Saturday, November 12, 2022

October 2022 Entry

October 2022 Entry: 


October had its share of ups and downs. 

MISC========================= 

- Forgot to mention this last month, but I helped my dad again with painting the outside of the house (09.30). It was a continuation from months ago when it was too hot. I did hurt myself. We were transferring some stuff from the front yard to the backyard. There were a few things I forgot to bring to the backyard so I decided to hop the fence instead of going around and around again. But when I landed, the shockwave was much because I was wearing slippers instead of shoes. So it went mainly from my knees, to my crotch, to the small of my back. All the pain except in the back went away within minutes. The back pain lingered for days, but thankfully it wasn't debilitating. 

- On the first, I publicly announced my hiatus for streaming (10.01). I know people read it, but I was also a little disappointed that not too many reacted to it. The few I've spoken to about it understood, but I guess I was hoping for someone to ask why at the very least. 


- Started Fitness Master in Ring Fit (10.01). I like that they unlock level 4 skills for every exercise to make everything stronger. Not only that, but there is no longer a cool down for them so you can technically use your strongest/favorite attack over and over. 


- The trailer for the Super Mario Bros. Movie looks great (10.06). Can't wait to see it. 


- Rannchan did a drawing request I made for a WingedVoX amiibo (10.07). It was thanks for donating during her charity stream. Turned out really good. 
 

- Extreme Rules 2022 was awesome (10.08). I may have only had one correct prediction, but the PLE was great from top to bottom. The production for Bray Wyatt's return was done really well. 
 

- New stream trailer; Trailer 800 (10.10). 


- New shirt; Final Fantasy VI shirt (10.11). I found it odd I didn't own one previously considering it's my favorite Final Fantasy. 


- And that's not the only Final Fantasy merchandise that came in as the Final Fantasy music boxes arrived (10.14). They were my Christmas gift to myself and I knew there was going to be a wait. It was worth the wait as they are amazing in quality. Because of that, these might not be the only music boxes I end up getting. 
 

- Fixed some stream deck issues (10.17). It happened during this month's Demo Showcase where my buttons weren't working so I had to mouse click in OBS to make things happen. Saw in the stream deck commands that basically all the emotes were not properly linked. Thankfully I label things the way I do and it made things easier to reallocate everything. 

- A couple of purchases were received the same day; Crisp Choco + Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons (10.19). Thanks to TWICE being on First We Feast, I immediately looked up those Crips Choco's that Sana liked (already had eaten Momo and Mina's favorites). Smaller than I thought, but they're good. If you like Cocoa Pebbles, you'll like it. As for the movie, good too. I really liked the animation style they went with and the sons were portrayed very well. 


- Halloween Havoc 2022 was fun (10.22). NXT still puts on fantastic matches, especially pulling away from being 2.0 (which I still enjoyed). 


- I started playing Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics  (10.23-10.30). Little by little I had been trying 5-10 games whenever I wasn't streaming (posted some good results as linked below). But I made sure to play through each one first rather than stick with one whether it was a favorite or not. Took a while and the games vary in length. Now that I've tried all of them, I'll slowly work through each one and get all the achievements. Thanks again to Rannchan for the game. 


- 8 years sober (10.24). I can still remember that day super clearly except for that specific 5-10 minutes that I can't. Still don't know what it is. Thought it might have been when my best friend nudged me while I was driving to stay awake, but I can recall even saying to her that I was awake the whole time. Plus if it was that and it was a 5-10 minute gap, we would have crashed. So I'm still thinking it's something else. 

- My copy of Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection from LRG finally arrived (10.24). To be played on the anniversary month when I played Super Valis IV. They're all supposedly really short so I will probably play all 3 on the same stream. 
 

- The daily IG posts have ended (10.25). I knew it was coming, but I was bummed when it happened. No one else seems to care, but it was something I liked doing on a daily basis. If I could go back and redo it, I would only post one clip a day instead of 2-3. That was the intended plan; to catch up to the present faster. Past me didn't know future me would want to do it differently, ha. Now new clips will go up after I have played/beaten a game. So for example, even if the clip from Shantae comes from the first stream of two, I'm going to wait until I beat it. 


- A couple of friends are moving to Germany and were stopping in town for a bit before it. So a German Party was planned (10.26). It was mainly playing board games (super fun) and going to eat German food (so good). Just a good day around with good people. 


