Tuesday, February 9, 2016

January 2016 Entry



A new year and we're one month in already. So much has happened.

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

- Happy New Year (01.01).  


- A lot of my Christmas purchases came in (01.03, 01.09). They were just things from my Amazon wish list. Not pictured are some cleaning and physical therapy equipment.



Among those items, I watched a good number of them that I had not seen for a long time or ever.

Ranma 1/2 Movie: Watched on  01.11. It was done pretty well. Although it did seem to be fan subbed and not an official release. Could be wrong. I would recommend the live action movie to any Ranma 1/2 fan.  
Married With Children: Finished watching all 11 seasons, 262 episodes on 01.16. I was amazed with how much I remembered. It was great to relive all those funny moments. Definitely a show for its time.  
Earthworm Jim: Finished watching 2 seasons, 24 episodes on 01.20. It definitely wasn't as funny as I remembered it. It was still clever and good, but I wasn't laughing that much.  

- Went to a WWE Live Event (01.08). The worst part was waiting in line in the pouring rain outside. They did start ushering us in sooner than they were supposed to. A nice mother and son let me in under their umbrella. A friend joined me for the event. We walked around a lot before going to our seats mainly to dry off. I did have a conversation with a father asking about how much the title belts are and how his kid wants one. Then a couple kids told me I was in the wrong place because I was wearing the NXT Title, ha. I also had a mom ask me during the show if John Cena really wasn't showing up because he got injured a few days ago. Her kid did like interacting with me a few times as well, ha. The following wall of text will be the recap I typed in a wrestling group I'm part of. 

Jojo was the ring announcer of the night. She opened with mentioning John Cena was not going to be here as advertised due to his recent shoulder injury and that we can get refunds, but only within the next 20 minutes.

- Chris Jericho def. Alberto Del Rio
I enjoyed Del Rio ripping up Sign Guy's sign before the match.

- Titus O’Neil def. Stardust
Before and after the match, Titus would take a kid out of the audience to do the Millions of Dollars dance.

- Ryback def. Rusev (with Lana)
Nothing different from their recent matches on TV.

- R-Truth def. Heath Slater
They went back and forth at the beginning to see who could get the crowd hyped the most. A dance off was teased, but we ended up with a wrestling match (yay). R-Truth can always get the crowd hyped.

- Kalisto & El Torito def. Los Matadores
I wish Sin Cara wasn't injured. This would have been a fun match.

- Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman) def. Sheamus
Damn, Brock and Heyman have a presence. Everyone stood up for most of the match. Brock got a little cut under his eye and bled. As he was walking to the back after the match, Brock did the jack-off motion to a fan talking trash.

- Brie Bella (with Alicia Fox) def. Tamina, special guest referee was Summer Rae
Tamina came out to new Team BAD music, but the other members weren't there (bummed since I was decked out in Sasha gear). Summer Rae was gorgeous in her ref outfit.

- Dolph Ziggler def. Tyler Breeze
Nothing different from their recent matches on TV. I did enjoy seeing a bunch of kids in attendance around me singing Ziggler's theme song.

- Dean Ambrose def. Kevin Owens in a Street Fight for the IC Title
Lots of kendo stick shots, use of chairs, and Owens powerbombing Ambrose through a table. Owens did a great tease of having Ambrose sit on a chair, ran back and forth a bunch of times off the ropes, and just went into a chin lock, ha.

One thing I did notice was that there was no nods to any factions like the League of Nations or Social Outcasts. It was a house show so it's not like I expected any story advancement.

Highlights for me:
- Unexpected Y2J appearance.
- R-Truth's entrance.
- Seeing Brock Lesnar in person (damn).
- Summer Rae as a damn fine looking referee.
- A kid seated in front of me chanting at/with me and making other fun comments.
- Seeing a daughter hug her dad and saying "I love you" for taking her to the show.

Great night of wrestling overall. Next time they're in town is for the first Smackdown after Wrestlemania.



- Got a few more wrestling items (01.13). Was able to watch the Owen Hart of Gold documentary, which was great. Good stories and matches about a great man. And I also got my Asuka mask. She retweeted one post I made combining her mask with Finn Balor's.



- Rearranged and threw away things in my room for no reason at all (01.16). Guess I wanted a little change in my room.  


- I ordered some more Running Man gear back during Black Friday and finally got them (01.20). I've been proudly wearing them as much as I can.


- Had the day off to watch the Royal Rumble live (01.24). It was great from top to bottom. Great matches and great moments. My top moments were Sasha Banks showing up after the Divas' match, AJ Styles (wow) debuting in the WWE, and Sami Zayn's surprise entrance in the Royal Rumble.  


- A friend from Austin came to visit (01.31). She originally was going to visit the week before, but got caught up with work. Met her and another friend I had not seen in a long time at Mala Bistro for lunch. Ate and caught up before going to the nearby supermarket to do some shopping before she left. That was the most fun I have had grocery shopping in a long time, ha. Hopefully we'll get to hang out again soon.

