Monday, August 3, 2020

July 2020 Entry

July 2020 Entry 

There's a new interface for blogger. I tried it out, but wasn't digging it. So this entry will be the last one edited on the legacy editor until it rolls over at the end of August. 

MISC========================= 

- Look at all the Twinkies I ordered (07.03). Been eating one per day. As of typing this (07.31), there are 31 left to eat. 


- Was messaged that during a recent meet up that one of them was recently in contact with someone who tested positive. 2 weeks of quarantine started (07.09). Were I living alone, this would have been less stressful, but the first day was full of worry and everyone not being on the same page of how to handle things. Thankfully I spoke with a friend who is a nurse throughout the pandemic and he suggested the easiest thing would be for me to wear a mask around the house. Took a while for me to remember to wear walking in the house. The other thing was me being paranoid about everything that was happening to me healthwise. Every sneeze, raise in temperature, or anything not regular freaked me out. Everything's fine thankfully. 

- The a/c went out (07.13-07.14). Unfortunately the stores were closed so parts to buy were not accessible. An uncle who specializes in a/c repair came by to bring a portable unit. I helped with setting it up and it made the upstairs feel good for that night. 

- My local GameStop called about my preorder for the new Paper Mario game. I told them I wasn't going to get it anymore. They did inform me that the $5 from the pro program is also going to waste and that I could now use it online for digital purchases (hinting that I can use it for eShop credit). The next day (07.15) I tried to use it. Wasn't working. Called the store and they directed me to another number for GameStop customer service. Spoke with 3 different people and...2 hours later was told that the ability to use the code online wasn't ready yet. Yeah...such a waste of time. I would say the worst part of it was the second person I spoke to as they almost immediately transferred me to someone else (why was I transferred to them in the first place). I did call my GameStop to let them know because they were telling all their customers about it too. Since then, the $5 can now be used online, but not for digital items. 

- 4 hours of sleep (07.23). I got 3 hours at my normal time, woke up to use the bathroom, and then couldn't go back to sleep. Of course whenever that happens, I do all my normal tactics to go back to sleep. They didn't work so I stayed up. Then I managed to roll over and get an hour of sleep before waking up when I normally do. 

- I don't know why, but I was compelled to watch old videos I have (07.26). Every now and then, I'd watch old video projects I finished, but only specific ones. This was the first time I watched more than that and even the raw footage. The main reason I wouldn't watch them in the past is because of the people that are in them. Most of them I haven't seen in a decade for various reasons. Still wasn't able to watch certain videos, but I sure did watch more than I did in recent memory. The ones I did watch were good memories. Would I want to reconnect with some of them? Yes...but it's still hard. A few of them, I have within the past year. I don't know. I've always felt it would be easier if they reached out to me as I've been apprehensive in the past when I had reached out to a few (or sometimes backing out on it). 



- We've been having random waves of rain. It has affected our internet a few times as well. The internet was out for 4 hours one day (07.29). Funny because it happened during my normal stream time, but I delayed it by half an hour. And here it gets delayed by 4 hours instead, ha. 

- Prime Movies Round 04 wrapped up. It was a good one. My Spy and The Beauty Inside were my favorites out of the bunch. If you want to be surprised by a movie, I cautiously suggest I Am Dragon, ha. Round 05 in August. 



WRESTLING========================= 

- Got some new Asuka merchandise (07.17). Not pictured are the new Edge sunglasses I also bought that came with the Asuka mask towards the beginning of the month. Shout out to Reversed2's awesome donation saying to use it on the Asuka figure. 


- Extreme Rules was alright (07.19). Great action in the ring, but some wonky endings to some of them. 

- Bon voyage, Kairi Sane. I'm glad I was able to see you perform live and in person a few times. 

WORK========================= 

- Agent Raynor emailed us about the company shutting down (07.08). I'm pretty sure all of us were holding out and hoping for the best, but for the type of business we are, the pandemic makes it impossible to do what we do in a safe capacity. I haven't really publicized it that much other than telling a few close friends, my initial Twitter post, and this post. But the email let us also know that we had a few days to go to the Downtown location to claim some items. 

Agents PQ, Majordomo, Blue, Blue-Heeler, Striker, and myself met that same day Downtown. It was good to see them all again. It was fun to laugh with each other. I didn't take a bunch of stuff, but the items I did take were from Scarlet's. You can see some of those items in the background of streams now. And I did make sure to take photos inside of The Scarlet Scam as well as actually say "bye" to the room. 



It's incredibly heartbreaking. I felt like I could have done this for many more years to come. Other than the one year that wasn't great, I was confident in with what I was doing there and those who I was working with. I don't think I'll ever find another job quite like this one.

First escape room - Mo's Safehouse (07.12.14) 
Interview (08.08.14) 
First day of training (08.09.14) 
Official on board (08.20.14) 

Year 1 - Learning and enjoying 
Year 2 - Honing my craft 
Year 3 - Proud and at my peak 
Year 4 - Lost and not confident 
Year 5 - Keeping faith and staying loyal 

Proud of: 
The Scarlet Scam. 
Training and bonding with fantastic Agents (not all of them, just being truthful). 
Being a leader and helping others shine brighter. 
Creating memories for ourselves and the customers. 
And much more. 