- Picked up my copy of Bayonetta 3 Trinity Masquerade Edition (10.28). I was worried I would get a damaged copy because a person before me was given one and asked if there was a better copy. The cashier did check in the back and came out with one in great condition. Mine was pristine as well, but he mentioned that someone has to get the bad copy. And unfortunately that's not his fault or the store's fault as they received it in that condition. 


H.E.R.========================= 

- I've actually been struggling on an idea for what to write in this section for this month. Nothing immediately has come to mind. Only ones are big stories that I've most likely shared in past entries when working at HER was a regular thing. 

I think it's also because there is no news on finding a place to reopen the business. We were supposed to look at a place on the first of October. It was locked in for a couple weeks. Then the night before, a third party that was to show us the place texted me and the realtor that the place was no longer available. That does mean that someone else was interested in the space and there had been talks about it. I wish they had let us know. Maybe I would have pushed harder to see it sooner if there was time. To be notified less than 24 hours before we were to see it was unprofessional to me. They didn't have any other spaces that were of the same size so we obviously cancelled the visit. I was disappointed more so because I was looking forward to seeing Agent PQ and Blue again. Unfortunately since then, the realtor has not contacted me for anything. 

So there is a possibility of no more updates on the reopening. As I've stated to many, if we don't find a space by the end of the year, we put the dream aside. Even if we find a spot on December 31st at 11:59PM, I'll go for it. But if not, at least we tried. 

GAMES========================= 

- I was looking forward to replaying Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water (10.02-10.04). I had originally played it on Wii U and recalled liking it. Everything was going relatively fine until the end when trying to get all the good endings. Basically the touch function on the final boss wasn't popping up when I needed it to leading that final fight to go way longer than it should have with multiple tries. 
 

- Arietta of Spirits was a favorite from Demo Showcase 93 (10.06). This was actually a good win for me. 100% completed it. After a series of bad luck with streams recently, this was a breath of fresh air. Definitely recommend this one especially if you like the play style of Link to the Past. 


- Our free-to-play of the game of the month was Pokemon UNITE (10.07). I'm not usually a fan of MOBA games, but this was fun. Played some rounds with Reversed too. I was pleased by it so much that I actually played it on Rannchan's stream the next day. 
 

- Per tradition, we played PAC-MAN 99 for the 99th numbered stream (10.09). In this case it was stream 799. Went over the 5 hour time limit again as I was trying to get another 1st place. It didn't happen, but I got 4th, 3rd, and 2nd. It's still fun and challenging and it's fun when chat jumps in to play too. See you again for stream 899. 
 

- Puddle Knights was beaten on stream 800 (10.10). A favorite from Demo Showcase 67. Per usual, Discord voted on it. This didn't go as well as I had hoped for. It didn't take long for me to realize I couldn't solve everything on my own. There were flashes of brilliance, but not often. I was hoping for chat to help and even mentioned that I'd need help, but not a lot of people showed up. Thankfully I found video walkthroughs beforehand that I knew I could reference when needed, but I needed it the majority of the time. I might have said out loud that me watching a video and doing it step by step might not be entertaining. Oh well. 


- Bayonetta was fun to replay (10.13-10.14). I had played it on Wii U and Switch and there were 4 plans between all 3 playthroughs, ha. I actually enjoyed it more this time as I was basically doing new game plus. It still took a while as I had to relearn everything. Replaying Bayonetta 2 next month and Bayonetta 3 the month after similar to how I played No More Heroes leading up to the third game. 


- Demo Showcase 98 (10.16) 

- I finished buying everything in SENRAN Kagura Peach Ball (10.18). It was easier with assist mode leading to multiple 60+ minute plays. Unfortunately that doesn't mean everything was unlocked. The last bits of percentage are random unlocks that happen once every 2-3 plays. I knew that ahead of time and was fine settling on buying everything possible with the game's currency. 


- A block of Shantae (and wearing the LRG clothing) to end the month starting with the original Shantae (10.19-10.20). I have now finished every single Shantae game. Never could finish it on the 3DS. Playing on a bigger screen and having the ability to save state helped. 
 

- Shanate: Risky's Revenge was fun to replay (10.22). I knew it would be a one-off since it's simply a shorter game, but it still holds up. 
 