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

*Note: Leaving links out in the open instead of putting them to the text it is associated with. 

- While I didn't play a lot of games in 2015, I still made my WingedVoX Games of 2015 list. Very much condensed from the previous year.  
https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/932937623460905

- Had to get me the Shovel Knight amiibo when it came out (01.08). I was actually out of town that day and was able to get it at a GameStop with only 2 in stock. My regular GameStop in Houston actually texted me asking if they wanted me to have them hold one. That was awesome of them, but I wouldn't have been able to get it that day since I was coming back into town and going to the WWE Live Event.


- Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water (Wii U eShop) - Review
https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/942190272535640

Overall, I liked the game. It's not the best Fatal Frame, but still a good one. Glad I was able to finish it.


- 3D Sonic The Hedgehog (3DS eShop) - Review
https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/942672539154080

I had downloaded this title during a sale. I was always curious to get it and a few other Sega 3D titles. Nothing super special, but definitely good for nostalgia.


- Picked up a Lucas amiibo and a Green & Pink Yarn Yoshi amiibo (01.22, 01.23). Got Lucas on release (possible Mother 3 releasing in the US, cool) and I got the Yarn Yoshis during a sale at Toys R Us.



- Along with Lucas, I also bought Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, but I didn't play it until a couple of days later (01.24). I'm liking it so far. As of typing this, I'm over 24 hours into it. Definitely have devoted a lot of my free time towards playing it.


- A friend was selling off a few of his PSX/PS2 games. He had a few that I thought to add to my collection. He came by and dropped them off (01.25). We talked for a little bit since it had been years since I last saw him. But yeah, more games to add to my collection.


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

*Note: I will not upload all the Instagram photos as lately there are a lot of photos uploaded/embedded into these entries. So some will be left as links. 

- Work on New Year's Day (01.01). It was actually alright. We ended the day by eating pizza and playing a game called Codenames. Agent Incognito and myself were bad at it, ha.


- The joke of the Hunks of HER continues. We had plenty of opportunities to do more hunky photos (01.05, 01.12, 01.13). You're welcome.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAL5XwFoXS7/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAd7eqeIXeI/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAge3j4IXTl/

- If I remember correctly, we only had corporate sessions this day (01.06). We closed off the rest of the day for renovations. A lot of us got into helping cause destruction (I definitely enjoyed it). We did get done earlier than we thought so we headed out to dinner early.

After relaxing and eating, we went to the Chinatown escape room in the area to try their new one. This was actually the first time doing a room with Agent Pow-Poper, Incognito, and Chisel. Also it was the first time in a long time that we did one with former Agent Cat. It was interesting with a few notable moments. While I would say it was their best one they had, they're actually pretty low on the escape rooms I've enjoyed. Regardless, add another victory in my escape room record.


- This was the day of our HER Retreat to Austin (01.07). I picked up Agent Pow-Poper and we headed off to Austin. We talked the whole way (anime, comics, games, etc). We were one of the first to arrive Titaya's for lunch. Agent Gig was there already. Agent Incognito and Agent Widdershins came next. We ended up getting our own table since the other 4 were running late. They ended up sitting at the table next to us, ha.

Onward to our hotel. Pretty nice. After settling in, Agent Gig and I went exploring. I ended up buying a $3 ice cream sandwich (at least it tasted good) and we rejoined Agent Blue in our hotel room. The 3 of us ended up playing TriForce Heroes. Since I had the full version, we could try more levels outside of the demo. Agent Majordomo joined us as he heard us laughing and yelling. It was crazy fun.

We all then hopped into a couple of cars to head out to Lockdown Austin for our scheduled session. Unfortunately, we ran a little late due to traffic, but they were okay with it. Very nice people. We split up into 2 teams to challenge both of their rooms. Agent Majordomo, PQ, Blue, Yeti, and Gig (Gold Package) did the WWIII room and Agent Pow-Poper, Incognito, Widdershins, and myself (Silver Package) took on the Casino Heist. Glad to report that we both made it out. I really had fun with our room (have said it's my favorite since HER).

Moved to a nearby location so the Gold Package team can get their corporate debrief. The Silver Package team had the paper version of it. After we did that, it was on to our dinner at Pluckers. There was live sports recap happening at the time so we moved to the outdoor area so we could talk. Good food.

Our final activity of the day was to go karaoke. Throughout the day, a friend and I had been talking about meeting up (let her know I was in town a week prior). She couldn't stick around to sing along with us and she actually preferred to just catch up. We just sat at the lobby area (other close by areas were closed) and talked for a while. It was great seeing her and I was glad she actually made time to meet up with me.

I rejoined the team and immediately started singing. I was a little worried about championing karaoke for activity as some had expressed they weren't big on it, but it ended up being very fun for all. Everyone sang multiple times and we had a blast.

