. He told me something that I had never heard before. Basically that my anger was reflective of my passion for what I do. I'll remember him telling me that for a long time.


- We had some a/c issues again towards the end of the month. Similar to the other time, we closed early (09.30) and made plans to go to another escape room. Agent Yeti and I were out shopping for Halloween items so we were out already. We also went off to eat dinner (finally got to talk to her on a personal level) while the others ate dinner elsewhere. Met up to tackle the other room at the business we went to last time we closed up due to the a/c.

Glad to report that we escaped and set the record for that room  by escaping in 24 minutes (one hour time limit). I even started my new thing, which is roll out of the room when we escape, ha. We went to Honey Bee afterwards for drinks and to talk about the room. It was a general consensus that we were disappointed with the room. While most were able to say at least one thing they liked about it, I couldn't. The room was underwhelming overall for me. That room unfortunately is ranked as one of the lowest on my list of escape rooms I've been to. At least my record is now 7-2.


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

- Red Velvet - Dumb Dumb (MV)


- Amber - Beautiful (MV)

- Gary - Get Some Air (MV)

- SNSD - Lion Heart/You Think
Lion Heart came first (09.01). You Think came in about a week later (09.09). And both had Yuri as the random photo cards, ha. Never had that happen before, but I was thrilled since I had been liking Yuri the most during these promotions. And as it was posted earlier, the posters came in later in the month.

I reawatch their episodes on Weekly Idol a lot. I leave it on as background noise sometimes.



https://youtu.be/5nmPXL6aWr0

- September was full of trials and tribulations. Honestly, my body has felt tired more than usual. I also haven't been exercising like I had been for a couple months now so I've lost muscles. The tiredness really takes over. While I get Sundays and Mondays off consecutively, I might have to request a longer period off. Might not be possible unless we hire more full time workers. Plus the 3rd Room probably would have to be officially released before I can do that.

There definitely have been some good things that happened this month. Almost forgot to mention that my dad is back from the Philippines. It was definitely different without him and it's good to have him back. Other than that, I think being called "Uncle Arnell" for the first time is something that will stick with me.

Thanks for reading. Be healthy, be safe, be thankful, and be loved.

 
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."

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Tuesday, September 1, 2015

August 2015 Entry



A lot happened in August.

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

- In honor of 3 childhood heroes, thank you.  

- On the 11th, it rained pretty bad. I was at work when it happened. I believe the lights flickered once, but nothing else happened. On the drive home, I did notice a few traffic lights being out. And as I pulled into my neighborhood, all the lights were out. Mom said the power had been out since 6PM. I asked if she wanted to go to our cousin's home nearby, but she didn't want to. I checked a few things online with my phone before it was close to being an empty battery. So that night was tough to sleep in as it was really hot. I did manage to get some sleep by putting the Child of Light OST on via my iPod. I did wake up almost every 60-90 minutes though.

When I got up the next day, I charged my phone with my car charger as well as my mom's. I left an hour early for work that day just because there was no reason for me to wait around without any power when I could do anything I needed there. Mom told me the power came back on around noon.

- DC re-released 6 of their animated movies with the comic it was based on. At first, I wasn't going to buy them, but they were a good deal. I haven't opened them ever since I got them (08.12).


- Saw some anime series pop up online on the 14th. (I think someone I follow on Twitter talked about it). Bikini Warriors is about the silly tropes that happen in RPGs. each episode is around 5 minutes so they're easy to digest.  

- A coworker helps put together music shows for local bands/musicians in Houston. I did want to go to one before that she hyped up, but was too tired after work that day. But I knew I'd go to one of her shows some day to show her support. I invited another coworker and we went to The Joint Show after work (08.15). We stuck around for 2 hours, met up with our coworker, talked to a local artist, watched 2 performances (Colombo and Genesis Blue), saw some improv, coworker bought art from the artist we spoke to earlier, found our other coworker, and then left. It was fun.


- New shirt (08.17). 

- Last year was my year of buying hats. I had not bought any new hats until there was a new deal on Running Man hats. These hats came in on the 19th. I ordered 3, but you will only see 2 in the photo as the other one is a present that I have yet to give.


- NXT Takeover Brooklyn happened on the 22nd. I was working that day and even went out with coworkers after hours. But on the ride home, I made sure to switch my phone to the WWE Network to see/listen to what I can of the replay. "Blue Pants City" was the first thing I heard and that set the tone of it for me. Every match was so good. I had to catch Liger VS Breeze the next day as that was the only match I missed, but I watched everything else late into the night. While the NXT Title Ladder Match between Owens and Balor was great, the ladies should have gone on last. Bayley challenging Sasha Banks for the NXT Women's Championship was absolutely amazing. Everything about it from the lead up, the promo package, their entrances, the match itself, and the curtain call in the end...so damn good. I literally cried seeing Bayely get the pin over Sasha Banks and I still get teary eyed every time I rewatch it. Women's wrestling is at an all time high and it is unbelievable to witness. Thank you to the Four Horsewomen of NXT; Charlotte, Bayley, Sasha Banks, and Becky Lynch. Paige could be the 5th of that group contributing to great matches.