- Shantae and the Pirate's Curse was the first Shantae game I ever played (10.24-10.25). And it's most people's favorite and I understand why (even back then). This helped reinforce it. Much like A Link to the Past and Breath of the Wild, depending on what day you ask me, Pirate's Curse is my favorite Shantae game. 
 

- Or it can be Shantae: Half-Genie Hero - Ultimate Edition (10.27, 10.29, 10.31). Made sure to do everything (minus Hero and Magic Mode). The HD look is still my favorite, but I understand why some prefer the pixel look. Almost everything about playing this block of Shantae games was amazing. I needed this too thanks to the string of bad streams that had happened. 
 

ETC========================= 

- Red Velvet Seulgi - 28 Reasons (MV) 

- TWICE - Once & Twice 7th Anniversary: The Promise of Everlasting Path of US 

- HOT - Outside Castle (MV remastered) 

- ITZY - Boys Like You (MV) 

- Much like the HER section of this blog, I don't think I have anything to talk about to wrap things up here. I already mentioned the stream hiatus in my last entry. Nothing serious has happened since last month. Nothing great, but nothing terrible. 

That's a wrap on October 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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Wednesday, October 12, 2022

September 2022 Entry

September 2022 Entry: 

September was busy. 

MISC========================= 

- Took a road trip to Austin (09.02-09.03). First time traveling out of time since the pandemic started. Been planning this with Akikobean during August. It almost didn't happen with catching COVID last month, but we were both healthy and still went through with the idea. The drive there took a little longer than estimated, but it went off well. Chilled for a bit at her place before going to eat pizza and then drive around the rest of the day to Austin exclusive places like retailers and retro shops (found the Octoling amiibo set, but it was $200) and a mall (first time in many years). I'm surprised it took all day because it was soon time for dinner. Got Korean food and really enjoyed it, especially our waitress who I got to be silly with. I asked if they had pink lemonade, but they only had regular lemonade. So I asked her when she brought it out to say it was pink lemonade and she did. I really enjoy when strangers play along with the silliness. Then it was back to Akikobean's place to chill and talk for so many hours. We talked the whole day since we were together the whole time, but there were things we've never talked about in our 25 years of friendship. It was nice. 

Ended up sleeping in the living space, which was hard even with sleeping medicine. I started on the couch, but transitioned to the carpeted floor as it was cooler. Woke up a couple hours before she did the next morning and caught up on social media while dozing off a bit. We went to get lunch shortly after she woke up. They also only had regular lemonade, but I asked the waitress the same as I did from the waitress last night. And to my surprise, she came back with an actual pink lemonade. It caught other staff members' eyes as they knew they didn't have pink lemonade so they asked how I got one, ha. Went back to Akikobean's place to pack up the car, say my thanks and goodbyes, and drove off as it started to rain. Thank you to Akikobean for having me over, for driving me around and treating me, and for being one of few long lasting friendships from highschool. 

The rain was bad. There were multiple instances in the 3-4 drive back where it was almost impossible to see or hear anything beyond the rain. It reminded me of one trip back from San Antonio and the rain was just as bad, but it was bright out. This time it was dark out so many cars had the emergency lights flashing. There were a few times I thought to pull over to a store/restaurant and wait it out. But I figured there was never a moment that traffic stopped for too long. It kept progressing. Once I hit a certain landmark that was about half an hour away from home, I figured the rest of the trip would have been fine. 
 
It was a fun trip. Glad it happened. 


- Caught up on Clash at the Castle shortly after settling back home from the trip (09.03). So fun. Match of the night for me was Sheamus VS Gunther. 


- Worlds Collide was also great (09.04). I was still hoping some of the NXT UK representatives would have won, but I understand why not. But their build-ups on the go-home show with previous champions saying things to the then current champions, super cool. 


- amiibo 190; Inkling Girl (neon pink) (09.04). It arrived right before the road trip so I figured to hold off on it until I came back. 

- All Out 2022 was stacked (09.04). Unfortunately, I can't recall much from it a month later. I do remember some things, but when I look at the card, not much comes to mind. 


- Got a present thanks to Rannchan; Clubhouse Games (09.05). As of typing this (10.12), I have yet to play it. But I wanted to finish my business with SENRAN KAGURA Peach Ball first instead of jumping back and forth between off stream games. And this makes Rannchan the first and only person to ever get me something from my wishlist. 
 