Then it was back to our hotel. We actually gathered to knock out some emails that had been piling up. Once we were done, we all headed to our separate rooms to end the night.  

The next day, I was immediately reminded that the Shovel Knight amiibo came out. I mentioned it to Agent Blue and he actually suggested we go get it. He called up a nearby GameStop (that only had 2) and we went and got it, yay. And as I mentioned earlier in this post, my local GameStop contacted me about holding one for me. Getting a Shovel Knight amiibo would have happened regardless.

After we got our stuff packed, we met in the lobby and then headed out to Hopdoddy's for lunch. While some waited in line, I took others to Dragon's Lair. We joined the others back in line minutes later. Lunch was good. At some point, Agent Incognito disappeared. Agent Widdershins thought he said he was going to the coffee shop when he actual said comic shop (Dragon's Lair). We all went back there to buy stuff. I got a print by a local artist of an ice cream bar NES controller. Some of us were playing with the shop's cat. It's always friendly, but apparently it didn't like me that much (even though it did earlier). Ended up getting scratched by it, ha.

Once we were done with our purchases, everyone had to get ready to go. Agent Yeti joined me going home early since we both had previous plans made. The others were to tackle 3 more escape rooms from different businesses before coming home that night. Agent Yeti and I had a good talk on the way back to town (mostly shop talk).

I delivered Agent Yeti to her boyfriend and then actually headed to HER since I had time before the WWE Live Event. Agent Raynor and Agent Chisel were there continuing their work over the last few days of renovations. It was looking pretty dang good. I did come back to chill there after the WWE Live Event. Agent Raynor was there doing work with a friend and Agent Z joined us later. It was nice seeing work get done and just having some fun talks. And that ended the HER retreat for me.
 

- A mish mash of thoughts popped into my head at the end of one night (01.15). I actually left really upset. Agent Yeti texted me after to see if everything was okay because she thought it was work related. It wasn't exactly what she was thinking. It was a combination of work and personal stress. I just left abruptly without saying anything so I wouldn't accidentally direct any of it towards any of them that night. It was odd, but yeah...  

- The Maximum Pleasure Boys had their final night together (01.16). This fearsome foursome took a nice photo to commemorate their awesomeness.


And the reason the Maximum Pleasure Boys are no more is because Agent Pow-Poper was leaving us (01.17). He let us know a month prior that he would need to concentrate on school and other activities. Sad to see him go as he was really good facilitator. Definitely a great gear in the system of HER. Good luck in your future endeavors, Agent Pow-Poper.


- We have an About Us page now, yay (01.18).
http://www.houstonescaperoom.com/about-us

- We ended up closing early to celebrate Agent Gig's birthday (01.19). We went to a nice taco place to eat and then walked over to a bar. Just a good time sharing stories.


- Similar situation the next day (01.20). No reason to celebrate anything, but we took advantage of closing early by going to eat at Smash Burger and Bite Macarons.


https://www.instagram.com/p/BAyeUVWoXW5/

- Had a short Twitter exchange with YouTube star Anna Akana (01.21). She recently did an escape room so I invited her to HER. It would be really cool if she did take us up on that offer.


- Quite a few changes happened all around HER. I mentioned renovations earlier in this post. Agent Gig was able to get our dossiers up (01.14).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAjHV1kIXU7/

He also got some placards for our rooms laser engraved (01.28).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBEZDvkoXfk/

And we added signage to the lobby and had our rules redone with the same artist that did our Halloween chalk art (01.29).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBJsRImIXZc/

- Agent Raynor and Husky Panda came to town to help with a secret project that happened (01.30). Not allowed to talk about it for the time being though. You'll definitely know about it in February though.

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

- Gary - Lonely Night (MV)

This might be my song of the year. It's a feel good song.

- And while she was born in February, I did want to say "welcome to the world" to Alessandra. Can't wait to meet you soon.

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


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."

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Sunday, January 3, 2016

December 2015 Entry


Here is the last blog entry for 2015. The speed of December felt very fluctuated. It went by fast at some part and then other parts were slow.

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- I was able to watch WWE TLC (12.13) live as it happened. The build to it wasn't that great, but the show itself was fun to watch. Kalisto with a Salida del Sol off a ladder crashing into another was an amazing thing to see. That is one for the highlight real for ages.


- A friend I had not seen since the beginning of the year texted me to meet up (12.14). I was a little hesitant as I wasn't cool with him from our last meeting. But we were able to clear up almost everything. And he made good on his promise that was 4 years old and I'm glad. I was worried if that was going to happen at all or not. We spent a good 2-4 hours catching up (walked around, loitered).

At one point, I turned to see another friend who I had not seen for a while. They knew each other, but only one remembered the other, ha. We followed him to his fitness place as we knew someone else there that was practicing her choreography for class later that day. I ended up talking to one of the trainers there and it got to the discussion about my back pains. He offered free advice and showed me some relief exercises I could do with a roller or lacrosse balls. Both felt really good. I looked those up immediately when I got home. 