And for now...I don't know what I want to do for work. I don't know what job I could transition to where I'll feel I could be myself and have my skills utilized to the best. That's how good the Houston Escape Room was for me. I'm open to suggestions or leads. Otherwise I'll passively be looking for something.

Thank you, Houston Escape Room.  

GAMES========================= 

- Getting close to the end of the Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection with Mega Man ZX (07.01-07.02). We're now in the DS games and the step up of a generation is very noticeable. Looks great, has anime cutscenes, more buttons to do more with, etc. The exploration is alright, but a better map would've been helpful. Overall, I enjoyed finally getting to play ZX. 




- First showcase of the month with Demo Showcase 43 (07.05). 
Croc's World 3 - Just like the previous Croc's World games, but you can also choose to play as a kangaroo now. 
Pocket Stables - Equestrian fun. Definitely was getting into it, especially watching the horses race. 
Speedrunners - A fun multiplayer obstacle racer. Took a bit to get used to the mechanics, but I can see this being insanely fun with multiple players. 
The Touryst - Looks good, played fine, but was too short for me to care anymore about it. 
Trials of Mana - A lengthy demo that you could play with all the characters. Played twice to see a different story. 

And I ended up picking Trials of Mana as my favorite of the showcase. I could have gone longer with one playthrough, but I wanted to see how much difference there was in another character's story and was pleased with the results. It looks great, the voice acting was top-notch, and I wanted to play it more. 

I forgot to post it on Twitter (did in Discord), but I ended up buying physical copies of Trials of Mana...and Collection of Mana as they were both on sale. So I have a plan with how to approach these, but I will start with Collection of Mana. 


- The NES game of the month was Solomon's Key (07.07). Never played it, only knew what the cover of the game looked like. Some of the level puzzles were difficult and I had to resort to watching videos to finish them. Got the worst ending, ha.



- Evan's Remains was a game I only kept an eye on because of a viewer named Evan (07.09). Jokingly we thought it would be fun to play it on stream, but it became a reality. While we knew there were platforms fashioned in a puzzle form, we were not prepared for the heavy story that was mysterious and emotion inducing. Pleasantly surprised. 




- QUByte Interactive sent another code for one of their new games, Dongo Adventure (07.09). Playing it in August. 

- Free game of the month was Dauntless (07.11). Very fun. An easier to access and more colorful Monster Hunter. Ended up playing with polly (a regular in chat). While I was having fun beforehand, playing with someone I knew was better (of course). Wouldn't mind playing it with others if I see them stream it. 



- Won a raffle in DuvyDesigns stream for a random drawing. I requested she draw the block character from GRIS (07.11). She knew who I was talking about as she played the game not too long ago and was also a fan of the cube character. 


- REKT! High Octane Stunts was...lackluster (07.13). It was the next Qubic Games we got for free last year. And I'm glad I didn't spend money on it. It crashed a few times and there's no singular goal to "beat" the game. Just get more points to unlock more cars. I ended this one after 2 hours. The one high spot was the generous donation from Reversed2 that I mentioned earlier in this blog. That made the stream worth it. 


- Sponsored stream from QUByte Interactive with HexON (07.14). You fit pieces onto a grid. The puzzles are set up nicely and can provide quite a challenge. There were a couple of hiccups, but we ended up getting stuck on one of the latter levels, which a lot of others online also got stuck on. Gave it a good hour before calling it quits. It's not bad though. DuvyDesigns was watching and ended up buying it as it really piqued her interest. 


- Finally played the Cadence of Hyrule Octavo DLC (07.16). Decided to do this on the one year anniversary of playing Cadence of Hyrule. It was so good to be back in this game's world. 

And then a few days later during their Mini-Direct, Nintendo announces a physical release as well as season pass DLC. They're listening to me as I did say I wouldn't mind more reasons to play this game. 




- Second showcase of the month with Demo Showcase 44 (07.18). 
Coffee Talk - You're a barista in Seattle in a world where orcs, mermaids, and other beings live normal lives. 
Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories - I knew of this series from Game Informer playing Raw Danger. It was interesting to actually play one of these, but I felt really lost (had to look up a guide). The cool action moments are great, but trying to get to them...not so much. 
Kitty Maestro - This...was...bad. Probably my least favorite demo I can recall ever playing. 
Strike! Ten Pin Bowling - This was also bad. I even said "there's no way you can mess up bowling controls" and they messed up bowling controls. 
SWORD ART ONLINE: FATAL BULLET Complete Edition - Looks good, has good voice acting...but it offered very little game play. Played it for almost 2 hours and 15-20 minutes was me playing it. The rest was lots of talking. Yes, it's the first chapter of the game and the save can carry over, but that's probably the wrong way to go about this. The trailer had me more excited as it showed tons of game play that I didn't get to experience. 

Coffee Talk was the obvious favorite. The competition wasn't rough (3 thumbs down is a record), but it would have been hard to top Coffee Talk. I wanted to see and no more about the world and characters and I can't wait to play it (currently penciled in for September). 


- Played my Limited Run Games copy of Mighty Switch Force! Collection (07.20-07.23). 4 games in the whole collection. Played one game a day. Easy to understand mechanics, but the level design shines and is challenging. I would like to play Academy with others some time as I want to be part of that chaos, ha. 