- Batman: The Animated Series 30 years 

- FOREVER 1 (09.07) 

- Been playing SENRAN KAGURA Peach Ball off stream (09.08). When I finished the game, I still had $745,000 of purchasable items. Felt it was doable especially as something simple and casual. 
 

- amiibo 191-193; Steve, Alex, Malzeno (09.10). Wasn't able to pre-order Steve and Alex, but the store had plenty. And I did order Malzeno when it was available stateside, which means I could have waited to get the other 2 along with it instead of importing them. Now that 3 set of Sunbreak amiibo are so easy to find, ha. 
 

- 50,000 punches (09.12) 

- Nintendo Direct (09.13) 

- amiibo 194; Inkling Boy (neon green) (09.18) 

- Finished the new game plus portion of Ring Fit Adventure (09.27). During the final battle, I did have to take a break just like before. And there was a point where I thought "is this it for playing this game?" I even thought of maybe doubling up Fitness Boxing in its place. But they opened up more stuff. Got another half year or so worth of content to work through, yay. 


- Picked up my physical copy of Bayonetta, bought some snacks including Reese's with chips inside, and got amiibo 195; Inkling Squid (neon purple) (09.30). Lots of stuff, lots of pictures. 


- Round 30 was only one series; Invincible. Wow, amazing. I had heard mostly positive things about it and I now know why. My eyes will keep a look out for Invincible merchandise (at least a shirt). And I can't wait to watch season two whenever that comes out. 

However, this is where I end watching free stuff from Prime Video. I had thought to go a full 3 years ending on Round 36, but Invincible was a fantastic way to bookend this instead of trying to find more stuff that may turn out to be disappointing. Not only that, I don't order stuff from Amazon as much anymore so there is not much reason for me to keep a Prime account. I'll still watch some free stuff here and there until the current subscription ends, but I won't rate them like I had been doing. If you enjoyed reading my thoughts on movies and series, thank you. 


H.E.R.========================= 

- Recently I looked back at our Hiring Video (within the last week). If you've never seen it, please take 11 minutes of your day to do so. This was back in 2015. It was nice to see and hear from former coworkers I haven't been in contact with in a while. Everything they said in it felt very genuine and I think it rang true for most of their tenures with the company. There were a few applicants that did mention watching the Hiring Video before their interview, which was really nice. Filming all of it was fun as it made for many outtakes from everyone (there was an outtake video made, ha). And watching the video for the first time with everyone during a meeting was memorable especially for a couple of moments that we couldn't help but laugh at. Good times. 

https://youtu.be/sgslIZmOruc 

GAMES========================= 

- Replayed Best Friend Forever (09.01). This time with a different dog and a different person of interest and with the spoop theme turned on (the dogs had adorable costumes). It was fun to revisit and may be my annual game I return to. That does mean 6 years, ha. 
 

- I really enjoyed The Flower Collectors (09.04). A favorite from Demo Showcase 75. The story was very compelling as more unraveled. Would I have liked it if everyone were humans instead of animals? Probably, but the animal part is what may have sold me on it outside of the demo. 
 

- Good crop of demos for Demo Showcase 96 (09.05). The highlight was when the developer of Okinawa Rush showed up and was kind and chatty. Not only that, but they ended up giving me a code for the game. To be played before the year is over. 


- MAPPY-LAND was our NES game of the month (09.07). I originally played this when I was a child because my cousin had it. Never beat until now many decades later. Fun simple game. 


- Super Animal Royale was our free-to-play game of the month (09.09). For a 2D top-down battle royale with animals, not bad. 


- Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy was our Viewer's Choice game (09.11, 09.13, 09.15). Played it when it originally came out and was voted on by Discord for me to replay it. It...was rough. First game wasn't as bad, especially the one stage that everyone knows about. And I thought the second game was my favorite of the trilogy...I was wrong. The third felt better coming off after the second one. I don't know why I had memories of at least enjoying it as a whole, but this is now filed under "I've beaten it and I never have to play it again." 
 

- Word Wheel by POWGI was super fun (09.17). Very thankful for chat being into it as well. I could go back to this off stream as something quick to play. 
 

- Demo Showcase 97 was not great (09.18). 3 thumbs down. It may be the most thumbs down given for any Demo Showcase at least that I can recall. 


- Spanky's Quest was added last minute (09.19). Funny thing, I think this was originally meant to be played last year in September, ha. I knew that it was an odd one, but I found it very fun. Short silly adventure as a monkey. 


