This was an interesting month. I will say the majority of it went at a steady pace.
MISC=========================
- I've been searching for miscellaneous new shirts on Amazon. I have a few in my cart, but decided to get one a month. One new shirt arrived (10.07). I don't have too many light blue shirts either so I like this one.
- Mentioned it a few months ago that I was rewatching a lot of old videos I had. Went through a few more and found a set of interviews that we conducted (10.08). We did these for a photo shoot magazine that was created. I only watched 2 of the interviews with one being mine. I thought I was going to see differences from me from back then to now, but the interview was mainly about hobbies and the history behind them. Still interesting to watch. I dug out the magazine to see the final product. Unfortunately my part of making a video didn't happen as the audio messed up because of a bad lavalier mic.
- Caught up with a friend through chat and he invited me to go eat sushi with him and a few friends. I was still apprehensive about going out in big groups so I was on the fence about it, but ended up going (10.09). Went to Kura, met new people, and ate so much sushi (the table total got 3 sets of Sonic chopsticks). Another cool thing that happened was seeing a long time highschool friend and his wife and son there as well. It was very refreshing seeing them and catching up with them as well. We walked across the street to the bakery before splitting ways. Went back to my friend's place and we talked for another good hour. It was good. The times I met with this set of friends, wrestling was usually the reason we hung out so there wasn't much time to get to know each other. And it's been forever since I've done that as well. That night was very much needed and I'm more open to meeting others in groups rather than 1-on-1 as I had been doing for the last few months.
- Bought and watched Batman: Death in the Family (10.14). It didn't take long to see all the endings, which is very good. The alternate endings were for the most part interesting and I did notice that a lot of the movie was majority voiced over saving on animations. Definitely recommend it.
- The seventh round of free movies is in the books. Also did 17 movies this time as I had someone recommend me one on YouTube and it fit with the theme. This round might be the one with the most movies I didn't enjoy. Despite that my favorites were Kingdom of Blood, The Good Neighbor, Silent Hill, and The Addams Family.
- NXT TakeOver 31 was great (10.04). TakeOvers always are great and this of course did not disappoint. And this might be the first time I got all my predictions correct, yay.
- Hell In A Cell...wow (10.25). So many awesome things happened. I only caught the last two matches live since I was streaming, but catching up on everything else was fun. Such a good PPV.
- And the return of Halloween Havoc was fantastic (10.28). I really hope this will be a yearly event again. They did some fun stuff with the theme on top of having cool matches.
- Got a message from Agent Ocean letting us know that the locks at the Memorial location were officially changed (10.28). So if anyone on the staff wanted, they could take anything from there that day. Was 30 minutes away from streaming when he sent that message out and I quickly decided to go over there. Agent Ocean and I were later joined by Agent PQ and we started dividing stuff up and helped pack things into our cars. We were there for a couple hours. It was nice seeing them again, but obviously bitter sweet. Agent Ocean and I went back a second time the same day. He contacted friends who wanted stuff and my dad wanted to see what he might want for himself. Crazy day. One sucky thing was that I had made plans for a friend to come do the escape rooms there since we still had access, but it was going to happen in November. Unfortunately that won't be happening anymore.
- On the flip side, a few of us from HER have been having online meetings and we're planning a start-up. We know what we want to do and now it's about creating the product and establishing things such as hours and compensation. Definitely excited.
I played each of these 8 games every other day. The first 4 I had played before while the latter 4 were completely new. It was great to have more Castlevania games under my belt.
Much like all the DLC Smash characters, I gave Steve a try. Unfortunately, he wasn't clicking with me...or it at least took longer. He has some potential, but...yeah, he wasn't clicking with me.
- Demo Showcase 50 (10.17)
Did 6 demos instead of the normal 5. That was to make the total number of demos played a multiple of 5.
Tried out every character. That was my main goal for playing. I found myself liking the melee characters more than others. Top 5 to use were Ashe, Brigitte, Reinhardt, Sombra, and Winston. Shout out to Agent Kagai and Agent Blue for playing with me.
Sponsored by QUByte Interactive. This certainly was challenging. Thank you to the chat that was helping on the riddles. The game deserves the "hardcore" in its title because the levels were very difficult. We were 2 levels away from finishing the game, but at that point I was also worn out. At least I'm first on the leaderboards.
- Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 1 & 2 (10.21-10.22)
Keeping with the theme of games this month, finally got to play Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon and then it's sequel. Had a copy of the first game from Limited Run Games. I think I enjoyed that game more than the sequel. The sequel is fine in its mechanics. However, the difficulty went up a lot...each time you did more...and I couldn't do more at a certain point. Playing these has me interested in trying Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (on my wish list). Maybe next year.
My goodness, this deserves its M rating. It's so well done in every aspect (gameplay, story, setting, etc). From seeing Debonair Vox play the demo when it first came out and then me playing the demo back in June, this did not disappoint.
Played the demo back in February. It left me wanting more and it delivered. The story definitely went places I did not expect. But I enjoyed it enough to get all 6 endings.
A favorite of mine on the SNES. Didn't know there were 4 endings so we got them all...especially that true ending. I don't remember it being that difficult because I have proof of it, but this time it was taxing. But I still enjoyed replaying it.
- I have been 6 years sober now (10.24). I actually would not have remembered had the story of drinking not come up in a person's stream. I spent time going back through blog entries to find out the actual day. It's cool. Have I wanted to have a drink since then? Yes. Have I drank since then? No. I still stick by my rules if I ever drink again; when things are really bad or with a significant other.
- Odd month. Streams went smoothly for the most part. Losing the Memorial location sucked. Going out with a larger group for once was great. Hopefully there will be more positive highlights next month.
- That's a wrap on October 2020. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
Quite an interesting month. It felt like it dragged at the beginning and the middle.
PS: New blogger layout is different for posting and doesn't seem the most intuitive. Might have to resort to only posting the URL links instead of embedding videos (turn out to be in the wrong size), tweets, etc. For images, I can always save the image from links and reupload them, but that's extra work, ha. At least the gif at the end will still be there at the end of a wall of text.
- Picked up my copy of Superman: Man of Tomorrow (09.08, 09.12). Watched it a few days later when the internet went out. It was okay, but I was surprised with how it ended.
- I also went to GameStop that same day (09.08). Needed to reserve my copy of Super Mario 3D All-Stars. I also reserved the Joker and Hero amiibo. I had those pre-ordered via Amazon, but I always prefer to pick up orders if I can and only recently did my GameStop start allowing customers back in their store in limited capacity.
- When doing my morning stretches, I heard this odd clicking sound come from my left knee (09.15). I had not been doing anything different and it didn't hurt. Only made the noise for when it bent enough like going up/down the stairs. I noticed it again the next day, but not as frequent. The third day, the clicking noise was gone, but decided to monitor it for a full week. The clicking noise has never returned.
- Ordered a treat for myself in the form of Airheads Extremes (09.29). Originally I wanted chocolate, but it's been a while since I've had sour candy.
- Round 06 of free movies done. I think this month was the first one to have multiple movies I ended up not liking. But out of the ones I liked, my top 3 in viewing order was Dora And The Lost City Of Gold, Benched, and Ender's Game. Big shout out to Benched because a John C. McGinley fan Twitter account retweeted and then John C. McGinley himself tweeted at me (09.10). That was incredibly cool.
- Clash of Champions had good matches from top to bottom (09.27). It started strong with that triple threat ladder match and ended strong with the Universal title match.
- Mentioned it earlier in this entry, but the internet went out for a long time (09.12). It was about 7 hours. After watching Superman: Man of Tomorrow, I decided to go to HER and just chill there for an hour. I needed to leave the house anyways. The bright part of all that was singing in the car on the way there and the way back. Something I used to do on a regular basis while driving is now a treat.
- For my anniversary stream, I got Agent Blue to join me as we played a virtual escape room game called Escape First (09.28). I had asked him a few months ago and he was excited to join. With the way things are, we were preparing in case we couldn't have him join me in person. I think we met online via Discord 4 times to try different methods. We ran into issues and had to find alternate methods to get him on screen and for him to hear and see the game without a delay. Ultimately we used Parsec. On his end, he used a second screen to zoom in on my OBS. There was one technical issue that occurred when transitioning our spots on screen causing OBS to crash. I tested it after he was gone and it worked fine. But everything else seemed to function fine.
On the day of, we did have that issue occur because we were blocking parts of the game we shouldn't have and unfortunately the two year anniversary stream is in 2 parts. If nothing happened in the first part in the chat, I would have started it over.
