BLOG -- Recap of July

July was really good in the beginning, and then got really bad and stressful. The stress is gonna pour into August.

What would you do if you got assigned work that would take about a week to do, but the deadline is due in 2 days? And then after that, you have work that would take another week to do, but the deadline is 2 days after that? And then after that, you have work that would take more than a week to do, but the deadline is 2 days after that? And there's no certainty that anybody else can help? I'm currently in this situation, and I was informed about these deadlines just this past Friday.

"Outings" / Events in July:

- I had vacation for a week and a few days. I played a lot of video games and watched a bunch of movies on Netflix as well as doing a few errands outside. It was the calm before the storm...

- I hung out with a couple friends to celebrate my birthday. We had lunch at Miku Toronto (fancy sushi restaurant) and window-shopped at a few places afterwards. Overall it was a really good day.

- Had a voice chat with my LINE friends. We talked about various things. It was really fun :)

- Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn achievements / news: 
-I haven't logged in this month. orz

Exposures:

- Nothing this month. 

Finished...

Watching:

- (Movie): Color Out of Space -- I don't think I would ever watch this again, but man -- this was an experience.

- (Movie): Erin Brockovich -- It started off a bit shaky but it got really good. I'd watch it again.

- (Movie): Red Dragon -- I liked it.

- (Movie): The Negotiator -- It was decent.

- (Movie): The Hunt -- Not really that interesting.

- (Movie): Untraceable -- It went downhill fast.

- (Movie): A Knight's Tale -- It was okay.

- (Movie): Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa -- It was okay.

- (Movie): Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted -- It was ridiculous.

- (Movie): Eyes Wide Shut -- Definitely not what I was expecting from the trailer I saw many many years ago.

- (Movie): Dynasty Warriors -- This was very cheesy, but I got a decent amount of entertainment out of it since I'm a Dynasty Warriors fan.

- (Movie): Kung Fu Panda -- Very fun and entertaining.

- (Movie): Jason Bourne -- It's intriguing enough, but darn shaky cam.

- (Movie): Brightburn -- Unnecessarily gruesome, but interesting. If I had powers like that I'd do very different things.

- (Anime): God Eater -- It was a good introduction to the series. I'll be excited whenever I start playing the video games.

- (Anime): GTO - The Animation -- Some episodes were really good, but I prefer the old live-action series. Animated Onizuka's too perverted for my liking, haha.

- (TV Show): Scream -- I enjoyed the movies series more.

Playing:

- (PS4): PictoQuest -- I enjoy nonograms so this was fun. I didn't pay attention to any of the story, though.

Reading:

- Nothing this month.

Currently... 

Playing (not all at once):

- (PS4): Dark Cloud 2

- (PS4): Skyrim
- (PS4): Yakuza 5 Remastered
- (PS4): Trine 2 (co-oping this only, lol)
- (PS4): Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Remastered
- (PS4): Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
- (PS3): Borderlands 2
- (PSP): Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure

- (3DS): Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies
- (GBA): The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition   
- (Wii): Fortune Street 
- (PC): UnEpic  
- (PC): Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry)

Watching:

- (TV Show): The Walking Dead (Season 9)
- (TV Show): Criminal Minds (Season 15)
- (TV Show): The Strain (Season 3)
- (TV Show): The Office (Season 8 - Episode 23)
- (TV Show): The Goldbergs (Season 5)
- (TV Show): Huff (Season 1 - Episode 10)
- (TV Show): Stranger Things (Season 4 - Episode 8)
- (TV Show): Alice in Borderland (Season 2)

- (Anime): Log Horizon (Season 4)
- (Anime): Attack on Titan (Season 4)
- (Anime): Pyscho-Pass (Season 4?)
- (Anime): Kakegurui (Season 3?)
- (Anime): Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls (Episode 2)

- (Anime): Gintama (Episode 13)
- (Anime): Way of the Househusband (Episode 4)
- (Anime): Violet Evergarden (Episode 6)

- (Anime): Tokyo Revengers (Season 2)
- (YouTube): StephenVlogs (Day 1058)

Reading:

- (Manga): One Piece by Eiichiro Oda (Volume ?? -- Chapter 1036)
- (Manga): Berserk by Kentaro Miura (Volume 2)


That's it for July. Here are a few pics / screenshots I took this month plus a couple YouTube videos.

My birthday lunch at Miku Toronto. This was also my reward for completing my New Year's Resolutions last year so I was fully intending to pay. Little did I know that my friend would sneakily pay my lunch for me! O_O

My dessert at Miku Toronto. The ice cream was fine, but the cake was sooooooooooo goood!

A birthday gift for myself.

My favourite flavour was the orange chocolate.

Another birthday gift to myself.

Such a fantastic movie. <3

A birthday gift somebody owing money sent me 

(I set up a wishlist so they could pay me back that way).