- Finally played Chicken Police - Paint It RED (09.21-09.22). Had purchased a physical copy at the beginning of the year and it was one of the main catalysts for Zoo-tember. Great noir story. The voice acting was top notch with a great mystery. Similar to The Flower Collectors, I think I would have enjoyed this if it were a cast of humans instead of animals. The animals is what sold it though. 


- Played DRAGON BALL: The Breakers offline (09.23). This would have fit with the Zoo-tember theme now that I think about it. But it was quite enjoyable. Never played Dead By Daylight because I wasn't interested in it despite knowing a few streamers I watched and played it a lot. I had fun with it. I was never the raider and the few times I won was never when Frieza was the raider, ha. Only won a few times when it was Cell. 


- Banjo-Kazooie was our N64 game of the month (09.24-09.26). I think this was the other main catalyst in making Zoo-tember a thing. Played it for a couple hours when it was originally released. Always heard good things about it. Definitely had a small influx of Banjo fans show up, which was a plus and a minus (a few times). The third of three streams was actually the worst one. I enjoyed it up until that point. It wasn't all bad, but there were just outside stream factors that soured my mood at the beginning. Thanks for chat for being helpful and understanding. It was fine when we went back to collect everything. But the final boss fight with Gruntilda was not fun. I even did all the Stop 'n' Swop stuff afterwards and it took forever. I can now say that I have 100% completed the game though. It's unfortunate that the third stream wasn't me in the best spirits, but I did like playing the game. I don't think I would have liked playing it on original hardware though. Thank goodness for save states. 


- The 4 year anniversary stream happened (09.28). I continued the tradition with inviting a guest and specifically a former coworker from the Houston Escape Room. This time it was maxx_lobo AKA Agent Majordomo. And another tradition continued with them as we played the third game in the Escape First series with Escape First 3/Supernatural. It was okay. Twitch had an outage around the time we were going to start. It actually didn't go back up until about 2 hours later. Thing was that we were pressed for time too as maxx and I had already decided that he can only stick around for X amount of time. So while he was going to be on for 6 hours, it was only 4. Thankfully it worked at all instead of having to reschedule without him (he took the day off for it). He was able to play through 2 of the 3 escape rooms before having to bounce and it was fun. We made a heck of a team. For the 3rd room, I opened it up for anyone in chat to join otherwise I'd go solo. Cheers to Reversed2 for hopping into voice chat and helping me out. 

The technical issues did put a large damper on the stream as a whole as I'm pretty sure a few more people would have joined in had we started at the normal time. And unfortunately the turnout was low despite it being an anniversary stream. Even had spoken with maxx about maybe doing a Q&A after we were done kind of like what Krispy and I did at the end of the previous anniversary stream. I even had other things to say afterwards, but like I mentioned then, I'd rather privately DM a few people than speak out loud to no one. Overall, the anniversary itself was kind of blah, but playing with maxx and Reversed was fun. 
 

ETC========================= 

- BoA - Girls on Top (MV remastered) 

- SNSD - Long Lasting Love 

- NSP - Heart Boner (acoustic) 

- ITZY - Blah Blah Blah (MV) 

- SES - Love (MV remastered) 

- It's out there now on all socials, but I have mentioned that I will be taking a hiatus from streaming when the 5th anniversary stream and/or stream 1000 happens. I had been thinking about it for a few months as I found myself not enjoying it as much. I'm sure a few regulars can see that there were times that the game I was playing frustrated me more than normal or the unpleasant minority of viewers had gotten to me more. I had been thinking about it, I had not solidified it until the 12 of September. A streamer who had not been on for a while went live and the outpour of positivity and donations that always happens there really made me think. It's not this person's fault by any means. They deserve it all. And I definitely see that happen for other streamers, just the timing of this instance hit with what I was thinking. While others will tell you not to compare yourself to others, it was hard not to. I've been doing this for 4 years now and I don't recall seeing anyone say they missed me, but I'm always on. On the flip side, I'm always on and people still don't show up. Am I doing all the things other streamers do to generate interest; no. I've stuck with my guns and am comfortable with how I run streams. Am I doing anything special to make others want to tune in; not particularly. For example, when I show off the master list or mention how many streams we've done, people sound impressed. Do I deserve to be gifted anything from my wish list for doing this for 4 years; seems not as even though this was the first time I asked, no one did. And I don't make much via streaming to make it worth it. If I did the math, I'm pretty sure I was always in the red in terms of paying for things for the stream compared to how much I made. It's also burnout. Had I still been working and doing streaming part time, we'd have less streams, but I think I would feel differently about all of this. 

