TwitchCon '22 in San Diego!

This past month was my most anticipated trip of the year: TwitchCon in San Diego (October 3-8).  It had been 3 years since the last TwitchCon, which is crazy when you think about it.  Covid was such a brutal virus that it knocked out life for a good two years and even major conventions were suspended for a 3-year hiatus.  We lost a good amount of our lives to that outbreak.

If you don't know by now, Twitch has become a big part of my life.  I spend roughly 30 hours a week streaming on the platform and many more countless hours watching others and hanging out in their communities.  I honestly believe you can make real friends off this platform, and TwitchCon helps solidify that belief when you finally get to meet these people in person.

This year, I had been planning the TwitchCon trip with my friend AlecAfterHours since March when the convention was announced.  Alec is a friend I met through Twitch because we both had a love for Fortnite, and we spend a lot of nights just playing Fortnite and talking about stuff going on around the platform.  We were both at the TwitchCon in 2019 but didn't actually get to meet that time, although chances are we were probably around each other since my friend Stapus was friends with many of his friends who were there.

For San Diego, we booked an AirBnB for 10 people, expecting to invite many of our friends to come party with us.  Because that's basically what TwitchCon is...a big party where you'll see several people that you've seen streaming or chatting on the platform.  I then bought a "3-day ticket + party" for the convention but was only planning to make it out there 2 of the 3 days.  Honestly, the convention itself is nothing too exciting and I usually spend more time meeting up with people than checking out exhibits and shows.

I got in on Thursday night and met up with Alec and everyone to grab some snacks and drinks for the AirBnB, which was a pretty nice space about a 10-minute drive away from downtown in Golden Hills.

Later that night, we headed over to the convention center to grab our badges.  A few of the girls staying with us are Partners on Twitch, so they went to the exclusive Partner Party while I met up with friends at the bar.  It was wild to meet so many friends that night that I had accumulated over the past three years.  I made it a game where I was posting in my Discord channel my location and if you found me, I would buy you a drink.  Needless to say, I did spend quite a bit of money this weekend, but I do like to treat my friends!

On Friday, we didn't make it to the convention until 2pm because we had stayed up the previous night until 5am hanging out and drinking at the AirBnB.  When we got to the convention, I literally didn't leave the Artist Alley because I ran into several friends and by the time that was over, I was ready to go to the Kappa Kabana for some bar games and drinks.  Tess and I challenged Alec and Kevin to a couple rounds of cornhole, which we would eventually split 1-1 and we never actually got to resolve that competition.  On Friday night, we had made reservations for 20 people at the Crab Hut.  Turns out we ended up having 25 people show up, which I was all for.  The more the merrier!  Just another example of how crazy TwitchCon can get and the number of friends you have the opportunity to hang out with throughout the weekend!

I spent most of the night barhopping until I eventually made my way back to the AirBnB to use the hot tub.  However, at 2am in the morning, we heard a large crash outside our AirBnB.  A drunk driver had hit another car and swerved into the fence of the AirBnB.  Fortunately no one was hurt, but it was clear those guys should not have been driving.  Eventually the cops showed up, but the main annoyance of the night was that one of the guys in the car that caused the accident got abandoned and kept pestering us for help.  He was apparently military and was trying to get back to his naval base, which would be a 40-minute walk down the streets of San Diego.  I tried to direct him how to get there, but after he walked one block he turned around and continued to ask us for help.  Eventually we caved in and arranged an Uber for him, which was not an easy task considering he had a concussion and was bleeding from the mouth.  I guess police did not feel it was appropriate to call this guy an ambulance.  It ended up being a really long night for us and I didn't fall asleep until 7am.

I slept in on Saturday and completely missed the convention.  It's a good thing I got a 3-day pass and I knew I was only going to go there on two of the three days anyway.  That evening, we made reservations for the Rustic Root to get those memorable tomahawk steaks that I loved from my experience 3 years ago.  We invited only the people from the AirBnB for a more intimate and private experience.  Later that night, we had a gathering at our AirBnB before heading out to Hillcrest, so we made it out there for an interesting but fun experience.  There was a club that was open past 2am (although you could no longer order alcohol at that point) and we literally danced in a crowded dance floor for an hour.  Even though I don't dance often, it was actually a fun time given the environment.  I guess you had to be there. :D