- Caught the replay of NXT TakeOver: London (12.16) after coming home from work. TakeOvers never disappoint. While every match was great, my highlights were Asuka VS Emma and the entrance of Enzo and Cassidy. NXT has been amazing in 2015.



- The GeekCave Podcast was holding their end of the year podcast shows, which included giveaways for each one. I'll admit to not listening to them as frequently, but I had time to listen in on these. Out of the prizes in the giveaways, I was only interested in the one for their movie section of the podcast. So I entered it. They announced after a week or so that I had actually won (only person to do all the things asked of the giveaway, ha). My prize (12.22) was a Justice League print signed by the artist.


- Coming off NXT TakeOver: London and some sales on WWE Shop, I purchased an Asuka shirt (her second one) and a Sasha Banks shirt (finally restocked in my size). I tweeted it out saying I want to see a match between the two as they would put on fantastic matches (12.24).


I knew Asuka was pretty good at replying to tweets so I was hoping to get some type of response. Lo and behold, she retweeted it and it was retweeted and liked by many others following. So cool when stuff like that happens. Thanks, Asuka. 


- I was told last minute about Christmas Eve plans (12.24) at my cousin's. I was iffy because I had not done a Christmas event with family for a few years, but decided to go thinking it would be nice especially after the wedding last month. It was a small gathering, but it was good to bond with the family. One of my cousin's sons were getting attached to me (asking questions, playing with my keys, etc). I also did a Scam School trick on my cousin's girlfriend. It was alright, but I know I've been losing the Christmas spirit over the last few years.

- My Christmas post: Roundhouse Christmas episode (12.25).


- Friends were in town to celebrate their son's first birthday with family and friends (12.27). It had been a while since I saw them, but this would be the first time I met their son as well. It was even longer since I had seen many of the guests at the party (friend's family and friends). A lot of the friends had gotten married, had kids of their own, or were expecting soon. But I was very delighted to see another highschool friend there. We greeted each other with a very tight hug. She even said she was unsure about coming since she wouldn't know anyone so she was happy I was there. We stick with each other for the most part. I was able to float around and talk to others as well.

I was surprised by one of the who guests remembered me from doing a dance act for a festival over a decade ago. He asked if I still danced (no), but I said I could forward his email to others (I did not as he actually sent an email with someone else's name on it and then copy and pasted the same email with my name in the same email thread).

I made sure to get some baby time with my friends' kid. We were on the floor playing with cups. He also showed interest in my Connor's Cure bracelet. I did give it to him, but he would just throw it, ha.

One of the funnier things to happen was when were cleaning up to leave. My friend was making sure everyone was leaving with the various cookies guests brought. I normally don't take food home as I don't eat it or someone else eats it so I wasn't trying to bring home cookies. I ended up getting one of the boxes, but kept it empty. Those around me would snitch to get me in trouble with our friend, but I kept playing it off. And then another batch was brought out. They began pointing out how I took none. So I immediately took one from the batch and stuffed it in my mouth, ha. Then they were all emphasize that I took one. Good stuff.  

- I didn't have any plans for New Year's Eve (12.31). I was okay with that. Had someone invited me out, I would have gone, but I was pretty content with just having a day to rest and recharge. Originally I told a coworker/friend that I would try to play more or attempt to beat Fatal Frame, but I didn't touch it. Instead, I caught up on episodes of Running Man.

I had skipped on episodes as the place that I was getting subtitles from decided to stop. It took months later for me to remember another placed that was subbing them. I finally caught up on a few episodes. I skipped a few episodes to watch the X-Man themed episodes. Those were absolutely incredible and hilarious to watch. I laughed so much and relived a lot of nostalgic moments. All the guests were good (I'm becoming a fan of Seolhyun) and the normal Running Man cast was as funny as ever. I actually rewatched parts of those episodes again as midnight was drawing hear. Highly recommend those episodes if you ever watched X-Man many years ago.

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- Got new amiibo (12.06). 30th Anniversary Modern Color Mario was ordered around Thanksgiving and came in. The Hammer Slam Bowser amiibo was part of the normal Skylanders Superchargers 3DS starter pack. Amazon had a great flash sale that was selling it for around 60% off.  I originally had the plan to trade in the game and the Skylander that came in it, but they are both not for resale. Oh well. Still got it on a great deal.


- Extra Creditz released some merchandise. I ordered a plush GAME (12.08). I tweeted them and the retweeted it out. Got lots of retweets and likes because of it.


- I ordered an Ike amiibo around Thanksgiving as well. It finally came in (12.10). While I originally thought to collect the Fire Emblem amiibo, for some reason I didn't. But now I'll get them whenever they're restocked.