- The power/internet went out when playing Bury me, my Love (07.25). That was unfortunate as it now being in two parts I feel breaks the flow. Had it gone out in the first 10 minutes, restarting the whole stream would have been fine. But the game is interesting. It sucked me in, it sucked the viewers in, and I wanted to see more of the possible 19 endings. After doing some digging and watching one extra ending, it seems like such a task to attain them all. Besides, it was good that I didn't go for one more ending on stream as the internet went out again 5-10 minutes after I ended. 




- To the Moon was the unofficial start to Star/Space theme for August (07.27). I only knew about this game because of supershigi producing music and singing a song for it. So I got it on sale and really enjoyed the emotional story it told. I teared up finally hearing supershigi sing in the game. Didn't know when it was supposed to happen, but it hit me. It's a story heavy game and has a few technical issues, but I do think it's a game you should experience either yourself or through watching someone else play it. And I don't know why I didn't tweet screenshots along with the normal post when I beat a game, apologies. 




- Pokken Tournament DX was free for one week so I added it to the schedule (07.29). Was going to start streaming half an hour later since the game wouldn't be available until noon, but then the internet went out for four hours. But things turned out well as there was a good turnout for it. Met some new people and got some matches in with SNERDAPERDS and polly58033. Definitely had more fun with it than from what I could remember when trying the demo years ago. I even played it one more time in SNERDAPERDS' stream. My favorites ended up being all the fire types, Mewtwo, and ultimately Pikachu Libre. 




- And the original kick off to the Star/Space theme for August was the SNES game of the month, Star Fox (07.30). I was worried the look of it would be a bit off putting after 20+ years, but it wasn't at all. Didn't take long for me to get back into the swing of things. Ended up doing everything in the game (all 3 paths and secrets). Good stuff. 



ETC========================= 

- Red Velvet - IRENE & SEULGI - Monster (MV) 

- Red Velvet - IRENE & SEULGI - Naughty (MV) 

Out of the 2 songs, I think Naughty is cooler with the dance and presentation. But as a song, I like Monster more. At first I thought the combination of these 2 would be a little odd, but they compliment each other very well. Some day, I'd like to see all members of Red Velvet perform these songs. 

- HYO - Dessert (MV) 

- Cowboy Bebop's "The Real Folk Blues" Special Performance 

- This was a rough month for multiple reasons. One was not feeling healthy. My body was actually in a lot more pain than it had been in a while. For a couple of weeks, my left arm actually felt numb. Thing is, it only happened late at night. It didn't happen every day so I would forget, but it happened more than it should have. Thankfully that stopped. But the majority of pain is in my hips and back. I know that's because I sit a lot more. So I'm making an effort to stretch more often throughout the day, adjust my posture when I sit, alter my position when lying down, and stand up or kneel in front of my computer if I'm in front of it for a long time. I'm also wearing my back brace more often, not only when it hurts. I developed a rash on the back of my right thigh too. It was worse at first as I kept irritating it. But putting lotion on it helps. It's very similar to the rash I had on my left arm last year. And it seems like more of my hair is falling out. Not in large clumps, but more than usual. Add in the 2 weeks of quarantine, my body wasn't feeling all too good. Thankfully I'm exercising a bit more. I've unfortunately put on a few pounds during lockdown and I've grown lazy to the lackluster "workout routine" I did in the past. Better than nothing. 

The other thing was that I'm feeling lonelier than usual. Not being able to see people face to face regularly for months has been horrible. This might have been the reason I ended up watching old videos this month. Being single during a pandemic doesn't help. I remember seeing an influx of new users on dating apps, but that just meant more people not to swipe right on me. I actually put a pause on dating apps this month because nothing has happened in a long time with them (I tend to pause once a year). My profile was changed to promote my Twitch channel during that time. I did get a few random new followers, but there's no way I can tell if they're coming from the dating apps. Pandemic or not, I know people are still connecting with dating apps because I hear/read about them. It's not happening with me...and I don't know what to do. I will go back to swiping in August, but not as much as I used to (only a couple times a day rather than whenever I have free time).

Obviously Houston Escape Room having to shut down was a big deal. Still going through the grieving stages of it all. I do wish streaming was a steady source of income. That's the one thing that has been consistent and steady ever since the pandemic started. While I hit 450 followers recently (yay), the number of subscriptions has gone down. Not that the subscriber count was ever super high, but I definitely lost a few the past couple of months. I'm at a steady 10. Can't stress enough that I would like more support in this venture. The average viewer count per stream has been consistently more than it used to be (3 to a 4 is an improvement) and I've noticed the viewer count during streams has gone a couple higher than usual. I do feel I'm doing well with it as people are gravitating to me and like for me and only because of the game/s I stream. And I have been enjoying it more because...well, I have to. I genuinely do, but it's all I have going for me right now. It's also the safest and best economic activity I can continue to do during these times. If I wasn't streaming, I'd be in such a rut. 

I don't know who reads this. I see the view count when I post a new entry. It's usually between 10-20. But I don't know who is reading this. I only link this blog on Twitter so I can only assume a few followers are the ones that read this. If you are someone that reads this and we're on good terms or haven't really gotten to know each other that well, reach out to me and let's talk. If you are someone that reads this and we've lost touched, if you're comfortable in trying then let's reconnect. I wouldn't mind the company from anyone especially now that loneliness is at a high point.

