Sunday, February 6, 2022

January 2022 Entry

January 2022 Entry: 


The first month of 2022 felt slow, but a lot happened. And if I haven't mentioned it before, I started adding game purchases to the MISC section. 

MISC========================= 

- New snack bought; Rule Breaker Cookies (01.03). All flavors were good. Highly recommend them. 


- Saw someone mention this in a Discord post and looked in on it. Chicken Police - Paint it RED! was a GameStop exclusive. Learning of the game came around the time I got my $5 coupon and the game also went on sale (01.04). Picked up my copy for $12 at the same GameStop I got Little Nightmares II (sale and coupon again). As of typing this, it is scheduled to be played in September. 


- Finally got to check out SMOOSH (01.08). Prior to that, G and Rannchan picked me up to go eat ramen. Then it was off to SMOOSH for dessert and it was great. Went to GameStop after as G picked up his own copy of Chicken Police, ha. It was a great spending time with friends in person. 


- My talented cousin finished my new emotes (01.13). This set's theme was cartoons. One idea had to be nixxed. Be Kind was actually planned to be in the form of the Batman logo, but it just wouldn't work or come off as readable. However, they all turned out great and I'm glad to see others using them. 


- For the new year, I decided to not use sleep medicine. I had to rely heavily on it for December. I did well for January, but needed to use it after beating The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles: Adventures (01.16). I was very drained after that (more details later). I drank the medicine a few more times in the month, but thankfully have not had to rely on it like last month. 

- Ring Fit was tough this month. Had the worst start I could recall (01.18). Not only was the heater making things warmer than normal, but this was coming off being tired from The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. Within 5 minutes, I was already needing to take a break. I also hit the highest bpm I've ever had. And then towards the end of the month, I hit a snag with older sidequests (01.28). They're tougher, requiring more precision (don't collect gold coins, don't stop moving, etc). I had been cleaning up a good chunk of them up until this point. Now I'm skipping to any that are doable. I'll come back to them, but I didn't expect this type of difficulty and accuracy. 


- Bought some amiibo from an old high school friend (01.23). I actually forgot he was showing up that morning until he messaged me, ha. It was good seeing him and catching up for a few minutes. Thanks for Lucario and Greninja. 


- After a conversation on stream, I decided to take my old strategy guides out from a shelf to make them easier to access (01.28). We definitely had more, but those are most likely long gone whether they're lost or someone borrowed them and I don't speak with them anymore. 
 

- Met up with Triple S to make a trade (01.30). There were a few games from my newly acquired games he was interested in. He had a few as well. We met to get some boba and catch up on that rainy day. He walked away with Dragon Quest IV, Dragon Quest VIII, Mad World, and Xenoblade Chronicles X. I walked away with Hot Shots Golf and BIT.TRIP COMPLETE and cash. 


- Castlevania Anniversary Collection (01.30) 

- Round 22 of free Prime content is done. I watched Magic Knight Rayearth for the first time. Always knew of the series and what the main characters looked like. Season 1 wasn't bad. Was very formulaic with the issue being resolved by the end of the episode. I didn't like how it ended though. Season 2 was disappointing. I get that they wanted to try something different by not being formulaic like season 1 and by introducing more characters. But there were so many...and almost everyone ended up in love with someone. In the end, I'm glad to have watched it, but it didn't meet my expectations (if any). I know I would have enjoyed it more had I watched it when it originally released though. Presea was my favorite character. And I actually knew 2 of the theme songs prior to watching this (thanks old school anime cassette tape full of random intro and outro songs). 
 

WRESTLING========================= 

- Day 1 was a fun PLE (01.01). Good matches and crazy outcomes. Nice way to start the year. 


- New Year's Evil 2022 was good (01.04). More changing of the guard. Curious of how things will carry on from this point. I know most are negative on NXT 2.0, but I'm still optimistic. It's different, but it's good. 
 

- Royal Rumble 2022 was fun (01.29). While I agree that the men's Rumble match was the low point of the night, I really enjoyed the rest of the card. Rollins VS Reigns was match of the night and the women's Rumble had great moments (Hardcore Country!). 


H.E.R.========================= 

- Meetings happened. I won't get too detailed on those, but progress is happening even if I had decided to slow things down immensely. But I'll still fill this section with stories. 