- The Final Smash Bros Video Presentation happened (12.15). Went out with a bang. I actually listened to it on the way home from work at first. When Bayonetta's voice spoke, I screamed out "Bayonetta!" That was a delightful surprise. I made sure to watch the full presentation when I got home to see it in its glory. Great stuff.


I downloaded Cloud the next day and did my usual play of new DLC characters. I really like using Cloud. Nicely created character for Smash Bros.


- I didn't take a photo, but I finally got my copy of BIT.TRIP's Greatest Chips Vinyl (12.24). I was actually a little disappointed with it. While I have played all the BIT.TRIP games, I mainly really like the Runner games. So some of the songs were familiar, but not my favorites. Oh well. Impulse buying does that.

http://store.iam8bit.com/collections/vinyl/products/bit-trips-greatest-chips

- GameStop had a good deal (50% off) on the Skylanders Superchargers Wii U starter kit containing the Turbo Charge Donkey Kong amiibo (12.29). I'm glad I got these amiibo at a good deals. But in an ironic twist, the day after I got DK they announced that they would be selling the Skymiibo separately. Oh well. I pretty much paid around the same price for them.


- I wrote up my usual Games of 2015 for my WingedVoX page. It has to be the shortest game list I've made in the last few years as I haven't played that many games in 2015.

https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/932937623460905

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- Since it was December, Agent PQ (formerly K) went to Target to do some Christmas decoration shopping (12.05). Funny that I was late due to heavy traffic (almost an hour) and the first thing she asked is if we could go shopping, ha.

Took a while to find the right tree and proper decorations (didn't find all the decorations listed). At one point, a customer asked me for help because I was wearing red, ha. But we came back with what we had and she and Agent Blue started putting up the tree.


Throughout the next few weeks, more and more decorations were strewn about the building. We did put one decoration per room, but nothing else was altered in them.


- The trailer for Mo's Safehouse went public in December (12.14). It was actually ready to go a day after filming, but I was waiting for approval. 


The trailer for Grandma Codebreaker will begin editing once we get an actress to do voiceovers. We have lined up so hopefully that will happen soon.

- A corporate group left a lot of ice after a lunch session (12.15). It was just sitting in our sink for a while until Agent Gig asked if he could melt it or throw it away. I said I would prefer he beat it with his fists.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_U7aDdoXVV/

- We had our annual HER Christmas Party (12.18). There was a small meeting for the staff beforehand where I debuted our Hiring Video (debuted publicly 12.21). Throughout the first week of December, I interviewed all of the staff (asking the same questions) and compiled their answers into a video. We created this in the hopes to gain more attention for people to work with us. It was great seeing everyone's embarrassed reactions to the video.


Then the Christmas Party happened. Agent Pow-Poper and myself were the unofficial hosts. It all started with dinner. Lots of good food was ordered. Then it was the HER Awards Show. I asked all the staff who was coming to pick names out of a hat a week prior. They were then tasked with making a fake award category (funny or serious) to present to whoever's name they drew. Barring me botching a joke and a technical error with one of the cameras, it turned out really well. Everyone also liked the awards that Agent Gig 3D printed for the award show.


Agent Pow-Poper also hosted games for us to play afterwards. Guests were leaving during different games. They were fun and he did a good job hosting. Another highlight of the night was seeing and having fun with former Agent Cat. Good to see she's been doing well and actually wants to come back to work with us. We shall see what the future holds.

- Not all of the Agents have seen Star Wars: The Force Awakes (I haven't yet), but we posted a photo to show our enthusiasm for it (12.23). I can't remember, but I think the photo was taken 3-5 months prior.


- Another escape room opened up in Houston. Some of the staff went to attempt it and did not get out unfortunately. So some of us were planning to "avenge" them. We just needed to pick a day to do it. It ended up being myself, Agent Blue, Agent Gig, and Agent Yeti (plus boyfriend and friend) (12.27).



Avenged. We all had a good time. I was expecting it to be bad after hearing some feedback from the staff that went. There were a few blah things about them, but overall I thought they were alright as a business and the escape room itself was pretty good. My record for escape rooms is now 8 wins out of 10.

- Went in on a Monday to get an electronic device installed (not saying what to avoid spoilers) (12.28). It took a little longer than usual because the worker accidentally drilled into the wiring. He had to go back out and get new ones (over an hour). At least I was productive, but I did forget to eat anything until I left.  

- We tried out the new electronic device the next day (12.29). Unfortunately, there was a snag as it wasn't working well with the locks attached to it (potential to break both). In my haste to stop it from breaking, I injured my index finger (nail ripped up a little and I bled). Agent Gig and Agent Chisel (name might change depending) quickly worked together to fix the problem. Glad we have them on staff.  

- Small highlight happened on the last day of work for 2015. I happened to be wearing my Girls' Generation hoodie (12.30). One of the customers complimented me on it and said she was a fan as well. Too bad we couldn't talk more, but it was a nice little thing that made me giddy.  