To summarize (the bad):
I lost the best job I've ever had and I'm unemployed.
My back and hips hurt a lot.
I'm still single...10+ years.

To summarize (the good):
I have a savings that will keep me afloat if I don't find work soon. 
My health is decent and thankfully not worse.
Streaming is keeping me sane as it slowly grows and I achieve/hit small goals.

- That's a wrap on July 2020. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind. 


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 
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Wednesday, July 1, 2020

June 2020 Entry

June 2020 Entry

June went by fast. I always check back to make sure I don't repeat myself in the intro here, but I didn't even write anything for May, ha. 

MISC========================= 

- Went to my scheduled ENT appointment (06.03). It was a follow up to getting it cleared half a year ago. It was also the first time I've been to a place that takes your temperature and asked questions due to COVID. I also thought I ended up on the wrong floor as they installed the plexiglass at the reception area and it looked so different. Seeing all the precautions in place was reassuring. Did the audio test that I had last time. Then it was a long wait to see the doctor (an hour). Unfortunately the results were not great. While I had not noticed a big drop in hearing, there is a small bit of hearing loss again in my left ear again as well as a few other things that are happening around that area. The doctor did suggest the same surgery he did last time, but gave a time frame of when I should do it by. It has not been decided yet, but we both agreed that if I did go for it that it would be better when the virus has calmed down just so there aren't too many things healthwise to worry about. The surgery is not necessary, but it will only get worse the longer I put it off. I actually haven't thought of it until typing this. But yeah...that's a thing. 

- Something stressful happened in the household (06.06). Things aren't great all the time, but this one got to me. Not going to get into it, but I do want to thank one of my best friends for being there via text to listen to me during that time. 

- I don't remember what I was originally looking for, but I do like that I got some Goldfish Mickey Mouse crackers (06.22). Nothing different in the taste. Just some of them are in the shape of Mickey heads. I did like that there were 3 different poses for Mickey on the packages. 



- Round 03 of Prime Movies was fun. 3 of them had to be swapped due to not being available anymore; The Tuxedo, My Sassy girl, and Rumor Has It. Replaced those with Jackie Chan: Kung Fu Master, Countdown, and The Ladies Man. My favorites were The Hustle, Russell Peters - Two Concerts, One Ticket, and Life's Paths. And my favorite out of them all was Life's Paths. That made me cry so much. Was not expecting that. I think I'll pick my top 3 from these from now on. Of course that means Round 04 is ready to go. 



- Things that are consistent; stretching in the morning and cleaning at least once a month (or when necessary). Needs to become consistent; a simple work out daily. 

WRESTLING========================= 

- NXT TakeOver: In Your House was so cool (06.07). The old school set, the old school promos done by wrestlers of today, and the action. All of it made for another great TakeOver. 




- Ordered some new shirts (06.10). I normally buy new wrestling shirts I want right away, but I'm starting to do the smart thing and wait for one of the many deals that always happens on their merchandise. Got the new Edge and Tegan Nox shirts for 40% off. 



- Backlash was a fun PPV (06.14). I am glad that they started to have wrestlers in the crowd for WWE events. No crowds was okay for a bit, but the noise helps. I might have been one of the few people that didn't mind the piped in crowd noise for the Edge and Orton match. 




- The Last Ride documentary on the WWE Network was fantastic (06.21). If you were a fan of The Undertaker, this is a must watch. Thank you, Undertaker. 



WORK========================= 

- We are currently still closed. I did go to work though to print out some papers (06.12). Stayed there for a while to wait for information to be relayed from my parents. But it was good to get out of the house for those few hours too. 

- Agent Blue gathered a few of us over Discord to play some Jackbox games (06.21). Fun times. Good seeing their faces and laughing with them again. 

GAMES========================= 

- I tried something different with the stream schedule this month. The plan was to stream every other day. The exception would have been for games that took more than one stream to beat would be played in a row. I didn't get to stick to this completely as I did have to do a few one-off streams back to back based on a few events plus one extra stream being thrown in as a sponsored stream. Overall, I liked this set up as I felt the balance of streaming and not streaming was good for me. Felt like I wasn't putting so much pressure on myself to get all necessary stream related matters done as quickly as possible. I will continue this next month and the next until further notice. 

- Finished the final game in the Megaman Zero series with Megaman Zero 4 (06.01-06.02). I did not enjoy this one. Had a lot of troubles with this one that I had to restart...twice. Once on stream and then again off stream as I did research into what I was missing and the best path to take. Not looking up stuff before put me up against roadblocks that were insurmountable. And while I had prided myself in not using cyber elves in the previous games, I had to for this one. I can't recall the last time I was frustrated with a game and did not enjoy it. I just wanted to be done with it and that's unfortunate as I was liking the Zero series more and more. Oh well. Next month, ZX. 

And a note on the second part of the stream, I didn't advertise going live like I normally do as I took part in BLM movement taking place on social media at the time. I only posted going live in our Discord and that's all. 