- The next day (08.23) was SummerSlam. So much wrestling. Again, I listened/watched what I could on my way back home from work and watched the rest of the replay when I got home. It was really entertaining with a great crowd. Pretty much every match was fun to watch. Cena and Rollins was great with an odd finish. Lesnar and Undertaker had a hell of a battle with a wonky ending. Sets up the rubber match, but it was still a weird way to book the finish. The next night of RAW had a lot of surprises though. Sting!

- For some reason, I felt like watching all the cutscenes from Injustice: Gods Among Us. I remember really liking those and still consider them the best part of that fighting game. Thanks to people putting the scenes together on YouTube, I watched all of them again on the 26th. It basically is the length of a DC animated movie. It was fun to watch again.


- After a visit to UH (boy, has that place changed), I went to visit my friend who owns Bite Macarons. It was a slow day for them so we actually had a lot of time to talk. We ended up making dinner plans for Buffalo Wild Wings. Just caught up and went through more memories we've accumulated over 15 years. She definitely is one of the sweetest people I know. Thank you.


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

- In amiibo news for me, I actually woke up early and stood in line at my GameStop to reserve the Retro 3 Pack of amiibo (08.08). I was 10th in line out of what seemed to be 15. They had more than enough reservations to go around. I'm just glad to have secured it for myself.


During PAX (27th), a Shovel Knight amiibo was announced. Definitely getting one.


And the next day, wave 5B of amiibo were released via Target for preorder. I was able to preorder Ganondorf, Zero Suit Samus, and the Classic Mario 30th Anniversary amiibo.  

- A friend and I were talking online about light gun games. That made me wonder about the ones released on the Wii. There were 3 (4) I wanted to add to my collection. Thanks to eBay, I was able to get Gunblade NY & LA Machine Guns (2-in-1), Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, and Dead Space: Extraction. The first 2 mentioned arrived on the 19th while it took another week for me to win an auction for Extraction (forgot to take a photo of it).

 

- I had used up my last coins from Club Nintendo a while ago. On the 13th, I finally played Super Mario Bros. While I've beaten the game many times before, this run was to be done without warping. I also wanted to make sure I beat every fake King Koopa with fireballs. It took a good hour to do, but it felt good getting some old school gaming in.


- Next on the list of Club Nintendo games was Super Mario Bros. 3. Much like playing the original Mario, I played through without warping. Spent about 4 hours on the 20th beating this game from start to finish. I also wanted to beat each boss with a different suit every time. Some levels gave me more difficulty than I could remember. It was fun to relive.
  

- One of the Nindie titles finally released. I didn't get Runbow the day of since I had to work, but I bought it and played a bit of it the next day (08.28). While I was iffy about it after trying the demo, it got really good reviews. So far, I think they live up to them. I only have issues with online (game freezing and the lobby messing up), but when it works, it is great. Solo play is pretty challenging. I'm liking it.


- Along with Runbow, I also downloaded Sin & Punishment (Wii U, N64 VC). I was curious about it before when it was released on the Wii's Virtual Console, but I passed it up. And since I added Sin & Punishment: Star Successor to my collection, I felt compelled to get the original. I played it on the 30th and it is a tough game. It's supposedly short, but I died a lot and I'm only about 2/3 in. I'll come back to it some time to finish it off.


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

- Took Agent Scarlet out (08.03) in thanks for everything she had done for us with the 3rd Room. She really is very integral as the room would not be the way it is now without her. This was also a good opportunity to get to know her better as there really wasn't much time to talk as she was doing any work. A very cool person.

- We had our first wedding proposal happen at HER on the 4th of August. We actually thought it was for someone else who called the same day an email asking about it was sent. The first one never happened, but this email inquiry did.

Agent Yeti was the one doing the email correspondence, but she wasn't scheduled to work during that time so I took the role of facilitator for the proposal. She did however create some generic posters that we can use for future proposals. I did change the briefing for Grandma's just a little to have it make sense. The day of, I also put the ring in the room.

It was only 4 people for the group as they didn't want strangers to join (so they bought all 10 spots). Everyone, except the one to be proposed to, were in on it. Once in the room, I helped them as much as I could to lead them to the ring. At first I wasn't going to help them, but they needed it. I pointed out where the ring would be as well as gave them a lot of extra hints as stealthily as I could so that the proposee wouldn't notice. I would make sure that her back was turned, there was a wall between us, point to where things lead to, and even typed out notes on my phone and showed it to the others.