- And to close out the year, we had our final blog post of 2015 written by our Agent Gig. (12.31).

http://www.houstonescaperoom.com/blog/herdec2015

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- SNSD-TTS - Dear Santa (MV)


My copy of the album arrived on Christmas Eve (12.24). Nice gift.


- BoA - Meri Kuri (15th Anniversary) (Short MV)

What can I say that I haven't said over the course of 15 years. I love her.

- Jessica Jung - Sing A Song With Yourself (MV)

I was surprised to see Jessica in a new video singing again. I have missed hearing her voice. I watched it a couple times during the day. I also decided to watch and listen to this song to end 2015.

- Things to note for 2015:
I played fewer games. Honestly, I just don't play them as much anymore, but I was still able to dedicate part of this blog to gaming related things (amiibo). A silly resolution would be to play more games in 2016. There are a lot of games (and amiibo) I have scheduled to buy in the beginning of the year alone.

My one constant is wrestling. It definitely has been a great escape from real world things. 2015 has been a great year for wrestling (especially NXT) so that definitely helped keep this hobby alive.

The Houston Escape Room is where most of my life is now. If it has not been apparent from past entries, this is what I'm proud to be doing. I do hope to have more free time from it in 2016 (don't really see that happening) so that I can relax more (games, trips, etc). But all this hard work and the great staff/friends makes it worth it. Expect more to come from HER in 2016.

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

"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."


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Tuesday, December 1, 2015

November 2015 Entry



November felt like a short month. Well, more like it felt it went by really fast. I remember a coworker and I saying how "it's already November" followed by "it's already mid-November," ha.

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- I had a quick bit of sickness that hit me (11.03). Took the day off from work to recover as not only did I have a fever, my back was hurting so much. It felt as bad as it did when I injured my back after going to Sky High Sports years ago. It was that debilitating. Ended up icing my back and wearing my back brace for the next couple days.  

- Best Buy occasionally gives out mysterious award certificates. For the second year in a row, mine was only for $5. So I decided to buy something I had in my crosshairs for a while, the Married With Children Complete Series DVD set (11.06.15). It's crazy going back and watching this show. I do remember a good chunk of it, but a lot of the first and second season was almost new to me. As of typing this, I am on season 5 and just finished disc 8 of 22.


- 107 Facts About Cowboy Bebop (posting because it's so cool)


- Got some new WWE merchandise thanks to deals. The only thing pictured is my New Day unicorn shirt. Forgot to take a picture when I got it, but I plan to wear it on a certain day.



- My ex had her baby shower in town (11.21). Got a little lost finding the place. It was definitely interesting reuniting with a few familiar faces (last time I saw one of them was when they just had a baby and now the baby is 7). I also got to meet some of her high school friends and her step son and step daughter for the first time. The step daughter is cute. She was very invested in one of the baby shower games in which the guests were given a pink clothes pin to wear. If they spoke one of the two words (pink, girl) and someone caught them then they would have to give them their clothes pin. The person with the most at the end of the party wins. She asked if she could add a word and I said it would be okay. I don't remember if the word was "her" or "baby," but I also helped her get some clothes pins by telling her to ask guests to read the rules out loud so they would automatically lose, ha. I was only able to stay for an hour (even showed up to work half an hour late). I made sure before I left to give the step daughter my pin by saying "I'm leaving now so make sure to take care of her" while pointing to my ex, ha. Other than that, it was good to see my friend being in such a happy mood as she is close to 7 months pregnant. Very happy for her.

- Survivor Series was an okay PPV (11.22). Owens VS Ambrose was really good. Paige VS Charlotte was probably my favorite match. And celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Undertaker debuting was good. The match was alright, but the entrance and his exit were very well done.



- Ordered the Arcana Artifact from Scam School (11.23). I thought I would spend a long time and give up in trying to open it. But working at an escape room made it hard to not get in through alternate means. I was able to get it open, but I don't know the meaning behind all the markings, patterns, and pictures all over the artifact. That I would like to know some day.


- Got a text on a Monday about doing karaoke that night (11.23). I was interested, but my friend at first said it would only be 3 of us. That seemed a bit weird to me. But he got back to me saying a bunch of others were coming and I was in.

I left after Paige VS Charlotte on RAW and got there around 9:30. While there weren't a lot of people there, it was still a fun house. Befriended new people, caught up with friends I had not seen in a while, and had a wonderful time singing my head off to almost every song that was chosen. It was a shame that I could only stay for an hour. Well...a little over an hour as the last few songs kept pulling me in to stay, ha. Good times.


- The reason I was only able to stay at karaoke for an hour was because I was asked to pick up and dog-sit Machete (11.23). The person Machete was left with was just going to leave her in the garage and the weather had been getting too cold. So I said I can take her for the weekdays and then bring her back on the weekend. Last time I saw Machete was when I went to San Antonio earlier this year.