- Demo Showcase 41 took place (06.04).
Blasphemous - Finally got to try this out. I only remembered a little from watching Voxgizer playing the demo when it originally came out. Great stuff. 
Hexagroove: Tactical DJ - I was looking forward to this one as it was a rhythm game, but was gravely disappointed. It didn't really click with me and I couldn't pass the first level. I liked what it was going for, but...yeah... 
Langrisser I & II - A tactical RPG for both the first and second one. I did enjoy that you can switch back and forth from the classic/modern anime style. It did a few other things I enjoyed such as the battle sequences. 
Oh!Edo Towns - Another fun simulator game from Kairosoft. This had you building a small village in ancient times of Japan. Nice feel. 
Quest Hunter - A simple resource gathering adventure game. It was fine, but I didn't get anything from it. 

Out of the batch, I chose Oh!Edo Towns as my favorite. I mentioned on the stream that watching the stream, it would seem that Blasphemous should have been added to my wish list. But...I own that game already, ha. 

And this was the first Demo Showcase where I started implementing a ratings system. Thumbs up/side/down and give positives/negatives after playing each demo. This will help give more weight as to which I choose as my favorite. 


- Our NES game of the month was Rygar (06.06). Always knew of it, but never played it. There were a few frustrating parts to it that required me to consult a guide. But it was good. And it brought on the creation of Flygar the Byegar, ha. 




- Finally played Shantae and the Seven Sirens (06.08-06.09). Got 97% of it finished. The last few things were monster cards that randomly drop and I didn't want to spend more hours on the last...10 or so I was missing. It was fun, a little on the easy side, but I enjoyed it because it's Shantae. 




- Warface was not supposed to be our free game of the month (06.11). It was supposed to be Dauntless. I was able to start it up to get the thumbnail for posts, but when I was going to play it on stream...maintenance started. Looked up stuff online and the maintenance was to last for 2 hours. So I restarted things and pushed up Warface, which was scheduled for July. And...this wasn't any better. I was barely able to play it as I kept getting disconnected. I was able to finish the first two tutorial levels, one free for all (10 minutes), and the rest of the time was trying to finish missions and getting disconnected. It was unfortunate as I did like it when it was working. 


- Some time ago, I remember seeing some videos on YouTube with sections and titles. I didn't look further into it until I saw it again in another video. Then I took the time to look up how to add chapters for YouTube videos and it wasn't difficult. Then I took a couple of days to do that for all my stream videos on YouTube that had multiple games played (Demo Showcases, etc) (06.12-06.13). It's so simple and I will be doing that from now for future videos. 

- Stream 299 means another round of Tetris 99 (06.13). This was a good one as the latest update (that happened the day after the last time we played, ha) allowed for private rooms. While I only was able to get 3 of us in a room at most, I was still able to play against 5 others in chat throughout the stream. 




- Stream 300! Those in Discord voted on a list of games that I had beaten before I was streaming and they ultimately chose LIMBO (06.15). It was cool to replay this one. Forgot the majority of it, had a guide open to find the eggs, and eventually looked up videos on parts that I was stuck on. 

And I announced a few other things at the end of the stream that were happening that I also typed up in Discord. Below is the list of things I talked about, but further details are in the stream and on Discord. 

1. New intro/outro song for the next 50 streams per usual 
2. New intro screen 
3. New avatar 
4. Edits to Twitch profile 
5. No more gift subs for beating games 
6. New channel point redemptions 
7. Twitch trailer (more on this later) 
8. Nintendo Sensei moniker 




- Received my copy of Mighty Switch Force Collection from Limited Run Games (06.16). Similar to Sayonara Wild Hearts, I ordered this one back on January 17th of this year. There are obvious delays (as of now I have 5 more LRG orders) so I understand. But I do plan to play this collection next month. 



- Second Demo Showcase of the month with Demo Showcase 42 (06.17). 
Cat Quest II - Simple and fun adventure game with animals as characters. 
Moving Out - From the creators of Overcooked. But instead of filling orders of food, you're moving different types of furniture from one place to the moving truck. Good, but most likely better with more players. 
Pocket Clothier - Another Kairosoft simulation game. Wasn't digging it at first, but got more into it as time went on. Very proud of the dumpling stand next to the bathroom, ha. 
Skybolt Zack - High-paced action as you zoom from enemy to enemy by hitting the corresponding buttons. Multiple pathways for replayability. 
Woodle Tree 2: Deluxe - The sequel to Woodle Tree, which we played the first demo of before. Pretty much more of the same. 

My favorite was Skybolt Zack. I really enjoyed this one as it can be fast paced, but doesn't have to be. Easy to understand and get into, but can take a bit of practice to discover the extra pathways. Shout out to the producer of the game for sitting in the stream and telling us stuff about the game. If the producer wasn't in the stream, I still would have chosen Skybolt Zack. 


- #RaceDieRun was the next Qubic Games game of the month (06.19). This was not bad. It was tough and not as fast as I thought it would be. Thank goodness that we could skip stages to play all the naturally unlocked stages or else we wouldn't have been able to beat it. Good mixture of stage creations and trap placements. 




- Him & Her was added to the schedule (06.20). We got a game code from QUByte Interactive (they've given us games in the past) on 06.11. I shuffled a bit of the schedule around and found time to play it. It was short and sweet. Good puzzles, but I thought it could have been longer rather than the hard mode being the same levels without the zoom out feature. But thanks again to QUByte Interactive for the game. 