I do remember an incident happening at home a few years ago. It's happened a lot, but my mom opens my mail. It's usually the medical things and she'd state that she thought it was for her and not read who it was addressed to. After so many years of it happening, I snapped and clearly stated to look at who it's for instead of assuming. I tweeted shortly after that even though it should be understood, I don't like anyone opening my mail. Either later that same day or the next day at work, I see that a bunch of packages were left unopened as they were addressed to me. I feel like someone read my tweet and let others know that it bothers me when others open my mail. I get it, but those were supplies for the company, not anything personal. I think I let them know it's okay to open the packages as it's most likely going to be stuff for the company unless I specifically said something. But I have an idea of who might have read that tweet and I do thank them for being courteous in that way. 

But yeah...never open anyone else's personal mail. Not even family members. 

GAMES========================= 

- 1 Like, 1 Video Game Answer. I don't normally participate in these, but I went through the list and was able to come up with the majority of the answers. I didn't think it would get that many Likes, but it got up to 19, which was cool to see. 


- Shout out to GToTheNextLevel for gifting me the code for Space Invaders Forever (01.02). 3 games in one, but unfortunately one could only be played in handheld mode (still showed it off). Pretty good game to start the year off with. 
 

- Demo Showcase 79 (01.03) 

- City Connection (01.05) 

- Returned to RPG Maker MV Player to play Kingdom of Neandria (01.07). I received an email from someone asking to check out what they made in RPG Maker. They linked a site and it detailed how many hours he spent creating it etc. We exchanged a few emails and cemented a day for him to be there as I played the entire game, which was around 8 hours. It was cool hearing some behind the scenes tidbits from him as well as me spotting a few glitches or mistakes, which he took note of. Definitely a fine example of the kind of game you can create with RPG Maker. Highly recommend anyone try it out. It's free. 


- Finally played TERRORHYTHM (TRRT) (01.09). I actually bought it for 10 cents a couple years ago and kept pushing it back. Well...it's the worst game I've played this year. The rhythm part of the game was absent and the controls weren't responsive. Chat was figuring out that the game reviewed poorly and reflected all the gripes I had with it. On the bright side, we had about a 30 minute chat once we were done. Definitely pass on this game. 
 

- Watch G4's Frosk talk about sexism in gaming (01.11). Good stuff. 
 

- The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles: Adventures was great (01.11-01.16). Number-wise, they were probably the highest for the month in terms of viewers. It was fun doing voices and the story was excellent. I can see why this became a lot of people's favorite Ace Attorney game. Game-wise, I didn't like Sholmes' deductions as they were a waste of time. He gets everything wrong and you have to see him get it wrong again as you correct him. That could have been streamlined better. 

Unfortunately, this did take one stream longer than expected with 6. The 5th stream lost half an hour as the power went out for 10 seconds and my old computer needed half an hour to boot back up. And the finale ended up running closer to 9 hours. Had the power not gone out in stream 5, stream 6 would have been under 8 and a half hours. But yes...6 days in a row of doing voices for 8 hours. That's 48 hours. That's the longest I've ever streamed concurrently. By the time we got the final Not Guilty verdict, I was ready for it to be over and Ace Attorney games don't wrap things up quickly. I had to request that chat not gift anything as they celebrated with a hype train, but I wasn't in the mood. I was thankful, but drained because it all hit me at the same time. And my mood was not reflective of how I felt about the game because I enjoyed it a lot. I was just done. 

I was to play the sequel the next month, but I need time away from it. Plus I'm not going to do another voiceless visual novel for that long in a row. The plan for the sequel is 2 streams on, 1 off until we're done. That should work especially since the sequel is longer. I don't think I'll do that for voiced visual novels or RPGs for now so those can still be tackled the same way. 


- Played a favorite from Demo Showcase 65; 9 Monkeys of Shaolin (01.19). Originally this was planned to be 2 streams to complete, which wouldn't have been tough, but that second stream would have just been grinding for skill points to fill out all the skill trees. While I enjoyed the game, I didn't have it in me to try and do that. Not bad for a one-off, but definitely recommend it on sale. Added another Demo Showcase in place of that second stream. 
 