But it was still a good turnout. Lots of people showed up to hang for the majority of the stream or at least to drop in and congratulate me on two years. The highlight for me was playing with Agent Blue and having Agent PQ and Agent Ocean joining us with help in the chat. All of us have been escape room deprived so this was a fun way for us to fill that gap. We may do something similar in the future where all of us appear on screen or at least in voice chat. We shall see. But having them be part of the anniversary stream really made it more special. Thank you.
GAMES=========================
- 198X (09.01)
I was really looking forward to playing this. It has been scheduled for the first game of September for a long time and it was worth the wait. I would welcome a sequel to 198X.
- Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary Direct (09.03)
This altered a lot of the last few months of the stream schedule. That's a good thing though. Took awhile for me to settle on something for all the Mario games. But starting November, there will be one Mario game a month.
Donkey Kong 3 was supposed to be played earlier in the year, but I kept pushing it back. It mainly got cemented into September because Donkey Kong Country came out.
Sponsored stream from QUByte Interactive. A surprisingly good puzzle platformer. It would have been longer, but the power went out. Thankfully we beat the main game before it went out. An hour later, I did attempt going back on and do the secret levels that we unlocked. But the first secret level was too difficult and required crazy precision. I think I got 15 minutes worth of attempts and I just said "screw it" and ended the stream, ha.
This collection is now completed (until future releases). Very proud of completing a collection that took a good part of a decade to slowly build. It's one of my favorite series.
Discord voted on this game for me to replay. I had a plan to get all the Stray Beads and take on the Devil Gate Trials. Didn't know that some beads were locked behind some of the Devil Gate Trials. And I didn't know the Devil Gate Trials would take hours to do. Some of the other beads were locked behind tasks that were not fast to finish either. And...the power went out 40 minutes into part 02 that I ended up having to finish the 8 hour time frame the next day meaning the projected 4-5 days of streaming actually became 6 days. As much as I enjoyed playing Okami HD again, this was an incredibly stressful week.
Great game. One of the stressful components of the stream was having to take a long break after 10 minutes of streaming. After coming back from that, I was still hot from being outside and cursed in frustration on the stream. I thought about it for a minute or so than I ended the stream. Cooled down a bit and then started it back up, but explained what happened. But that wasn't the end of frustration as the internet went down briefly. OBS kept recording so the YouTube upload is one continuous video while the Twitch stream was broken up into two. So while those factors may have soured how I felt during the time, I did like the game. It was a favorite of mine from a previous Demo Showcase and this was a good month to play it because of Donkey Kong 3 and Donkey Kong Country.
A developer (The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild) emailed me early September with a code for their new game, Deleveled. Threw me by surprise. I asked a few questions and mainly to see if it was okay if I could play Deleveled later in the month. And they were cool with it. Deleveled was a clever puzzle game. I needed the help of video guides, but that would only get me so far. But I gave it a good try.
And The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild emailed a week later with another code for another game. This time I was able to play it on time and back to back with their previous game they gave me. Breakpoint is a fun twin-stick melee high score game. One cool thing that happened was two of the developers came into the stream at different points. It's always fun talking to developers when they come in. The other cool thing that happened was that I broke into the top 10 of high scores. I didn't think it was possible because my highest score for a couple hours was from my second game. Then it happened. Games after that were decent and I was altering my personal top 10 scores. I came close towards the end of the stream, but 9th place was the highest I got (and it didn't stay up there that long). Good stuff. Definitely recommend it.
A favorite from Demo Showcase 44 in July. I specifically chose to play it on the 22nd because that's the day the game starts on. And this was a great visual novel. It became a surprise 9 hour stream, which I enjoyed. Didn't beat it 100%, but I saw the extra ending online. If you don't want to play it yourself, you can still get the same feel from watching someone else play it.
- Like I mentioned at the top of the entry, this month dragged at points. It was for sure at the beginning of the month because of what it was. And then the middle of month dragged on because of all the power/internet outages. I would say the end of the month dragged too, but not as much. Not like this was a horrible month. Slow at points and that's all.
- That's a wrap on September 2020. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) August 3, 2020
- Had a dentist appointment for a cleaning (08.04). I was supposed to go last month, but if you read what happened, you know why I had to reschedule. Much like when I went to my ENT, I was surprised and relieved by all the measurements they are taking during the pandemic. I even mentioned it to them and they were thankful that I felt safe there. Unfortunately I was told I had inflamed gums and needed to do better with self teeth care. They suggested an electric toothbrush or a water pick. I went for the latter as I've always wanted to get another one. First time I had one was when I had braces and that was decades ago. Now I use the water pick every night.