- For those that don't know me well, I don't like Thanksgiving. For at least 5 year now, I have opted out of all family related Thanksgiving activities. Long story short, something bad always happened and I just avoid it altogether. For this Thanksgiving (11.26), I was actually under the weather. For the majority of the day, I slept just like Machete did.


Unfortunately, I did find out some sad news. Machete's younger sister, Linguini, passed away about 3 weeks ago. She got run over by a car. Ever since then, Machete has been really depressed and eating a lot. And things started to click in my head. Machete had gained a bit of weight from when I saw her earlier this year. Not only that, she had been really low on energy and would mostly lie down and sleep. She also was very clingy. Ever since finding out the news of Linguini's passing, I can see Machete's depression. It's a sad situation, but I took care of her as best as I could while I had her.

- I didn't go out to shop on Black Friday (11.27), but I did order stuff online. A total of 8 items (one free) and those consist of clothes, a movie, an eShop game, and a few amiibo. One of those items came in that Sunday (mail on Sundays?).

 

- Bayonetta: Bloody Fate was half off on Amazon and apparently I picked up the last copy. It was very well done. They stayed very faithful to the style, the action, the music (minus Fly Me To The Moon), and all the over-the-top Bayonetta is known for. They pretty much retold the story of the first Bayonetta game in 90 minutes. I enjoyed being in that crazy world again.

- Congratulations to my friend, the owner and lead chef of Bite Macarons, for launching bite CAKES (11.28). She always made great cakes. I knew she would eventually start selling them in her shop.

 
- My younger cousin got married (11.28). Asked for the day off way ahead of time to make sure I could attend. Tried to get a +1, but was unsuccessful. Anyways, I rode with my parents to the ceremony that was in a church maybe 10 minutes away from home. It was great seeing cousins I had not seen in a while there.

The ceremony was great. I couldn't help but smile seeing family members that were part of the ceremony walk the aisle. And I was tearing up almost immediately seeing my cousin walk the aisle. Of course she was crying and so was the groom. The ceremony was short, only half an hour. There was a lot of time for photos afterwards. My younger cousin and his girlfriend came to talk to me. I had not met her before, but knew of her since they had been dating for years now. Soon after, I ended up going back home to rest since the reception wasn't for another four hours.

The reception hall was fancy. Lots of waiters and waitresses walking around serving drinks and hors d'oeuvres. Then I started running into a bunch of people I had not seen in a long time. Two of them being younger cousins I used to take care of decades ago. Funny thing, we were all in the bathroom at the same time, but I didn't recognize them. To be fair, one looks very different now, ha. The three of us hung out with each other for the majority of the reception to catch up with others as well.

Also ran into the groom and spoke with him for the first time. Apparently my younger cousin he married has told stories about me, ha. That's cool. Hopefully this will be the start of seeing some of the family a bit more often.

Fun reception. Good food served. The band was really good (forgot to ask for the name or at least get a photo with the red-haired singer). There wasn't as much dancing as I would have hoped. Well, there was, but there were large lulls in between sets where only a few were on the floor. I got out a few times and got into and lead a few of the line dances that were done (and that I learned on the spot). Myself and another cousin participated in being a human pyramid for the groom (that was tough, but fun).

A lot of the family started to leave around 10-10:30. I made sure to go around to say bye to my cousins that were still there. So much has happened and we've all grown up and gone our separate ways (marriage, kids, work, life, etc) that occasions like this where we all have fun are needed. I also made sure to say bye to the groom even though he had been drinking a lot. And finally I said bye to my cousin. She was very thankful that I came and I told her how she had me tearing up at the ceremony. She started to tear up and we just embraced for a while. We grew up together and were really close. Like the rest, we went our separate ways, but there was no way I would miss her wedding. I'm very happy for her. Congratulations.


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

- Started off the month by getting the Mii Fighter amiibo set (11.01). Just went to my nearby Toys R Us, saw they had 11 sets of them left, got mine, and went home. I'm glad they sold it as a set because if they sold them separately, I probably would not have bought them. amiibo count rose to 38.


- The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes (3DS) - Review

Bottom line, I liked playing the demo with my coworkers more than playing the game solo. I'll come back and play it again when the update comes December.

- The update for Super Mario Maker came out. I had not thought of a course theme immediately to make implementing some of the updates like checkpoints, but I eventually made one. I just thought of what was something I really liked this year. Ultimately thought of Bayley and Sasha Banks and thus came the course called Hug Like A Boss (11.10). I did edit it once after initially uploading it. Don't remember why, but it was just a small change.


As for the rest of Super Mario Maker, I have been playing it  to unlock more amiibo stuff whenever I get new ones, play and beat the special events, and check the records of my courses every Sunday.