To those I've mentioned this to privately, they understand. And unfortunately I guess, no one else has reached out or asked about it now that it has been made public. I didn't expect an outpouring, but I would have at least thought someone would have at least said "wait, really" or something like that. Nothing so far. Although I have the thought that if anyone asked on stream, I'd be very matter-of-fact about it rather than being cute or dancing around it. This is what it is. 

It all hinges on if we find a place to reopen the escape room by the end of the year or not. Even if by the final day of 2022 we find a spot, I'll go back to streaming part time as I work like I did for the first two years. The only other thing that can stop the hiatus if there is a crazy amount of support and interest in the stream and it becomes a sustainable way of being financial. If neither of those things happen, I will continue the pace of streaming I'm currently doing until we reach the 5th anniversary stream or the 1000th stream. I can make them happen on the same day and that is the way I'm leaning towards. And I already know what game it would be. It won't be a game to be voted on like every 100th stream has been for a while and there won't be a guest. As long as the game comes out as planned, it will be that game. 

And that's it. Unless something changes things for the better, the last stream will be on the 5th anniversary stream which I will do my best to make the same as the 1000th stream. The hiatus will be for at least one year. 

That's a wrap on September 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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Wednesday, September 14, 2022

August 2022 Entry

August 2022 Entry: 

August was a heck of the month. The COVID part will be talked about at the end of the entry so if that's what you care to read about and not the stuff in between, head over to the end. 

MISC========================= 

- Went to the ENT for the follow up on my CT scan (08.04). No major changes, but I did have more build up than usual in my left ear. He took some time to dig it out and I got dizzy. It was the second time that ever happened with these ENT visits (first visit was the first time). They prescribed some ear drops that I ended up not being able to get until a few days later. 

Before I left, I wanted to find out if one of the new receptionists was single. She was new to me as I had never seen her before and she was cute. When she checked me in, she asked if that was my dog on my shirt. I was wearing my Cowboy Bebop shirt that had Ein on it. I explained who it was and where it came from and we chatted a bit about how she likes Studio Ghibli movies and stuff not heavy on action. I mentioned how Cowboy Bebop was full of action, but if she does watch it that she'll meet Ein. The whole visit (minus the part the doctor was digging in my ear) I thought about how to ask her if she was single. As I was going to check out, she was with another patient and the other receptionist and the person she was training signaled me over. Had fun with them as we went back and forth numerous times about when to schedule my next visit. They asked if there was anything else and I pointed to the cute receptionist and asked if she was single. They said she wasn't, oh well. I thanked them and thanked the cute receptionist as I was leaving. It's been a while since I put in that kind of effort for something like this. It was nice. 

- Wasn't able to get all 3, but I imported 2 of the Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak amiibo (08.12). This isn't the first time it has happened, but I wanted to wait until a certain date to order them just so a lot of purchases weren't happening at the same time. But once I saw Malzeno was no longer available, I wanted to secure the other 2. 


- My second gift to myself for the Ravva world records came in; a Shantae shirt (08.14). 


- Got my 4th IceTokki polaroid (08.14). I forgot what was going on, but I think it was Ponyo's birthday and I was one of the many who won a polaroid. It was a huge stack in the end. 


- Thanks to G, I now finally own a copy of Bust A Groove (08.21). The game that got me into rhythm games. And with that, collection complete. 
 

- After a break, I am now level 300 in Ring Fit Adventure (08.21). 


- A memory of a friend and her puffy jacket popped into my head so I texted her (08.25). It was a road trip from over 2 decades ago and it was cold so she had a puffy jacket. Myself, her boyfriend at the time, and his sister playfully were hitting her since it was very well padded, ha. Thanks to that initial text, we started catching up and realized a few things about our friendship that helped solidify it more. Here's to one of the few 20+ year friendships that are still intact. 

- Round 29 of free content on Prime was a good one. My top 3 were the first Deadpool, The Swindlers, and Love and Monsters. I am thinking more about when to stop doing this though. It's mainly because I don't order things as much anymore and Prime costs quite a bit per year. I can easily go back to not watch movies or series. And I think there would only be a few occasions that if I need to order something, I can pay a little extra on shipping to get it quicker. Round 30 would be an interesting time to stop, but I might keep going until my Prime is set to update, which would be at the end of April (Round 37). 