I have a Switch now! \:D/~~

A reward in Dx2 for logging in for 1400 days. That's almost 4 years.

Doing something daily for almost 4 years -- crazy!

I finally have a Hamelin character in SINO.

"Infinitely Gray"  / "Close to Gray" from Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage.

I've been trying to score decently on this song, and I got a bit hooked.

The music is catchy.

"Josh Strife Hayes reacts to Asmon & Zepla reacting 

to 'Why old MMO's Feel better'" by Josh Strife Says.

Sadly I missed this Twitch stream when it happened, but I watched it the next day. 

The Twitch stream went on for 5 hours and involved Zepla HQ and later on Callum.

After watching Josh's stream, I watched Callum's stream to get his perspective.

I might check out Zepla's stream of it in the future.

What a crazy, random experience XD

This video is about 3.5 hours so... watch in chunks if needed.

Thanks for reading!

As usual, if you have any questions / comments about anything, feel free.

Take care, stay safe, and until next time! :) 

BLOG (PERSONAL) -- Random Memory Time [Weirdest phone call I've ever had #1]

So far in my life, I can recall three instances when I've had weird phone calls. Maybe they aren't actually weird but I think they are. You can be the judge. Anywho, here's the first instance:

It was one afternoon on a weekend. I was maybe in Grade 10 or 11 at the time. I was planning to call one of my good friends. I picked up my home phone (this was wayyy before ever owning a cell phone) and started dialing the number. When my finger pressed the last digit, I realized that I pressed the WRONG digit! The call was going through... ! I hung up immediately. Seconds later, the phone rang. Nervously, I looked at the Call Display. It was the number I just dialed. Crap!!

My mind raced. Do I answer the call? Do I let it ring and go to voicemail? Do I let somebody else answer it and then get really confused by the person on the other end who's just probably wondering why this number called them in the first place?? After a few more seconds, I picked up the phone. I knew I caused this. I have to rectify it.

It was a man's voice on the other end. Fairly deep and mature-sounding with a slight accent. As predicted, he wondered why I called and I apologized about my misdial. He then asked if I had a bit of time to chat -- he was feeling lonely and very much appreciated getting the call. I thought for a moment. I said I had a bit of time.

I don't recall much about the conversation. I was staying cautious throughout, being sure of not giving out personal, identifiable, useable information. I was raised to not talk to strangers. But I thought -- if a bit of my time can help this person a lot... From what I can remember, I told the person my first name, that I went to high school, and that I dreamed of becoming a writer when I grew up. He told me his full name (though I've forgotten his first name now) and that he was a photographer.

When I said I had to go, he chanted a prayer for me and expressed a lot of appreciation for my time. 

If this situation happened to you, what would you do??

These days, I usually don't answer my phone unless it's somebody from my contacts list, so this kind of situation would almost never happen to me again.

That's it for this blog. Thanks for reading!

Take care, stay safe, and until next time! :)

BLOG -- If Dreams Really Were Glimpses Into Another Universe...

I don't think this is really a spoiler... but a certain Marvel movie (if you know which one then you know it) expressed the idea that dreams were glimpses into another universe. I don't recall if there were any exceptions to this idea, but if they weren't any exceptions... would that mean a universe exists where:

- we can fly without any wings?

- we stop aging at a certain point in school and take tests where the test papers have no words?

- we are bad at running and screaming?

- people are prone to misplacing their clothes while on the way to work or school? (I don't think I've ever had this dream myself, but supposedly it is very common)

- interacting / meeting celebrities are more common occurrences?

And that's it for this blog! Thanks for reading! :)

This weekend was really busy for me so I wanted to blog something short and sweet. Did I miss any potential universes? I was trying to list as many common dreams as possible.

What sort of dreams do you have? :) The last dream I remember involved taking a test in university, and the test paper was blank, haha.

Take care, stay safe, and until next time!

BLOG (PERSONAL) -- My Day Without Internet (July 8, 2022)

Well... this happened. I was one of the ones affected by Rogers' service outage yesterday. I'll  recount the day as best I can with my random thought processes. This might not be very interesting. I am a boring person after all ^^; But I want a record of the day, so...

I woke up around 8 AM. It was the 2nd day of my vacation, and I thought 'nice, I'm already sleeping in. It usually takes me about a few days to start waking up later naturally'. Then I noticed that my phone couldn't connect to the wi-fi at home. I also noticed that my phone had an "EMERGENCY CALLS ONLY" message, but I didn't think much of it. Figuring that my phone data would kick in, I tried starting up SINoALICE (a phone game I play everyday). When it failed to load two times, I checked the Play Store to see if SINO had a new update. When the Play Store failed to process the search, saying it couldn't find a network connection, that's when I started thinking, 'Is the internet down... for BOTH the home and my phone??!' D:

To be honest, I never really thought this kind of situation would ever happen to me. I thought if the home internet ever went down, I'd still be able to use my phone data if I needed online access. That has happened before -- I have used my phone data when the home internet wasn't working. So for both the home and phone to be down at the same time -- I was internally shocked.