- Throughout the week, I had been watching the cut scenes from The Last of Us Part II (06.20). Similar to Final Fantasy VII Remake, I wanted to watch them on my own rather than trying to see the whole story through streams. Now I watch people's reactions to key scenes in the game. Man, what an emotional roller coaster that was. 


- Played Toki (Retrollector Edition) (06.22). It was a remake of an old arcade/NES game. Looks great and plays with the same level of difficulties of arcades of the past. The main attraction to buying this at the end of last year was the Retrollector Edition that came in a big box with lots of cool extras. Showed those off at the beginning of the stream. And I also built the mini arcade cabinet a few days before. It's cool to actually put your Switch inside it. 




- Downloaded GRIS back in November during a Black Friday sale and finally played it (06.23). What a gorgeous game. I always knew it looked fantastic with the watercolor art, but getting to experience it was another story. And I went for 100% completion on this one. After beating it the first time, I wasn't ready to leave the world. So I found a few guides to follow and did it all. Whether you play it yourself or watch someone else play it, GRIS is a must play/see. 




- NightmareVortex recommended I play Battle Princess Madelyn after playing Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts on stream in October (06.25-06.26). I liked it, but it was definitely lacking polish in the Story Mode. It's a functional game, but could be better. 




- And our final game of the month was our SNES game of the month, Wild Guns (06.28). Still so good. Beat it on Normal, tried a little bit of VS, and then beat it on Hard. I didn't know about the alternate end screen for beating it on Hard so that was a nice treat. Still a classic game. 

I mentioned it on stream, but Wild Guns Reloaded was one of the choices for the 300th stream. That was decided prior to Wild Guns being available on the SNES app. So part of me was hoping Reloaded wasn't chosen as the 300th stream (it was tied for second). 




- It took less than a month to finish my Twitch Trailer (05.20-06.16). The idea was to include a 5 second clip from each game I played on stream. Not one per stream, one per different game played. So there would be one per each game in a Demo Showcase, one for each game in a collection (3 for the Ace Attorney Trilogy), one for every game played, but one from a series of games only (9 parts of Smash Ultimate, but only 1 clip from the whole series). 

Little by little, I would take a few hours per day and get X amount of clips. I included any viewer made clips (if they were good), which was a sigh of relief as scrubbing through the videos could take a while to find 5 seconds I want to possibly use. They aren't all victories either. It's a mix of cool moments, goofs, miscellaneous, etc. The only rule I have is no cut scenes (only exception was the clip for X-2). But I needed the 300th stream to happen to complete to have all the clips needed. During that time though, I started to put everything else together as I already had the concept. Once the final clip was ready, I made a few drafts and showed it to a few people for feedback, and then uploaded it to Twitch. It lasted for 2 days because the song I used was muted. I knew I was running into that risk, but tried anyway. Shout out to DoubleTake for providing a few tracks for me to use as a replacement (06.19). The plan from here on is to update the trailer every 100 streams. After every stream, if there wasn't a clip made, I'll create one and add it to the project file. You can watch it on Twitch as well as the full length version on YouTube. 

Extended Trailer: https://youtu.be/FJg-j1gZsqg

ETC========================= 

- TWICE - MORE & MORE (MV)


- TWICE - Fanfare (MV)

- Black Lives Matter 


In regards to Speaking Out, it was crazy reading stories coming from both the wrestling world and streaming world. Props for people speaking out, those doing their part to support others, and providin hope. And there are other world issues happening, new and old. It is nuts that we're halfway through the year and this is the life we are living. Stay strong, everyone.  

- That's a wrap on June 2020. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.



"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."

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Friday, June 5, 2020

May 2020 Entry

May 2020 Entry 

MISC========================= 

- I've lost sleep at the beginning and end of this month. (05.02, 05.05, 05.27, 05.28). The latter end will be explained later, but the times at the start of the month threw me off. I can't recall if there was any reason as to why, but it was the first time in a while I could remember being exhausted. 

- Spent a couple hours to make sure all my emotes were available to be "on camera" for streams (05.07). And by that, I mean that they are placed on screen in place of my camera in the event of a camera issue. I've done it a few times in the past, but only 4 emotes were used (one in each corner). Now any of the 10 emotes can be used in any corner. And 3 of them are even in a slideshow sequence. It took a couple hours to do this, but I think it will be worth it. 

- Bought my copy of Justice League Dark: Apokolips War on the 20th and watched it a few days later (05.24). Wow, what a violent movie. So many characters died, but it was interesting to see how others changed due to the events that started the movie. While I didn't like the original Justice League Dark, this was a fantastic way to end this arch of movies. Definitely recommend it. 



- Around 4:30PM, we had a power outage (05.27). It tried coming back on 3 times within a minute before giving out. It wasn't just our home, it was the entire neighborhood and others all throughout town. This happened in the middle of the stream and I paused hoping it would come back on within an hour. When it seemed like it wasn't, I decided that the latest I would stream is if the power came by 7PM so I could complete the rest of the stream time of 8 hours. It did not. I kept Discord and Twitter updated so they knew what was up. 

The power didn't come back that night. I spent time trying to balance my time on the phone checking social media or watching videos and keeping it charged at all. I spent a good 30 minutes in the car charging it and then I remembered I had a power pack in my room. I had not kept that charged for a while, but it was able to power my phone back to 90%. I was worried about trying to sleep that night, but thankfully there was a nice breeze that day. While I did sleep, I was woken up early by workers getting the power back. 