- Demo Showcase 80 (01.20) 

- Path to Mnemosyne was a game I knew about thanks to The Budget Gamer (01.22). He's not doing videos anymore, but thankfully I learned of a few games because of him. The game itself was amazing to look at. The art was what drew me to it in the first place. Puzzles were tough at times. And we ran into a glitch at the end where a collectible wasn't popping up. Restarted it to see if it would come back and it didn't. In the end, I formulated a plan for what to do as we paused. When we unpaused, the item appeared, ha. 
 

- Short stream with Comic Coloring Book, our free-to-play game of the month (01.24). Would have gone longer there were more in chat to influence how we colored things. Thankfully anyone was there as I would have finished it too fast. 


- Demo Showcase 81 (01.26) 

- Viewer's Choice stream with Ninja Village (01.27). Discord voted between 4 different Kairosoft simulation games that were favorites of previous Demo Showcases. Chat got to help with some decisions, but ultimately most became characters (chose long/short range and weapons). It was pretty good, but got tough as our forces were simply low in numbers and it takes a lot of money to raise them. I wouldn't mind returning to this. 


- And our N64 game of the month that turned into another Viewer's Choice was Winback: Covert Operations (01.29-01.30). Shout out to SNERDAPERDS who was the first person to spend channel points on the "Choose a Game to Play on a Future Stream" redemption. He came in part way through the first stream and did it, ha. It's because of him playing Winback on his stream that I was more interested in it. But I really enjoyed Winback. I was surprised with how well the controls were. It wasn't perfect, but it's a nice gem on the N64 library. 


ETC========================= 

- TaeYeon - Can't Control Myself (MV) 

- BoA - Sweet Impact 

There was a reason I went through a bunch of old dances I used to know. My body couldn't help but move around to them. But when it came to Sweet Impact, I had to hold back a few tears in the middle of the dance. That specific performance from one of her concerts is my absolute favorite. Muscle memory kicked in and I could recall about 85% of it. It felt amazing. 

That's a wrap on January 2022. 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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Monday, January 17, 2022

December 2021 Entry

December 2021 Entry: 

2021 has wrapped up. December was all over the place. 

MISC========================= 

- Ordered a treat for myself from Cinnabon (12.01). Cookie BonBites, BonBites, and CinnaSweeties. I've been craving something sweet from Cinnabon for a while. They're all great, but obviously really sweet. I couldn't eat all of them when they were fresh on delivery, but they still tasted great after the fact. As of typing this (01.12), I still have one piece left. 


- Brought some friends together that only knew of each other via streams (12.04). We played some board games, ate some food, and ended with The Devils & The Details. It was great seeing them bond as they were all very alike with similar interests. Hopefully we'll do it again some time. 
 

- Went to my routine ENT appointment (12.08). Not the best one for multiple reasons. I was in the waiting area for maybe less than 10 minutes to be brought into a room, not bad. But the wait to see the doctor was over an hour. I was informed close to the 1 hour mark that there was a delay, which I'm glad they said something, but I was already tired and hungry. When I finally saw him, I had an update for him, which was that the ear wax had been leaking from my problematic ear for the past 2 days prior to the appointment. After inspection, he said I had an infection. He made a few prescriptions and we decided to meet sooner rather than later and have another ear test. This was actually the first time in my series of appointments that we didn't do an ear test. 

As I was driving away, I got a text about my prescription being delayed so I figured I can get lunch first instead of after picking up the prescription. It was way past my normal lunch time so I got some McDonald's and ate it in the parking lot instead of at home. Went straight to CVS after and the clerk tells me there's still a delay on the prescription. At that point I was in give up mode. My ear was bad and I couldn't get my prescription. Bought some sleeping medicine (because that was still a thing) and went home. Spent an hour on hold with the ENT office and was told why the prescription was on hold. 

Waited a few days to even get the prescription. The plus side was that it costs way less. But it was for 2 different kinds of drops to put in my ear twice a day. Coupled with my sleeping issues, I spent a lot of time lying down on my right side for 10 days. My ear has been fine since then. Not that ear wax had continued leaking, but it stopped. I'll find out in February (couldn't schedule any earlier) how things are. 

- Finished Ring Fit Adventures (12.10). The last boss fight actually was quite long. I think I took a couple minutes for a break in the middle of it. I am glad to be able to finish it before the end of the year. We're not done though as it opens up the extra worlds, which are the same worlds with stronger enemies and different dialogue.Also reached level 200 at some point. The second to last session was actually a tough one as I felt super low on energy throughout. Thankfully I had one more thanks to some schedule shifting (12.30). It was better overall and I really needed something to keep my mind off things that day. 
 