On Sunday I went back to the convention and made an effort to actually see the exhibits and the Expo Hall and I talked to several exhibitors regarding products and games that I had interest in.  I then went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner to return for that Garlic Shrimp Alfredo I enjoyed three years ago, but they were out of that dish!  I was severely disappointed and ended up getting some mushroom pasta that I didn't even like and only ate half of. :( Oh well, it is what it is.  The rest of the night I would spend barhopping until I eventually got invited to a huge TwitchCon party in La Mesa.  This place was literally a mansion on a secluded hilltop.  Apparently it was an AirBnB that the renters paid their neighbors $500 each to prevent them from reporting noise complaints.  They also hired security to check IDs, ensuring no minors would be illegally underage drinking.  Someone even bought several taco boxes from Taco Bell at 3am to feed everyone.  Although it was a really big space that could've housed a 100-person party, there was only about 50 people there, which was kind of disappointing.  Regardless, it was a fun time and they did have a pool table where Alec and I doubled up to play anyone who challenged us and of course we did not lose (even though i don't think Alec made more than a ball a game haha).

On Monday, everyone had planned to leave in the evening, but we went out to Haidilao Hotpot in La Jolla for a long afternoon lunch.  This was actually a really good restaurant and probably the best hot pot experience I've ever had, and I don't even like hot pot that much.  I didn't fly out until Tuesday morning because the only direct flight from San Diego back to Tucson leaves at 10am daily and that would have been painful to do after a late night of drinking on Sunday night had I flown out Monday.  I got a hotel for the night at Wyndham Bayside, watched the Chiefs play and then called it a night.

TwitchCon 2022 was the best TwitchCon I had been to so far and I expect next year's to be even better!  I was constantly meeting up with people and pretty much met everyone I was hoping to meet up with, and I expect it to grow bigger and better over time.  Until next year!

Final Fantasy Record Keeper - End of Service

***I started this entry but never finished it and now it's been over a year since FFRK in the US was terminated.  Rather than delete it completely, I decided to just post whatever I had written.  Thanks for your understanding!***

Back in June, I blogged about how my favorite game on the mobile phone was coming to an end.  This is a game that I had played since release, I was so excited to hear about a game that featured all my favorite characters and battles from one of my favorite video game franchises of all time: Final Fantasy.  I was so saddened when I learned that the game would be reaching an end of service, with no ability to download and play the game offline.  Here is a dedication to one of the great games to ever hit the mobile platform...

Final Fantasy Record Keeper

Final Fantasy Record Keeper (or FFRK for short) was a turn-based game that featured battles of your party up to 5 characters against enemies bosses throughout all Final Fantasy games in the series: FF1-15, FFT, Type-0, even Kingdom Hearts and Brave Exvius made cameos in the game.  What made the game great was that there was never any ads, and the developers rewarded you with their in-game currency by completing missions or logging in during certain events.  For the entire course of the game, I only payed $30 once, mostly as a support to the game's creators.  By the end of the game, I had more resources than I could spend and I never felt handicapped in the game during the time I played it.  

Mythril was used for the relic draws, which basically determined what Limit Breaks your characters had access to.  Relic draws were typically 50 mythril each, with a chance to grab 1-3 Limit Break granting relics out of a set of 10.

Gil was mostly just use to upgrade characters and items, as you can see I had over 443 million by the end of the game, so I was never short on that resource.

Stamina basically allowed you to enter dungeons, costing anywhere from 1-60 stamina to play the battle with unlimited restarts.  If you left the damage, you lost the stamina, but you would gain one every 3 minutes.  The 275 amount you see below was the maximum possible, which would take half a day to recharge fully.   You could also spend Mythril or obtain Stamina Potions to recharge to max capacity.

Mythril, Gil, and Stamina

FFRK was also completely turn-based, but you had the option of an Active Time Battle (ATB), where the enemy would keep attacking you even if you didn't put in actions, or a Wait mode, where the time would stop until you took your characters' turns.  You also had limited actions: Attack, Defend, Ability 1, and Ability 2.  The simplicity made it easy to pick up, so the strategy came in executing Soul Breaks and whatever abilities you had access to.

What made FFRK great was that it encompassed all the games in the Final Fantasy franchise.  I collected all the characters and leveled them up to a maximum level.  Although there is an addition leveling system past Lv99 called "Magia Levels", which basically allowed you to assign points to various powerups like elemental offense and defense, hit points and magic points.