- Got an insurance refund in the mail for a whopping $4.30 (08.29). 

- Picked up the TMNT Cowabunga Collection from GameStop (08.30). I probably could have waited on it since I don't plan to play it anytime soon. No lie, it'll probably be next October if the streaming schedule continues consistency. 


- 900 posts on Instagram (08.31). I realized at some point that I'll be running out of clips to post daily so I strictly went to one a day. But this does make me wish I at least was posting only twice a day rather than up to 3. I think once everything has caught up, I'll only post clips to Instagram and Discord. 


H.E.R.========================= 

- The time I helped an old man pay his parking. I don't recall exactly when this happened and this really wasn't a big deal. But it was a busy Saturday and lots of staff were in attendance. I was helping all around as the other Agents were mainly doing sessions (I probably had 1-2 towards the end of the night). I think it was around 4-6PM when a family came to check-in. Others were in sessions and someone was handling the check-ins while I was there to back up as other teams were waiting and this was a transition period as other teams were leaving. As the family was using the restrooms and settling in, who I could only imagine being a young grandfather came in and sat with them. I greeted him and asked how it was going and he mentioned how he couldn't get the meter to take his payment, but figured to chance it and not do it so he wouldn't be late. I mentioned that it wasn't a good idea as (at the time) I recently had a boot put on my car for parking where I wasn't allowed and that those enforcing the parking rules were being very strict lately. He asked if I could help him figure it out. While I thought to explain it to him, I looked around and noticed that the lobby had simmered down and offered to go out and help him. He was delighted and we left as he told his family what we were going to do. As we walked over, I asked if he remembered the license plate number of the family's car. He didn't so I suggested we go take a picture of it first and then go pay. He took a photo and we walked to a different parking meter as the closest one he tried using wasn't working. It was a little farther away. I explained the steps and assisted verbally as he was doing what was necessary. And his payment was received. He thanked me as we walked back saying that it was a family day so getting a boot would have put a damper on plans. Any other day, he wouldn't have minded paying the fee. We returned to the building and he gave me a firm handshake and thanked me. If you've ever received a handshake where you knew it was heartfelt and genuine and not just a casual greeting, this was one of those. Hence me remembering this story. It's one of those gestures that mattered a lot to one person that no one else would have known unless you told someone. 

GAMES========================= 

- Welcome to Ball-gust. Every game this month (some demos) will have a ball or round shape associated with it. 


- Glyph was a favorite from Demo Showcase 85 (08.02). The game is very challenging and demands precision. And there's a lot to do too if you were going to complete it. Other than some of the challenges, I spent too long on the final boss fight. But I still enjoyed it overall. 


- Who knew that Demo Showcase 94 was going to be the last stream for a while (08.05). 


- Sonic The Hedgehog Spinball was the return stream (08.16). Not too difficult and not too demanding. A good one to ease back into. 


- Pinball FX3 was great (08.18). Shout out to those that voted for it. It ended on a high note too of getting 60 million points. And it's free so you can try it yourself if you have a Switch. 


- Roller Champions was our free-to-play game of the month for Ball-gust (08.20). Normally this would have been in the back of the line for free-to-play games, but it fit with the theme. I played 20 (or 30) matches and really liked it. Unfortunately I ran into quite a few matches in the end where teammates weren't passing the ball. Not cool. 


- WHAT THE GOLF? was the favorite from Demo Showcase 68 (08.22-08.23). My goodness, this game is amazing. Creative, clever, and challenging. 100% everything possible and there is one more update that's supposed to give us a new scenario (don't know if I'll do that on stream or off). I mentioned it on stream, but if this isn't my favorite game of the year, it's in the top three for sure. 


- Demo Showcase 95 is the second time the internet went out during stream (08.25). It always sucks, but I feel it is more lame when it happens for a Demo Showcase. 
 

- The reason Ball-gust existed; SENRAN KAGURA Peach Ball (08.27-08.28). I've had it on my wish list for a few years and it never went on sale. And then it finally happened for half off. Fan service aside, I liked playing this. Chat seemed to like it too (thanks to those that selected outfits). Since then, I've actually played it off stream to try and earn more money to buy all the collectibles in the game. 