- Went to a Holiday Friends Gathering for Games event (12.18). Originally I was unsure because of the number of people going as it would have been the largest enclosed event other than medical or restaurants I'd be at. I pretty much decided the night before after the stream. I'm glad I went. Not only did I see faces I had not seen in a long time as well as new ones, but we had a lot of fun and ate some good food and had some good talks. Thanks for having me. 
 

- Remember the Cinnabon order I mentioned earlier? I still had a few left. I thought it would be nice to eat one warm. (12.21). So I popped one in the microwave, turned around to look at some mail, and about 30 seconds later the microwave was full of smoke. I threw that way and spent a good 30-40 minutes getting the smoke out of the house. I was the only home at the time thankfully so no one else had to deal with the smoke. 

- Got a new 2022 calendar from Nintendo (12.23). Just like the previous one, it will sit in the back of streams and change when appropriate. 


- I received a message on Discord from someone unexpected (12.24). It was someone I reached out to at the beginning of the year as they were making posts that they weren't in the best of places. We spoke a few times here and there during that time and then things seemed to be going better for them. Due to the holiday spirit, they reached out to me and thanked me for being there during that time. It had actually been many months since we spoke so it was a great surprise to start the day. 

- I haven't been digging Instagram lately. It's nice seeing others' posts, but mine (which I understand are only videos and not photos minus the occasional story) doesn't have a lot of interaction. In fact, the majority of interactions are bots that everyone gets. One day (12.27), I had 7 bots post in seconds, the most ever. I know some people are liking the posts, but it really sucks that the majority of my time using the platform is to block bots. At first I only deleted the messages. Now I don't care and I report them. 


- My Christmas present to myself; Final Fantasy Twin Pack (12.27). It's been on my wish list for a while and it was on sale. I also pre-ordered 3 of the Final Fantasy music boxes, but those don't come out until August 2022. 
 

- I've spoken highly of supershigi in the past. During the last week of the year, she Radio Shigi (12.27-12.31). It was a lot of her songs played on loop all day with a nice animated image playing. It was awesome to go to sleep to, to wake up to, and to tune in to randomly. And the community was nice as always as well as silly such as the 2-3 times we were all there for when the stream "ended" after 48 hours, ha. Even though that same playlist of songs is on her Spotify, I do miss Radio Shigi being there. 
 

- Round 21 of free content in the books. It was a mix of holiday movies and (if possible) similar non-holiday movies. Despite a few stinkers, the majority were good to watch with my top 3 being My Bossy Girl, 10 Horas Para O Natal, and Jingle All the Way. From now on, I'll be swapping between watching series and movies. Maybe do a combination if there's a short series or some type of theme. 


WRESTLING========================= 

- NXT WarGames 2021 was fun (12.05). It did a good job highlighting all the new talent and showing the shift in direction. Cheers to Johnny Gargano. It was amazing to hear "His Rebel Heart" and see his gear for his final match. 


H.E.R.========================= 

- I had spoken to a realtor friend about finding places for the new HER. She found a few places that weren't too great at first (far away, not the best space), but about a month later she found that were really good. 2 in particular stood out and I spoke with Agent Ocean to see when he was available to check them out with me. That day became the 29th. The first was a shared office space with some interesting positives, but quite a few negatives. But the second one across the street was its own building in a shopping center. There were more positives as well as potential for more rooms there and seemed very ideal. Leaving that spot, it seemed like this is where we'd plant our flag. Agent Ocean and I went to eat afterwards to hash some stuff out as well as catch up. Felt really good that day. 

The next day...I had a panic attack. It was a combination of things. First, my mom wasn't supportive. Even though she knew I was planning to do this, the fact that we finally found a spot was when she decided to bring up every reason I shouldn't do it. I agreed with the concern over COVID, but everything else was to counteract all the other concerns I had actual answers for. After that, I did speak with Agent Raynor. He was excited and cautious, but I felt better. And then fell into another conversation with my mom. Even though I thanked her for her concern, she continued to lay on the same points as before. The rest of the day was filled with anxiety as I had a list of tasks to do and people to contact. Then every possible bad outcome started to overwhelm me such as seeing where all my money was going and how fast it would have gone away. I couldn't focus and I could feel my body hurt more and more. I couldn't relax like normal, I couldn't enjoy hanging out in my crush's stream, or distract myself long enough. That last Ring Fit session helped for a bit thankfully, but I was back to feeling bad shortly after. 