After eating lunch, I went to HER to see if the power was still running. It was. It was my first time going to the building in months. Things were still left the way they were with a few more items from Downtown being stored. But the power was running, the a/c worked, and the internet was functional. Spent time making posts, catching up on social media and videos, and relaxed. I was actually planning to leave at 3PM, but my dad called a little after 2PM saying everything was back on. Headed home, checked to see if the PC was working, showered, and streamed Part 04-2 at 4PM for 3 hours, 21 minutes, and 20 seconds to complete the 8 hour time frame. Things have resumed. It was a crazy time not having power for about 20 hours. Thanks to those that reached out to make sure I was okay.

- Finished watching Round 02 of Prime Movies. My favorites were Zombieland, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, and Dirty 30. Special shout out to The Matchbreaker because of Christina Grimmie (miss you). And I had to do a last minute replacement of Scooby-Doo (which I thought was free) with Rocketman (Elton John), which became available that day. Got Round 03 ready to go. This has been fun. 



WRESTLING========================= 

- Money In The Bank was so fun (05.10). The whole card from start to finish was great. The MITB match was so fun and creative. 




- Congratulations to Becky Lynch (05.11). 


- Alter Bridge - Metalingus (Official Lyric Video) 


- Rest In Peace, Shad Gaspard (05.17). You went out as a hero to your son and to those that respect you. 


- Rest In Peace, Hana Kimura (05.23). This...was sad to read about. This was a prime example about how cyber bullying really does affect a person. It's one of the reasons that I try not to be negative in streams whether it is my own or I'm watching one because you never know. She was so young too. 


WORK========================= 

- Shout out to my coworkers for "raiding" me after their Zoom meeting while I was streaming Splatoon 2. There was an email sent a couple days earlier about the meeting. If it were a normal stream where I wasn't asking others to play with me, I would have joined the meeting. But it was a rad surprise to all of a sudden see familiar names appear in chat. 

- I and others that couldn't make the that video meeting were part of a second one the following day. It was a mix of good and bad news, but I did think it was good overall. My separate meeting also led to another one with a few others about what we can do to provide a digital product. Hopefully we are able to make something soon. As far as opening up, while other escape room businesses have reopened and altered how their rooms are, I think we'll be okay waiting a little longer. 

GAMES========================= 

- Mega Man Zero 3 finished (05.01-05.02). Before playing this, I've heard it is the best in the series. I can see why, but I don't completely agree with that. I'll have to rank these some time later, but it's a tie right now between Zero 2 and Zero 3. Next month, we'll see how Zero 4 is. 




- First Demo Showcase of the month with Demo Showcase 39 (05.04).  
Instant Sports - Rafting and Bowling were the only 2 playable sports out of the 6. Did something silly with trying to use my kendo stick as a paddle, ha. 
Invisigun Reloaded - Interesting concept with how you are invisible until you fire your weapon. 
The Legend of Dark Witch - A mix of concepts such as Gradius and Mega Man. I had played a demo for this before on the Wii U. 
Mimpi Dreams - A nice puzzle platformer where you're a dog dreaming and trying to get to the end goal. 
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair - 2D platformer similar to the Donkey Kong Country games. I liked it, but there were parts where I got stuck. 

My favorite of the demos was The Legend of Dark Witch. Like I mentioned, I played this demo previously on the Wii U and it still holds up. If I ever do end up playing it, I'm sure I will enjoy it. 


- Back to Splatoon 2 with the Splatoon 2 2020 Special Demo (05.05). I did have fun playing the 2019 Special Demo and this time was even better. I was able to play with more people from the stream (including my cousin, my friend's kids, etc), met some cool new people from the Splatoon community, and it was just fun. I mentioned it earlier in the blog, but one highlight was having my coworkers "raid" me after their Zoom call, ha. Didn't expect that. Thank you to them and thank you to anyone that I played with on stream. 



- This glorious Shantae Funko Pop arrived (05.05). Instantly my favorite out of the few I have. She joined me for a few streams even though she was not related to the games played, ha. 


Speaking of Shantae, I also pre ordered my copy of Shantae and the Seven Sirens Collector's Edition from Limited Run Games along with a plush (05.15). And I also downloaded the game digitally (05.28), which I plan to play in June. 

While I usually wait for my copies of the game from Limited Run Games, because of the virus, their process for making games has slowed down. It usually takes 3 months from ordering for a game to ship out, but I have games I ordered from January that have yet to ship. It's understandable though. Shantae is the only one I could not wait on. Streets of Rage 4 was close, but I can wait for that one. 

- Our NES game of the month was Shadow of the Ninja (05.06). I didn't know this was a two player game at first. But when Reversed2 jumped in the chat, I asked if he wanted to join and he did. Neither of us had played it before and we got as far as we could before he needed to do some work, but that was awesome of him to jump in last minute. Pretty decent game overall. 




- Finally played The World Next Door (05.08). Originally played the demo during Demo Showcase 23 on October 7th, 2019. I really enjoyed it. While I had a few questions about why things were done the way they were, it was fun. There is an alternate ending that was attainable by making a different choice towards the end of the game. But I'm glad I looked it up instead of trying to get it in the game as the thing that changed was kind of minor. If there were a sequel ever made, I'd be down. 