The proposee actually got the key needed to open the box with the ring. The proposer cleverly then said "Let me open it. I haven't opened anything yet." That was actually true, ha. In there was the artifact/ring with a note on how to make it valuable. It was a small ruse as to her proposing to her girlfriend. I stopped the timer as we all watched on. It was very great to see.

After they got out, the other Agents on hand (except one in a room) were outside in the briefing room to congratulate the newly engaged couple. We also gave them an art piece that Agent Yeti bought that was signed by the Agents there that day (just as an extra gift  for them). This definitely was one of the big highlights for me working at HER. It ranks as the second best thing I was a part of with the pregnancy reveal still being at the top.

https://instagram.com/p/5_JNFpIXYJ/

- On August 6th, a few flash mob friends came through HER. I saw them at this year's Japan Festival and mentioned that I worked at an escape room. They mentioned that they were going to one in Niagra Falls. After they did that, they immediately signed up to do Mo's Safehouse at HER.

The day they came was a day off for me, but I wanted to be their observer. They got out and had a blast. We then went to Cafe 101 to eat and catch up. I also wanted to hear what they thought of our escape room compared to the one in Niagra Falls. It was good to get their feedback and just to catch up with them.


- The 8th marked one year when I had my interview at HER. The 9th was my one year anniversary. My life has definitely changed ever since then.

- Did some late night editing on the 16th.  I resynced one of the clues for one of the rooms and even uploaded it onto YouTube as a backup in case something craps out in the room.

- Agent Ro was in town earlier in the month, but left to only come back a short time later. He was mainly here to help get more of the 3rd Room done as well as be part of our new monthly meetings. Not everyone was available for the meeting (08.17), but it was still good. We did an activity in which we recited the rules and briefings to each other while giving notes to one another. It was an odd activity, but it was good to see each other actually give them.

After the meeting, all of us (minus one) went to a new escape room that just opened. They had been to HER before and recognized a few of us before realizing we all worked there. The room we went through was small, but okay. Definitely saw why the limit was 6 people (we asked before booking if we could have 7). We went to Starbucks after to talk about it. I think the general consensus was that we were more impressed with their lobby than their room. Thanks to the awesome team, my record for escape rooms is now 6-2.


Agent Ro and I went back to HER. I actually got car sick trying to type out an email for him, so I laid down for a while as he was doing an interview. Afterwards, we actually talked a lot about how things were going with the 3rd Room. I got to vent some frustrations I had with the project overall and we came to a reasonable solution on how to handle things. We also talked about general operations and how the staff were as well as a few other things. It was a good talk that got us both really motivated.

- It had been a long time since Agent Valentine had been at HER. So it was good to see her come in on the 19th to work on something for the 3rd Room. It wasn't something she could complete on one day so she had come in a few times throughout the next couple weeks. It is great to finally see that piece be worked on for the room.

https://instagram.com/p/6lee4mIXeZ/

- We had a weekend where a lot of staff members were out on vacation (leaving only 4 of us) so we had short days. We did spend those extra hours working on stuff for the 3rd Room. Although I did want some of us to go out to eat afterwards on the 22nd. Agent Blue chose Bombay Pizza and I believe neither he, Agent Gig, or I had been there before. We all liked what we had, but Agent Gig and I instantly regretted not getting larger sizes of our pizza, ha. On the way back to HER, Agent Blue and I joked around about how everything will be better with Agent Yeti being back the next day.  


- Agent Yeti returned on the 23rd. Agent Blue and I were continuing with our silly little joke about celebrating her return after being gone for just 2 days. We informed Agent Gig and Agent Pow-Popper what was going on. We also tried to schedule Agent Yeti to do the last session so that we can set up something for her. But priorities of the 3rd Room arose. In the end, it made sense for me to take her along to shop for things for the 3rd Room instead of another Agent since we knew what we were kind of looking for.

After coming back from Target with what we bought, Agent Blue went to go "move his car" while the rest of us were assembling new furniture and completing other tasks. What Agent Blue really did was go to Tout Suite to buy some cupcakes. He set those up in our conference room with a note for her. Once we finished up all our duties and were set to leave, we were turning off all the lights. Agent Yeti opened up the conference room door to turn those off and exclaimed "what is that?" We went in and thanked Agent Yeti for all that she does and that we missed her the last 2 days. We talked and shared some stories while eating cupcakes before leaving for the day.


- Came to HER (08.24) to open the door for a contractor to do work on lights and hang up some things in. He was a little later than scheduled, but thankfully he did arrive to do what needed to be done. I assisted when necessary, but otherwise I was cleaning and taking care emails and phone calls...and taking some time to catch up on StreetPasses. I had been at HER a lot on Mondays lately (our day off), but this was the first time in a while that I was able to leave early and be back home.