Thankfully Radio Shigi was around. It was a great calming distraction, but in doses. I did voice that my day was rough and others were being supportive, which is wonderful about that community. A friend was in there too and I ended up reaching out to them outside of the stream. I was on the verge of tears before we started talking too. We had a good talk about things. She could relate to a few things and understood concerns from all sides. Another friend reached out shortly after she and I finished our conversation and I relayed the same information. I am super thankful for both of them for being there. 

Since then, I pumped the brakes a little on HER. I think I wanted to do things way too fast and that was too much pressure. So things are going at a slower pace as well as planning more stuff out before jumping in. 

GAMES========================= 

- Was really excited and pleased with Jenny LeClue (12.01-12.02). Originally downloaded it for 80% off a year prior and kept pushing it back. It's so good. Wonderful voice acting, great story, and excellent humor. One of my main downsides was that certain puzzles were repetitive. I highly recommend it (ioften goes on sale) and can't wait for the sequel. 
 

- Interesting batch for Demo Showcase 77 (12.03). My favorite became The Ramen Sensei. I liked it so much that I added it to a vote that was going on in Discord. It unfortunately wasn't chosen even though I thought me adding it after the fact and with chat really enjoying would have made it the obvious winner, ha. 


- Finally got to play Ristar (12.05). Second game I've tried off the Genesis NSO. I definitely see why people like it. It was just shorter than I thought it would be. Back then, it would have been a good rental. 
 

- Metroid Dread lives up to all expectations (12.07, 12.09). Wonderfully crafted, controls well, challenging, and looks gorgeous. Had I not had to take a day off in between to go to an appointment, I would have used 3 streams worth to 100% it. It may happen in the future, but I was very satisfied with Dread. Thumbs up. 


- Returned to Just Shapes & Beats because they added their lost chapter to it (12.11). Played the main story for the first time on stream this way and got to experience the extra chapter. I even got to play multiplayer for the first time with someone from chat. Speaking of chat, I was a little annoyed at someone that was in chat. Apparently they were there for when I played it a couple years ago for Just Shovels & Knights. I didn't remember them, but double checked afterwards and they were. They were one of those people that like to correct others on facts and also not come off kind with how they speak. For example when playing multiplayer, I asked the other person if we can trade off selecting songs. They didn't hear me the first time and still picked the next one. The person in chat responded along the lines of "let WingedVoX choose, c'mon. Play something we haven't played yet" even though I already addressed it. And in the end, that person still didn't choose to follow me. I can understand really liking a game and wanting people to know facts, but there's a better way to come off. Still enjoyed the stream, but that's a blemish on it. 


- NES game of the month was Yoshi (12.13). I remember trying this out a long time ago, but not where or how. Fun puzzle game. I liked getting to play against others in chat. Otherwise it was simple and short as there was no way to "beat" the game. 
 

- Nintendo's Switch Year In Review stats were available for all to see (12.14). I wish they allowed to save more images as they only gave 2 and most people opted to post screenshots. Regardless, it's always cool to see these and compare them with others. 


- The sequel to The Silver Case that we played last month, The Silver Case 2425: The 25th Ward - The Silver Case was great (12.15-12.17). It was my favorite of the two from almost every aspect (characters, story, interface, etc). I was able to squish this into 3 streams when I thought it might take 4. And there are 100 endings, ha. All are text and only is the true ending, which I didn't choose. I did find a YouTube video showing all outcomes and some are ridiculous obviously because some reference the game, TV shows, Batman, and much more. I haven't finished watching all of them, but watching a few at a time is nice as, again, it's only text. If you liked The Silver Case, you'll like the sequel. Thumbs up. 


- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was a stream I was looking forward to (12.20). I knew how good it was and it had been quite a few years since I last played it. Unfortunately I realized early on that my skills weren't up to snuff and I was missing a lot of collectibles. Not only that, but I lost my cool when someone remarked on my skills. They apologized, I apologized, but I've never thought it to be cool or funny to criticize seriously or jokingly in regards to someone's skills. For me, I'm already beating myself up and am frustrated and don't need anyone adding to that. It went from 2 streams to one long one to be one and done. Good game, but not a stream I'll think fondly of. 