'Colo...'. I started getting anxious. Today was the last day for Gran Colo, a guild vs. guild tournament of sorts in SINO. If I couldn't get on SINO, I wouldn't be able to participate... and having no access to the internet, I couldn't even get on Discord to communicate that to the guild! Usually if somebody can't make it to colo, they would give a heads up early in the day and the guild would try to find a "pilot": somebody else who would be available to play the person's account for that time. It's a trust-based system (the pilot could steal the account after getting access), and it's been done multiple times in the past with other guild members.

'Calm down,' I told myself. 'This is Rogers -- a big company. The internet should be fixed in a couple of hours.' I took a deep breath. Colo was over 11 hours away. This current issue might become a non-issue by the time colo came around. I looked at my general list of to-dos for my vacation. What did I list that could be done offline? After deciding, I turned on the TV and started playing Drakengard 1 on the PS2.

I've already beaten Drakengard 1 many months ago, but only for a few endings. I want to reach all the endings, so I can start the Nier series. As I played, I tried resetting the modem every now and then and tried re-starting my phone, just in case the internet was fixed and the connection just needed to be reset. I also thought about what to do if the internet wasn't fixed by noon. Below were some ideas:

-go out and buy an internet hotspot device

-visit a friend (unannounced) in hopes they will let me use their wi-fi

-visit my sister and hubby's place (unannounced) in hopes they will let me use their wi-fi

-connect to some wi-fi somewhere

In the back of my head, I thought 'Good thing I wasn't working today.'

When 1 PM rolled around, I checked my phone. Still nothing. 'Okay. Time to go out.' I had a few errands to do outside anyway. I prepped myself, ate some lunch, and ventured downtown. During the commute, I wondered if I should even try attempting to visit my friend or my sister and her hubby. I decided against it because I really prefer double-checking if I could visit (and I couldn't because my phone was down -- could not text nor call), and I know it's not really an emergency... (just an emergency in my mind). That left either buying an internet hotspot device or connecting to some wi-fi somewhere. But first -- my errands (which involved standing in line for an unknown amount of time).

After doing my errands, it was close to 5 PM. I decided to travel to a Tim Horton's nearby and try connecting to their wi-fi. I couldn't connect. I guess they were also having internet issues. I was feeling desperate. I personally did not want to buy an internet hotspot device... mainly because I didn't really know much about them and what it would mean to own one. Would it involve signing up for another monthly service? I'd want to do some research first. But I didn't want to let my guildmates down... reluctantly, I went back to the subway station and started heading to a Best Buy location.

While in the subway, I wondered if the subway's wi-fi would work. I agreed to their terms of service (without reading them), watched an ad, and I was connected! O_O!!!!!! I got off the next stop and stayed there, messaging the guild on Discord about needing a pilot. I took this chance to log into SINO and did as many of the daily missions that I could. Every now and then I would need to reload to stay logged in to SINO so I went as fast as I could. Then I went for broke and did my daily missions for Dx2 and Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage, two other phone games I play daily. I already did the daily missions for Fate / Grand Order the night before so I didn't have to worry about that. I wonder how many passerbys gave me strange looks as I sat there, tapping away on my phone. Especially the ones who saw me playing a rhythm game with no sound.

It was about 5:45 PM when I was done. I took the subway home and continued playing Drakengard 1 for the rest of the night. Around 6:45 PM, I received a text message from a co-worker friend asking if I had internet. I sent out a text response but didn't hear back. I sent out a "testing" text message to another friend but no response. At some point, I remembered it was a friend's birthday and forgot to say "Happy Birthday!" on their Facebook page. The home internet and phone were still down before I turned in for the night (just past midnight).

And that was my day without internet. 

Looking back on it, I'm a bit surprised at myself on how desperate I was to get internet. To even think about visiting somebody out of the blue to use their wi-fi... that's not really me, hahaha. I don't like inconveniencing others. I don't like to feel like I'm using anybody. If nobody was counting on me for anything that day, I would be fine being completely offline. 

I might try looking into a different phone provider so if something like this happens again, my phone would still work, or vice versa. It would be kind of sad if two different providers lost service on the same day (at the same time).

I will also look into what an internet hotspot device actually is, even if it's just to talk myself out of ever considering one for this kind of situation.

When I woke up the next morning (today), the internet and phone service were restored (yay!), though the home internet is still spotty. I tried tuning into a Twitch stream earlier in the day and I couldn't even connect to Twitch chat, and the stream would lose connection every now and then. Hopefully the service gets restored to all those affected soon.

That's it for this blog. If you read all of this... really... thanks for reading! :)

If you have any comments or anything, feel free.

Take care, stay safe, and until next time!