- Contacted Agent Scarlet about installing lights into the 3rd Room (spoilers, it was very dark). She was able to come in on the 29th. She consulted with Agent Yeti and myself before she and I ventured off to Home Depot and IKEA. It was great having Agent Scarlet's expertise in knowing what to get as I would just grab what I thought was necessary. And we both had fun getting "lost" in IKEA, ha.

When we got back, there was a situation going on at HER. I helped with what I could then with getting things squared away. Then I went back to assisting Agent Scarlet with the lights. I questioned her if we would be done today or if it had to extend to Sunday, but she was able to complete the task, yay.

We then went to find a good place to record an audio clue we're using for the 3rd Room. Unfortunately, the main building we use was occupied with customers and the noise was leaking through. We decided to try the basement area. Odd thing, there were burgers and fries strewn about on the stairs leading to the basement, ha. While the basement seemed better, we were both kind of questioning it. Regardless, we did a few takes of the dialogue and having fun with it (accents, silly voices, general goofiness in between takes). Listening back to it at the time, it sounded fine. I thanked Agent Scarlet and saw her off before going back to work.   

- We started a new schedule due to some of the Agents going back to school, the 30th marked the first Sunday I had off in a long time. I had always mentioned that I would take at least one Sunday off to watch wrestling, but I had not done that in a long time. And while this was a day off, I still did some work from home and it mainly involved editing.

First, I listened to the audio recording Agent Scarlet and I did the day before. While it was better than our original improvised dialogue, there was still a lot of noticeable echo that I could not remove. I compared the audio to old audio recordings I've done and knew we could do better. Agent Scarlet and I scheduled for another recording.

The other thing I worked on was the end game for the 3rd Room if a team does not escape. The main part was easy since I just had to overlay it. The part that took the longest was looking for the end game graphics, finding appropriate sounds, and putting all of those together for a small 5 second part at the end of the long video. It took a while to export out (twice since I added one simple thing after the first export). So I spent that time playing Runbow and Sin & Punishment. In the end, the video is good to go.

- Met up with Agent Scarlet at UH on the 31st. Our original idea of where to record wasn't going to work out since there was a lot of echo and background noise even though it had been used for recordings by others (wasn't good enough for me). We went around the building for a while looking for other areas before ending up in an alcove right at the doors of the theatre stage (which I feel like I've watched a performance before). More goofiness ensued during the recordings, but these went rather well and didn't take as long to complete with me being very satisfied with the sound quality. I thanked Agent Scarlet again for helping before heading out.

- The 3rd Room is progressing well, but definitely is not meeting any deadline for beta testing. I pushed it back so many times with the latest supposed to be during the first week of September. There are just so many things that are not ready. Saying that, things are being completed though. Everyone is contributing (time, finishing puzzles, miscellaneous tasks, etc). It's great seeing the team pull together in one way or another. Agent Yeti has definitely been integral in making sure things were on track and getting completed. But the little things (that are very important) are still delaying us from starting any earlier. Soon though, soon.   
=========================

- SNSD - Lion Heart (MV)

- SNSD - You Think (MV)

Based on the videos alone, I liked You Think better. I also thought the song was better. Over time though, I really enjoyed Lion Heart a lot more. It might be because that's the song they're actually promoting and performing, but I do like it more than You Think now.

Oh, and Kwon Yuri...mm-hmm. She definitely has been my favorite during these promotions.


- One thing Agent Scarlet and I talked about when we went out at the beginning of the month was an old Nickelodeon show called. Roundhouse. It's pretty much sketch comedy with song and dance numbers. I have never met anyone that knew about that show and the fact that she knew the show was incredible. That night, I looked online to see if I could find episodes on YouTube. Someone had thankfully compiled (almost) every episode of the show throughout its four seasons on the air. Ripped all of them and proceeded to watch a few episodes a day.

Sure, some of the jokes were dated, but I still laughed. I really wasn't surprised that I could still quote certain jokes/episodes, sing some of the songs (didn't take long for me to start singing along with the main theme), and remember a lot of the dances they did. I waited until the last episode to attempt doing the dance at the end of the show. It was hard to resist especially since the steps were coming back to me. Did a lot of chair dancing until I did it for real. I wasn't perfect the first time, but I was fine on my third attempt.

I watched the final episode on the 14th meaning it took me about 10 days to watch all the episodes. This was definitely one of the highlights of August. And because of rewatching Roundhouse, I will now end every post they way they end the show.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsyxZA2SaLNWES2i_zQIcehkBL1vblcS_

- August was very busy and stressful. I am thankful for the positive moments that came along and those involved with those. September, let's go.

Thanks for reading. Be healthy, be safe, be thankful, be bold, and be loved.





 
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."

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