- The first Nintendo Direct after Iwata's passing happened (11.12). It was amazing. So many things were talked about. I added quite a few games to my list of what I will buy. The next day I went to preorder two of them, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD and Mega Man Legacy Collection. Specifically got those two because of the Wolf Link amiibo and Gold Mega Man amiibo. Lucky I reserved Mega Man as my GameStop only had 3 spots to reserve the game. I was the second person to reserve it.

And to top off the end of a great Nintendo Direct, Cloud will be in Smash Bros. It was actually spoiled for me by a coworker (couldn't watch the video live since I was at work). Even though I knew about it, seeing the trailer was so good. Goosebumps.


- I had reserved Mewtwo and Tom Nook amiibo from Best Buy. Went to pick them up (11.13). It was my first time reserving something at Best Buy. It was fine. I just didn't like the huge sticker with my name they put on it. It's a good system, but the sticker was an eyesore. It came off easy at least. Next stop was GameStop to reserve the games I mentioned earlier. Even the worker there asked "which ones are you picking up" knowing that I was collecting amiibo. Had I known they would have been well stocked, I would have gone to them. He understood though. Better to have them than not. And these latest pick ups brought my amiibo total to 40. And here I was a year ago thinking I wouldn't buy more than a few, ha.


- Nintendo's Cyber Deals (11.26) was stacked with some good deals. Most of them I already had. While there were a few of them I wouldn't have minded buying, I didn't want to spend a lot considering I have a few games I have yet to beat. So I just bought 3D Sonic The Hedgehog. I had been curious about the 3D remakes of some of the Sega games (Sonic and Streets of Rage), but this was at a good cheap price.

https://www.facebook.com/WingedVoX/posts/915298651891469

- I had a Thanksgiving tradition of playing a Zelda game for the holiday.

Thanksgiving 2011 - Skyward Sword
Thanksgiving 2012 - Nintendo Land - The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest 
Thanksgiving 2013 - A Link Between Worlds
Thanksgiving 2014 - Hyrule Warriors

Unfortunately, I didn't play a Zelda game this year. Sure, I can say I played/finished Tri Force Heroes in November at least, but I didn't actually play any games for Thanksgiving as I was sick. Although had Zelda Wii U or Twilight Princess HD came out, I would have tried to play it regardless of being sick.

- Typoman (Wii U) - Review

I was really looking forward to Typoman. That might be the reason I was a bit meh on it. I liked it, but I wish there was more to it.


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

- Our first HER Halloween Contest concluded. I'll admit that I didn't think we would get any entries, but we got quite a few especially on Halloween night. Thank you to all that participated.


- It wasn't planned, but myself, Agent Blue, and Agent Gig all had on the colors of the Tri Force Heroes. We decided to take another commemorative photo as the Tri Force Agents (11.07). It happened again the week after. It hasn't happened a third week yet because we've all had schedule shifts in which we didn't close together. But soon.


- It's rare for it to happen, but it was all guys at HER (11.12). Not only was it sillier/stupider (ha), but we decided to capitalize on a not booked session by taking a photo together. We dubbed it the Hunks of HER. I asked the girls the next day if they wanted to do a Honeys of HER photo. They declined, ha.


- We now have leaderboards on our website (11.16). It will display the all time best team per room as well as the best team of the month.

http://www.houstonescaperoom.com/leaderboard/

- We had our monthly meeting the week Agent Raynor (formerly Ro) was in town (11.17). Not many of the Agents were able to attend unfortunately. We ended up playing Loaded Questions and it was rather fun.  

- Gave a shout out to my fellow Agents on Miiverse in Typoman (11.20).


- Agent M and I secretly devised a plan to surprise Agent Raynor at the meeting. We showed him the final version of a trailer I made for The Scarlet Scam. He very much approved of it and we're planning to do trailers for our other rooms as well. We officially released the trailer (11.20) for the HER community and let them know that the room will be ready December 1st. While we are working out final kinks, we had to make the date official just to stop holding it off. So expect to read about how the room is going in next month's entry. 


- And the last week of November was not busy for me at HER. I actually only worked 2 days (Tuesday, Wednesday). Then we were off for Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Then it was my cousin's wedding. And finally it was a normal day off.

- I did finally go back to work on a Monday, our closed day, to do filming for trailers for our rooms (11.30). It went rather well. Lasted a little longer than I estimated, but we got the majority of things done. We just couldn't do one voice over since neither of us could do a certain voice. Agent Mo was very cooperative and very helpful in helping with filming ideas since she is a videographer. Stay tuned for those trailers soon.  

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- Happy Birthday, BoA! (11.05)
https://www.instagram.com/p/9qp5P0n1IA/

Lookbook (MV short version)

NOWNESS Best of Asia 15th Anniversary

BoA - Kiss My Lips (Japanese MV short version)

- And that should be it. 2015 is almost over. November was an interesting month in all aspects. I'm sure I'll have quite a few things to talk about in December though.

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


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."

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