- The power went out for 2 hours in the morning (08.09). Oddly enough, I also woke up early that day so I was able to do some normal routine stuff early before we lost power. Also to take note of, we get the occasional power surges. It's definitely a few times a month, but no real pattern when they do occur.
- Prime Movies Round 05 is done. My favorites that I had never seen before from this batch are Love On Air and Anna And The Apocalypse. I will say though, I enjoyed the majority of these movies. Coming up with the next month's batch was tough.
Round 05 of free movies I plan to watch on Prime Video this month. Card subject to change due to titles randomly not being free anymore. 2 were recommendations. In this batch, I've only seen 4 out of 16 (all on the right column). pic.twitter.com/S5z14vnQRm
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) August 1, 2020
- I also finished the 60 Twinkies I ordered a few months back. Ate one a day. It was great. Apparently a lot of people on my timeline were very interested in that, ha.
60 days later, I have finished consuming 60 Twinkies.
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) August 31, 2020
WRESTLING=========================
- The WWE started filming RAW and SmackDown in their new Thunderdome (08.21). I really like it. It definitely makes things lively again with the fans in digital attendance and comes off as a differently produced product. I haven't tried to be part of a show yet, but maybe later.
- NXT TakeOver XXX was awesome (08.22). The big downside is that Kross had to relinquish the title on the next NXT show due to injury. Sucks for many reasons.
- I had been lazy in doing this, but I finally went to our Memorial location to pick up some personal belongings (08.26). It was my camera bag with equipment, a Street Fighter keychain, and my dossier. It was nice to be in the building and walk around the rooms.
- While HER is no more, I do think I'll keep writing about it in these blog entries. I'll tell stories and other related tidbits about working there. But I'll start this series of writing by talking about what I was planning to do if we were going to operate again.
I wanted to try a couple things with customers. One was to adjust my greeting. I got this idea from listening to the Scrubs podcast and specifically from John C. McGinley. Apparently when others ask him how he is, he replies with "better now." I think that would have worked with customers. Not only that, I knew how I wanted to adjust that for customers I was attracted to, ha.
The other things I wanted to try to help break the ice while waiting in the lobby was to do a fake magic trick. Basically I would ask a customer to pick a card, show it to others, put it back in the deck, and I would put the deck back in the desk. Then I would do something silly with my hands and then point to the customer's pocket and say "wouldn't it be cool if your card was now in your pocket" prompting them to check. Of course they'll find nothing and I'd respond with "it would have been insane if it was in there, right" and riff off of that. It's silly, but I think it would be fun.
GAMES=========================
- I'm going to condense the GAMES section of this blog. I know it gets long when recapping every game I played on stream and more. So I'll keep it to a list with dates and links and then talk about a few stand outs after. I will keep the embedded tweet for when I beat games.
- I created a public spreadsheet called Games Streamed. This is for people to take a look at the games I've played on stream and the links for to watch them. Made separate tabs for the years as well as alphabetical and one for just demos. Don't know if others have taken a look at it other than a few that I showed it for feedback, but it's part of my bio along with an Amazon Wish List and more.
Mega Man ZX Advent finished. Thank you to all that came in to watch. Advent was a really good game. Great challenge. Glad the collection ended on a high note. Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection is now finished. Next time on stream, Demo Showcase 45. https://t.co/RpOiyqwGcgpic.twitter.com/qFTkbcXHdz
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) August 3, 2020
Star Soldier finished. Thanks to those that watched (@RowinDincht party of 12, etc). Beating the original and SP versions required lots of rewinding and lots of shooting (arm is sore). Next time, Stardust Galaxy Warriors: Stellar Climax (viewer's choice). https://t.co/xxGyvL6N17pic.twitter.com/D7xUEeDbBB
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) August 6, 2020
Stardust Galaxy Warriors: Stellar Climax finished. Thanks for the support (@westiee11 party, etc) and those that voted for me to play this. A tough, fun, and silly shooter. I do want to try it some day with others. Next stream, Starlink: Battle for Atlas. https://t.co/GgNXh9rpzfpic.twitter.com/Scx5HMO38G
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) August 8, 2020
- Starlink: Battle for Atlas (08.10-08.12)
Aside from the Star Fox stuff available on the Switch, Starlink really surprised me. Repetitive play was a little blah, but this was a solid game. I wish there was a sequel or if they made a full Star Fox game with what they've done with Starlink.