- MEMBRANE, the game that went from $10 to $250 for some unknown reason (12.22). I had purchased it a few years prior for only 10 cents. This felt like a proper time to play it and I was surprised. Simple with the physics mechanic, which adds to the challenge. There's no one way to solve any room either. And the ending, that was priceless, ha. Was it worth my 10 cents, indeed. Is it worth $250...I highly suggest getting it on sale. 
 

- Demo Showcase 78 (12.23) 

- KILL la KILL -IF was awesome (12.25-12.26). It was originally a favorite from a Demo Showcase back in 2019 and I got it for 50% off earlier in the year. I didn't know that it was an off-shoot of the anime. I thought it would follow it to a tee. It does for a bit, but then it veers in its own direction. I later confirmed that after asking a fan of the series if certain things happened in the anime and they don't. It's still cool as they have a separate, but parallel story for Satsuji and Ryuko. It could have been a one-off, but I split them and then did other modes to unlock as much as we could. Both streams ended with me going as far as I could in endless mode. Had it not taken so long, I would have attempted again as I either wanted to reach 7012 kills or see if it flips over or continues counting after 9999. Not a solid fighter, but if you're a fan of the anime, I recommend this. 


- We reached 700 followers (12.27). Part of me was worried it wouldn't happen by the end of the year as I was still losing a few here and there. But it happened off stream just like it did for 500 and/or 600. Next milestone, 725. 

- Circle of Sumo was our free-to-play game of the month (12.28). This was surprisingly super fun. Very simple mechanics to get into after a couple of matches. The big downside for me was that I couldn't host private rooms (always crashed my game) so I had to ask those in chat to make rooms, which was still a little tough. But when we were in with a full team of 4, we went off and had crazy matches. Go try it out. Cheers to the Sumo Squad. 


- Our final game of the year and the last of the Yoshi theme this month was Yoshi's Story (12.31). Never played it before. Originally this was going to be 2 streams because there was a lot to do, but if you read earlier in the blog, things changed. There were a few blah moments because of the chat that I addressed.  But I really liked the game. Can be super short or super long depending on how much you explore and invest into it. I made sure to at least unlock the 2 hidden Yoshi colors. How fitting that the last one we got and finished the stream off with was with the white Yoshi. Thumbs up. 
 

- Just like I did last year, I compiled my 2021 Games In Review. Check out all the stats and top 3s in multiple categories. 

https://twitter.com/ArnellragasA/status/1477323756943122437 

ETC========================= 

- BoA - ID; Peace B (Remastered MV) 

- TWICE - Doughnut (MV) 

- SMTOWN - Angel Eyes (Remastered MV) 

- MINA MELODY PROJECT - Snowman (Sia) 

- HOT - Hope (Remastered MV) 

- TWICE - Wonderful Day (Member Selfie Movie) 

- Happy Birthday, Sana (12.29). 

- 2021 was a rocky year. Health fluctuated, streams were consistent, confidence was shaken, friendships were strengthened, and more. I can only hope something amazingly positive happens in some aspect in 2022. 

That's a wrap on December 2021. 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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Tuesday, December 14, 2021

November 2021 Entry

November 2021 Entry: 


November was a heck of a month. 


MISC========================= 

- Bought Chicken Range thanks to viewers hitting our third community challenge goal (11.02). I did wish it was $20 like it normally was for a couple years. Had to get it while I could find it. 


- Follower emotes became active for more streamers (11.02). I had already asked my cousin to create them ever since they were a thing to just wait for them to be used outside of Discord. And I'm glad others are using them especially to rate demos during Demo Showcases along with me. 


- Power outage occurred (11.03). It stuck for a long time because I ate my dinner by a battery powered lamp just like during the winter outage. If I waited for about another half hour, I wouldn't have had to eat cold chicken in the dark. 

- My N64 controllers arrived (11.04). It feels great and weighty. 


- I tweeted "one step forward" for some reason (11.06). I couldn't remember at first, but it was after talking to Agent Blue about something important. 