- Magical Drop II was our SNES game of the month (08.31). It was different from what I thought it would be and it was actually clicking with me. Had lots of fun with it, but this stream also suffered from internet outages. I probably would have kept going and beat it with every character, but I didn't want to have a third part for this stream. It would have been fine if I did as the internet never went out after. Sucks that that's how Ball-gust had to end. 


ETC========================= 

- SNSD - FOREVER 1 (MV) 

Everything about this Girls' Generation return has been wonderful. Great song, music video, and performances. Their variety show appearances were some of the best and funniest. 

- ITZY - DOMINO (MV) 

- Jang WooHyuk - ECHO (MV) 

- TWICE - Talk that Talk (MV) 

- TWICE - Queen of Hearts 

Talk that Talk is a fun song. I like the concept and the dance too. But I might like Queen of Hearts more. If it didn't get a special video, maybe not, but one exists. And Mina with pink streaks, magnificent. 

- I tested positive for COVID on the 6th of the month. My brother tested positive on the 4th (he was already sick, went to a concert, came back sick, and was coughing all over the house). My mom was doing her best to get us all ready for keeping him isolated and everyone else sanitized as we were moving around the home. I was actually feeling some of the symptoms creep in the day before, which was the last time I streamed before knowing I had it. The morning I tested positive, my dad also tested positive. And with 3 of us out of commission and my mom not being able to drive, I did have to ask Rannchan if she was able to go out and buy us some stuff. Thankfully she was able to make the delivery for us. 

That first night was when symptoms hit me the most. Overly tired, overly dehydrated, overy cold/hot, etc. My mom (former nurse) was doing her best to care for all of us, but still was avoiding us as much as she could so she didn't catch it. It was rough because I really needed some help late at night when my dehydration (which I didn't realize that's what it was then) was making it insanely tough to just fall asleep. My mom gave me so many types of medicines to take care of different things that were happening (cramps, headaches, etc). I was still up around 4AM and thought to message DC who I had been talking to about COVID stuff in general and he was the one to figure out I was dehydrated. I was able to finally sleep for about 4-5 hours after that. 

From the 6th-8th, I pretty much slept as much as I could while trying to eat as normally as possible. My mom tested positive a couple days later after all of us, but her symptoms were very minimal thankfully. The only big thing I needed to do was get a prescription from CVS delivered to me. They were for ear drops the ENT prescribed. Spoke with the ENT office first because I was still waiting for insurance approval and mentioned having COVID and they said I can have it delivered. Attempted getting the delivery order made and at some point it got cancelled. I called CVS and was bounced around a bit as I couldn't speak to a live person for a long time. Then I finally was connected to the CVS I would have picked it up from. They mentioned there was an issue with it getting cancelled, which I did not do. I had to mention that me having COVID was the reason I couldn't pick it up and they said they were going to figure things out. It took a whole day for them to get back to me, but I was glad it all worked out. They also waived the delivery fee for me. Thank goodness the prescription wasn't for anything incredibly vital so taking them a few days later (and then for the next 10 days) wasn't bad. 

I do need to indirectly thank old school Game Informer Super Replays for being my white noise throughout these first few days. I use them normally for sleep in general, but this was when I needed it the entire day. Another indirect shout out goes to Girls' Generation. It's crazy that they were able to make me smile during 2 different times in my life (back during Gee and for COVID). It's crazy to believe how they are still energy pills after all this time. 

I tested negative 2 weeks to the day of testing positive. My brother apparently was negative a few days prior, but told none of us. My dad was negative the same night I was. And my mom was negative a couple days later. It...was not fun. Thankfully the rough parts were the first 2 days. The rest of the time I was slowly recovering. I took my time with getting into things such as sitting at my computer for extended periods of time, playing games, watching streams, etc. I did adjust the streaming schedule obviously. Other than the first stream, which thankfully was short, it was pretty much smooth getting back into things. Some other plans had to be cancelled, but thankfully I was negative to keep future plans intact. As of typing this (09.14), I still have to clear my throat more often than normally, but it's less and less as the days go on. I had a lingering cough too, but that's gone. 

COVID sucks. If you haven't had it yet, continue doing your best to avoid it. While masks are being worn less nowadays, I still wear them. However, I am being lenient in some situations, but will always still have one with me. But please do your best to take care of yourself and those around you. 

That's a wrap on August 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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