Starlink: Battle for Atlas finished. Thanks to everyone that came through (@NightmareVortex party, etc). Glad I changed to Easy otherwise we'd still be playing. Enjoyed it overall. I'm glad everyone that watched also liked it. Next time, Demo Showcase 45. https://t.co/6NFqGuqHBRpic.twitter.com/Y3pncjoXNI
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) August 12, 2020
- Demo Showcase 46 (08.15)
I would suggest watching this one specifically for the Tyd wag vir Niemand. The clip is just a taste of it.
Shout out to the developers for watching the stream and for interacting with me on Twitter. The chat in general seemed to enjoy this one and I did have a laughing fit towards the end, ha.
Dongo Adventure finished. Thanks to those that joined. Thank you to @qubytegames again for the code (and for helping me when I got stuck, ha). But this is a short game. Beat it twice. Did a "speed run" the second time, ha. Next stream is Demo Showcase 47. https://t.co/9ftqLpWNUnpic.twitter.com/40MUalX7Bl
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) August 21, 2020
Space Pioneer finished. Thanks to all that joined (@PoxiPlays party, etc). Main campaign done. Played a chapter after, seemed like more of the same. There's a lot you could do and unlock so you get your money's worth with this. Next stream; Star Sky. https://t.co/mePWOczRAipic.twitter.com/ftkxfqwnR8
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) August 25, 2020
Star Sky completed. Thanks to all that came by (@Zoukiji party, etc). We found all the events and saw the actual ending thanks to the guide and a video. It was nice, it was peaceful. Not for everyone, but I liked it. Next stream, we will play Star Fox 2. https://t.co/Pn7G00Horepic.twitter.com/QGwbgBYVqX
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) August 27, 2020
Star Fox 2 finished. Thank you to all that dropped by. We beat the game 6 times; once with each pilot and once on Hard. Only got 13 Pepper Coins (wasn't planning to get them all). I did enjoy it for what it was and had a blast with it. Next stream, 198X. https://t.co/qWWwet7loMpic.twitter.com/5hiPCGzodr
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) August 29, 2020
- Got a couple of physically released games that were only digital. Old School Musical from Super Rare Games and The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories from Limited Run Games (08.29). Old School Musical I've already played on stream and I plan to play The Missing at the end of December. This was also my first time ordering from Super Rare Games. I like all the extras they pack in and I knew of the plastic sleeve it comes in. I thought I would keep that, but it didn't fit well with the rest of the games on the shelf so I threw it away. And I did forget that it is formatted for another region so I actually have 2 separate icons on my Switch for OSM now. Those are a few small things that I wasn't too big on, but I think the positives outweigh the negatives. We'll see if I order another game from them in the future. Has to be another one I really really like. As for The Missing, I ordered it back in January. Of course with the way the world is, orders from LRG are taking longer to produce and ship out and that's understandable. Glad to finally have it and to play it eventually as I've heard good stuff about it.
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) August 30, 2020
ETC=========================
- ITZY - Not Shy (MV)
- Red Velvet - Milky Way
Welcome back, Wendy.
- BoA 20th Anniversary
Can't believe it has been 20 years. 20 years of BoA and 20 years of me being into Kpop. It's thanks to her. While I knew of other Kpop artists like HOT and SES, BoA was the one that I poured all my interest into. She has been the one constant throughout my Kpop hobby. Even when I fell out of it for a while, I still kept up with what BoA was doing. I do need to buy her latest concert "BoA LIVE TOUR 2019 #mood" on blu-ray. It's in my shopping cart, but I don't need to buy it right away (didn't even know it was released in February). I think I'll make that my Christmas present this year.
- An update on things I wrote at the end of the last entry. No one contacted me. It was disappointing, but I was making the effort to interact with more people during the month. I didn't swipe on dating apps as much as I thought I would this past month. I did make one connection, but it was a fake account. They did well with holding up a conversation and sharing photos of not just them but of their every day life. However, once she started talking about stocks and wanting me to download something...no. Encountered that before. It was a nice week of back and forth until the end. I've also started to leave the house more. At least once a week even if it's to drive around for an hour with no real reason. Rash is mostly gone. It definitely isn't as irritating as it was last month. I did keep my facial hair for 2 months. It was nice and I liked getting to use my mustache comb again, but it felt good shaving it off at the end of the month.