- Our free game of the month was Eternal Card Game (05.09). While I've been skeptical of card games in the past, this one was alright. Even though I was getting into it, I made it a short stream. 


- Second Demo Showcase of the month with Demo Showcase 40 (05.10).
Happy Animals Bowling - It definitely wasn't motion controls. Seeing that the differences between easy and hard was how fast the meter moved made it interesting at least. 
Link-a-Pix Deluxe Christmas - We've played demos similar to this, but this one had a Christmas theme. I opted to not do the last one as it would have taken over an hour to do based on the size alone. 
The Pyraplex - Another simulation game from Kairosoft. But this time we built a pyramid (mall). 
Trine 4: Nightmare Prince - A puzzle platformer where you take control of different characters with different abilities. 
True Fear: Forsaken Souls 2 - A point and click and adventure continuing where the first game left off. 

My favorite in this showcase was Trine 4: Nightmare Prince. I learned that there was a Trine: Ultimate Collection available. After doing the math and finding it on sale for half off, I bought a copy of it and it arrived on the 18th. 

I also gave a special shout out to True Fear: Forsaken Souls 2 as the first game was the first demo ever played under the Demo Showcase name on October 10th, 2018. 




- Koloro was our latest free game from QuBicGames (05.12-05.13). Your shape moves forward and you can make it jump and you need to avoid obstacles with different mechanics it introduces in levels to get to the goal. Simple to explain, difficult to master. I liked it, but did find it frustrating at times. Those times being when I would die many many many times in one level. Not bad, but like I said in the game summary I typed up, not worth the normal $10 price tag. 



- Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom was quite an adventure (05.15-05.17). It was my favorite from Demo Showcase 16 back on May 27th, 2019. So almost a year later. There were lots of ups and downs throughout (the main down was a point of frustration that made me put up an emote instead of the camera), but the game is great. With time, it may have been possible to 100% everything in the game (was missing treasure chests and the contents in them), but I was very satisfied with 100% of the map being completed. And a big shout out to those in chat that helped me with the final 2-3% I couldn't figure out. 




- My physical copy of Sayonara Wild Hearts finally arrived (05.19). Ordered it back in January shortly after playing it on stream. It came late due to the world being what it is at this time, but they added all the extras you see in the photos, which was nice. 



- FLATLAND Vol. 1 was a free game from QUByte Interactive (05.19). They've given us free games in the past and they sent me another at the end of last month. While I beat it and liked it, it was unfortunately plagued with a lot of issues. I mentioned it to them in DMs so hopefully they fix some of them. I'm glad they sent me another game though. There is one that they're making that I have my eye on that isn't out yet. 




- Our final game of the month was of course our SNES game of the month, Breath of Fire II (05.21-05.29). This was...tough. In the end, it was 50+ hours because I needed to level up off stream. Had I not, I probably would not have beaten it in the 5 stream estimate. And Part 04 was split into two parts due to the power going out. That was a first to continue a stream a day later. Sure, I could have simply called Part 04-2 just Part 05 instead, but the stream ended due to outside forces. Anyways, I summarized what I thought about the game in Discord, but I liked the first game more than the sequel. And a fun thing for me throughout were 4 random Kpop names that happened to be in the game (Suzy, Mina, Sana, G. Dragon). 




- Random thought popped in my head and I wanted to see if a GBA Link Cable would work on the Switch (05.30). It does not, ha. 



- I have taken a few strides to get input for streams. Got some from those that aren't big on streaming, business owners, people that stream, are regulars in mine, etc. Took all into consideration and will do a few of them for sure, just not all. I do realize some things need to be changed in order to grow, but what I'm doing is not broken so it doesn't need to be fixed. It needs to be polished and further accentuated. But I will ask for anyone that reads this to do the old fashioned word of mouth method. If you know someone that falls under any of the following, point them in my direction, please. 

1. Watches streams
2. Likes Nintendo
3. Has Amazon Prime, but doesn't watch Twitch
4. Wants a family friendly stream (for themselves or their kids)
5. Needs an escape from reality

There are more reasons that I can't think of at the moment. But any help in bringing a new audience will be greatly appreciated. And I'm not hoping that thousands of people all of a sudden appear. Seeing new faces come in at any rate is always nice. 

And I'm also working on my Twitch Trailer. The idea was created on the 20th and I've been slowly working on it. I can't complete it until later in June because of the idea, but I think it's a cool idea, represents what I do on stream very well, and can be regularly updated if need be. So be on the lookout for that. 

ETC========================= 

- TaeYeon - Happy (MV)

- TWICE - Feel Special (Dance Practice Video COMPLETE Ver.)

- I've had a series of dreams for a while. It would involve a woman who was my significant other. What we did was not of significance, but the fact that she looked different and had a different personality each time she was in a dream. I knew it was the same person though because the narrative kept continuing. And then I tweeted about it (05.11). Glad that people liked it, but unfortunately, and I knew this would happen...she hasn't appeared in a dream since then. 



- We are living in crazy times where everything is happening and it is affecting so many people. It is important. Things need to change. I'm not a person to lead change as big as what needs to happen, but I can support those that are taking charge toward facilitating a better life. Do things right and do things properly. Take care of yourself and be selfless towards those in need. 

- That's a wrap on May 2020. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind. 


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 
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