- Got my Metroid Dread posters (11.10). I missed out on the initial batch, but made sure to get them the second time I saw them available. 


- After being in IceTokki's stream where she made pretzels, I checked Amazon for pretzel type snacks to buy. Ended up finding Snyder's of Hanover Pretzel Pieces Hot Buffalo Wing flavor (11.16). First taste was surprising. Took a while to start to like them. I have two more bags left. 
 

- Ended up going to Angela Song Art's stream after one of mine. It had been a while since I had stopped by and I mentioned I had bought some of her old art. Got to look for what else she had available and saw she had shirts. Found a few designs I liked and ordered 2 shirts that arrived about a week later (11.18). Great stuff. I'll keep my eye out if she puts any other designs up. 


- I knew that Jamie and Xander were coming into town for their wedding. A week prior I was invited to the wedding, but it was still unknown when the day would be. I had to miss the wedding due to scheduling, but was able to join for the game gathering a few days later (11.20). Met some new people, saw a few friends I had not seen in a while, and we all had a good time playing a bunch of games (Strider 2, Jackbox, IceCool, Bomberman, etc) and had some good talks. Great night. 
 

- Haven't had a haircut in two years (11.23). 

- My Black Friday purchase was New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (11.23). It was half off and I had my $5 coupon to take care of shipping. I was baffled when I received an odd set of notifications of when the game was being delivered, ha. Check the Twitter link. 


- For Round 20 of free Prime Video content, I decided to rewatch the Flame of Recca series. It was fun to relive after decades, but I was more critical of it this time. Mainly because there were things I didn't notice when I was younger. But doing this has made me want to do more series in the future instead of just a batch of movies. 


WRESTLING========================= 

- AEW Full Gear 2021 was really fun (11.13). Great matches all around. 


- Survivor Series 2021 was also great (11.21). I got the majority of my predictions wrong, but it was a solid PPV. PS: I'm okay getting predictions wrong as long as I enjoy the show. 


H.E.R.========================= 

- Because it's the holiday season, here's a short story about the first holiday party at HER (and a little more). I was in charge of activities and had Agent PQ help me out. I basically recreated a gameshow format I used to do with friends at holiday parties. I took the best of the best games and had the HER team and guests play them. They didn't all go according to plan, but I'm sure it set the tone for what to expect from me for the next few years and to see how the team reacted to doing silly things like that in general. First year; games. Second year; award show. Third year; voting award show. Fourth year, The Scarlet Spy (my favorite). Sixth year; Family Feud. 

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this in previous blog entries, but I always looked forward to these holiday events as it was fun and nerve-wracking for me to put together. However, seeing the staff and guests relax and laugh was very rewarding. I was actually very disappointed to have not been asked to set things up again in our 5th year, but was glad to be asked for our last one. 

GAMES========================= 

- I knew of Ravva and the Cyclops Curse for a while now thanks to Voxgizer (Debonair Vox). I always mentioned to him and the developers that I'll play it once it's on the Switch. It came out in September and I just needed to figure out when to play it. And I finally did (11.01). Played through it 3 times and even had a really good run on my last one. 


Based on stats, I would have been 3rd overall in speedruns. But I was actually first place in consoles. Debonair and the other time was for PC. So I had the first place speedrun world record on consoles for Ravva...for 29 days. GToTheNextLevel was interested in the game as well after hearing both Debonair and I talk about it. Eventually he played it. He beat a total of 5 times I think. He actually could have beaten my run with his fourth run, but got caught up a few times. But watching him on his last run I was nervous, but also excited. And then it happened. Congratulations to him. Will I try to get it back? Not anytime soon, but I'll make that attempt at least once. 


- Demo Showcase 75 (11.03) 

- Played our first Genesis game off Nintendo Switch Online with Gunstar Heroes (11.04). Never played it before, but I knew what it looked like and knew that lots of people liked it. It's good. Definitely enjoyed it. But the 100 minute challenge, not worth it, ha. I did it though. 


- Vigor is not a bad free-to-play shooter (11.05). I enjoyed it, but I'm not the best at shooters in general. Plus it didn't hook me to want to keep playing more than I did. 