- That's a wrap on August 2020. Thanks for reading. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
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.
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) July 3, 2020
- 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).
While I still can't watch all of them because of very specific people, I found myself wanting to watch more as seeing these videos after so long made me smile and laugh. Did a lot of silly things that I remembered, but seeing the actual video was refreshing.
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) July 27, 2020
- 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.
Round 04 of free movies I plan to watch on Prime Video this month. In this batch, I've only seen 4 out of 16. pic.twitter.com/B7cZOMRJFE
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) July 1, 2020
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.
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) July 17, 2020
- 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.
I'm proud to have helped create our third escape room ever that lasted until the end, The Scarlet Scam. Shout out to my fellow Agents I worked with (not all pictured). You are all dedicated and talented and I'm glad we're friends. Thanks for the memories, H.E.R. - Agent 7012 pic.twitter.com/6TXJ2FSgOu
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) July 9, 2020
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.
Mega Man ZX finished (ahead of schedule). Cheers to all the support today (@SolaceAndDread for the host etc). We beat it ahead of schedule. I enjoyed it, but not enough to do a second run with Aile. Next month. ZX Advent. Next stream, Demo Showcase 43. https://t.co/RexTh6Eohapic.twitter.com/2YvlUIU46Q
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) July 3, 2020
- 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.
Solomon's Key finished (worst ending). Thanks for the support today (@darksage226 raid, etc). Never was great with puzzles, but that was tough. Thank goodness for video guides and FAQs. But we did it. Next stream, from Solomon's Key to Evan's Remains. https://t.co/h3sGHcqLgHpic.twitter.com/dML4WAwA0B
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) July 7, 2020
- 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.
Evan's Remains finished. Thank you to anyone that showed up. Well, this definitely went in a direction I wasn't expecting. Lots more story, which was neat. Puzzles weren't too bad, only a few had me stumped. I enjoyed the game. Next stream, Dauntless. https://t.co/JRqVbFTQHupic.twitter.com/R5f5Dy62yO
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) July 9, 2020
- 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.
Thank you to everyone that supported (@NightmareVortex raid, etc). Special shout out to Polly/mr58033 for playing with me on stream. Dauntless is fun. Not bad solo, but better with others. Easy to get into as well. Next stream, REKT! High Octane Stunts. https://t.co/DkdYJK2P2ppic.twitter.com/RZoaDyWHBT
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) July 11, 2020
- 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.
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) July 12, 2020
- 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.
Cadence of Hyrule Octavo DLC finished. Thanks for watching the stream. It was great being in this world again. Octavo was neat and his story was interesting. If there ever was more Cadence of Hyrule (DLC/sequel), sign me up. Next stream, Demo Showcase 44. https://t.co/tidUiVKyurpic.twitter.com/fHRC5g68Ud
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) July 16, 2020
- 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.
Bury me, my Love finished (1 of 19 possible endings). Thank you to those that tuned in. This was a very surprising journey. It got me invested, it made me worry, it made me excited, etc. Then we got a bad ending in Patras. Next time on stream, To the Moon. https://t.co/0veuEWprwEpic.twitter.com/8HAKzd0h7b
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) July 25, 2020
- 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.
To the Moon. #ToTheMoon#NintendoSwitch To the Moon is what we're playing today. I'm ready to indulge in the story it crafts. But there's really one main reason I was interested in this game and we'll hear it at some point. Join me for the journey. https://t.co/V6E70Vxp3xpic.twitter.com/G5P4SssERX
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) July 27, 2020
- 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.
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) July 30, 2020
- 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.
Star Fox completed. Thanks to everyone that showed up (@darksage226@Zoukiji parties, etc). This game was fun to replay after 20+ years. I was worried it wouldn't hold up, but it was enjoyable. And we did everything, ha. Next stream, Mega Man ZX Advent. https://t.co/caiQDSlozYpic.twitter.com/nuaS8mE21B
— Arnell (WingedVoX AKA Nintendo Sensei) (@ArnellragasA) July 30, 2020
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.