- Replayed Streets of Rage 4 with the Mr. X Nightmare DLC (11.07-11.08). I liked the new characters added to use, especially Estelle and Shiva. Survival Mode was really fun too. Thanks to Rannchan and GToTheNextLevel for playing a few rounds with me. Part of me wants to go back to keep playing Survival to build everyone's stats, but it's very rare that I play games off stream anymore. Plus if I return to a game, I think of a reason to stream it, but this wouldn't be the case for this. 


- Slayin 2 was fun (11.10-11.11). A favorite from a previous Demo Showcase. We beat it the first stream and made some goals for the second stream to "complete" it. Not 100% of everything as we still had to buy all the weapons (would have needed a third stream to do), but at least to collect everything else and complete all the challenges. Shout out to the viewers for our second hype train ever. Unexpected, but appreciated. 


- The 3rd community challenge was Chicken Range (11.13). Worst game I've played this year, hands down. The motion controls were horrible especially with the rifle peripheral. Even outside the rifle, the motion controls are bad. We beat it and I'll never have to play it again, ha. Save your money and time and never play this. 


- Played The Silver Case 2425 | The Silver Case for the first time (11.15-11.17). I said more curse words in 3 days than I have in 3+ years, ha. I still find it interesting for others to react when I do say bad words on the stream. But they were hooked and confused as much as I was with the story. Boo for my camera freezing in the last stream. Definitely looking forward to playing the prequel next month. 


- Demo Showcase 76 was a unique one (11.19). I knew why as the set of demos were laid out. I had played Graceful Explosion Machine previously. It was actually my first eShop game I bought on the Switch. And Metroid Dread was already purchased and scheduled to be played in December. The demo did get me excited to play it though. 


- Much like Streets of Rage 4, we returned to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity with the Expansion Pass DLC (11.21-11.25). Had an issue at the beginning where the DLC wasn't activated even though I bought it. But I had it downloaded prior to changing to the OLED model so I had to redownload it again. We ended up getting all the characters and beat the additional story and collected all the memory quests. I wanted to also try and collect all the treasures and Koroks I missed last time, but time wouldn't be on our side. Had I maybe not gone for treasures, I might have been able to collect the last 2 Koroks that were in the base game's last stage, which is a long chapter obviously. That is something else I would like to go back and finish (treasures and Koroks, all quests...probably not). I'm definitely okay having another reason to return to Age of Calamity. 
 

- Our second free-to-play game of the month was Rogue Company (11.28). Another shooter, but different to Vigor. I liked this one more. 


- Sin & Punishment was our first N64 game off of Nintendo Switch Online (11.29). Much like Gunstar Heroes, I knew of this game. Unlike Gunstar Heroes, I actually played this on the Wii U Virtual Console. For about an hour...didn't get far. I got farther this time, but hit a wall with one boss sequence and was there for more than an hour. And we still had another chapter or two left...and I had no motivation to go further. I said it in the stream; I see why people like it, but I don't like it. 

Cheers for the 3rd hype train on stream. Thank you to those that contributed. 


ETC========================= 

- HOT - Age of Violence (MV) 

- SES - Dreams Come True (MV) 

- HOT - The Promise of HOT (MV) 

- TWICE - Scientist (MV) 

Very fun song. I liked their outfits and performances for this one. 

- Ryujin - Therefore I Am (Studio Choom) 

Ryujin, you are so damn cool. 

- Jang WooHyuk - Tonight (MV) 

- Happy Birthday, BoA (11.05) 

- Happy Birthday, Momo (11.09) 

- The latter end of November...was not great. I don't really recall when things started happening, but I had started to lose more sleep than I had mentioned in previous entries. But I noticed my heart stuff slowly creeping back. I didn't know what set that off, but at one point I thought the 6 months of exercising were reset. Previous arm pain has gone away mostly, but there was one day it was pretty bad. 

Not only that, but my best friend was coming to town for Thanksgiving weekend and was having her daughter baptized. I definitely was going to that and even warmed up to the invite of going to the renaissance fair the day before. She wasn't responding to texts for a while, but eventually let me know that she unfortunately got COVID. So she didn't even get to spend Thanksgiving out of town. That added to my stress. She's doing better now as of typing this (12.14). 

It really has been rough. And as of typing this, I've been better. Unfortunately other things have happened. Everything fluctuates. Sometimes it's more obvious and sometimes I don't even remember anything is wrong. Pretty much take it day by day. 

That's a wrap on November 2021. 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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