All 262 Playable Characters

Before I delve into the characters deeper, I would like to explain the missions available for players to embark on.  Each set of missions usually had it's own theme, some related to the Final Fantasy world while some where actually unique to the game's story itself (which involves the Record Keepers who are responsible for keeping records of all the Final Fantasy memories stored in paintings).

Realm Dungeons are where the game starts you.  Each realm has several dungeons that are memorable points in each Final Fantasy game, and the stages get progressively harder.  I still remember when I first started playing the game, I had so much trouble advancing through stages.  I would have to carefully plan my parties to survive the mobs on the way to the boss fights.  As I leveled up over time, these dungeons became much easier to the point were I could simply auto-battle and collect all the rewards at the end.  Regardless, they are important because they give you Stamina Shards, which are basically what allow you to play the game more frequently (unless you choose to refill stamina with mythril or a potion).  Each Realm had a Cassic side (normal mode) and Master side (more difficult, with additional challenges to complete), although I would argue these Dungeons were some of the easiest to complete.

Realm Dungeons

Record Dungeons was the game's story mode, although I'll be honest, I got a little disinterested and eventually started skipping all of it.  They introduce about 5 story characters: Keeper, Elarra, Dr. Mog, Biggs, and Wedge.  There's also Cid and Shadowsmith, but neither of playable.  The record dungeons bounce around a lot across all Final Fantasy realms, but what made it unique is that it actually recreated the stories via cutscenes.  There were even some dungeons that had explorable maps, although you could only click to move to a location, there was no free movement.  They only released two episodes for record dungeons and they forced certain characters into your party from each realm.  And finally, the characters in the Record Dungeons had separate levels from the rest of the game, which actually made some of the dungeons more challenging then say the Realm Dungeons.

"Prelude" Record Dungeons

"Canon" Record Dungeons

As the game continued to expand, they introduced methods to level up characters quicker and upgrade abilities and weapons faster.  There were multiple resources that achieved this:

Orbs were used to create and upgrade abilities.   Various abilities could be used across all characters, but some were specific to certain classes.  Most of the time, I spent my excess stamina farming orbs so that I could max out any ability I wanted to use in battle.

Growth Eggs were used to level up characters, but eventually I found these worthless once all my characters hit level 99.

Crystal Water was used when a character reached maximum level, but only gave a small boost to the key stats: HP, MP, Defense, Resistance, Attack, Magic, and Mind.

Adamantite and Scarletite were for upgrade weapons to a maximum level based on their rarity.  In addition, Rosetta Stones were something they added to try and make weapons slightly stronger once maxed.  However, I felt standard weapons via Relic Draws became worthless once Artifacts were introduced, which made both of these materials worthless towards the end.

Rainbow Crystals were used to upgrade Artifacts, the strongest weapons in the game.  So these had the most value.  There were more Artifacts than anyone could upgrade, so you had to really be decisive about what you wanted to upgrade, since the only way to obtain Rainbow Crystals was to destroy the items you obtained via Relic Draws.

Arcana was the only resource you couldn't farm in a Resource Dungeon, and these were used to upgrade Magicite.  Rat Tails were also unfarmable, and those were used to upgrade Historia Crystals.  Both of those I'll get into later.  I was able to max out all my Magicitie so Arcana was not really an issue, but rat tails were definitely scarce and it was very expensive to max out all your Historia Crystals.

Finally we have Motes, which basically were added midway through the course of the game to give even more bonuses to your characters and unlock classes, which gave the characters more abilities to choose from.  Motes were definitely the way to truly unlock a character maximum capabilities, since it also unlocked very powerful abilities specific only to that hero.  There was no way for me to unlock every character's maximum. 

My Collection of Resources

The most challenging dungeons in the game started with the Nightmare and Magicite dungeons.  Nightmare involved a ramp up to a difficult boss, usually with some special gimmick for the final boss in each.  Once you completed a Nightmare dungeon, you'd obtain a powerful ability to use in battle.  Unfortunately, the only ones that were useful were Curada, Valigarmanda, and Affliction Break.  Occasionly Reraise was helpful, but Soul Breaks with Last Stand were far better for Revive-on-KO.  Regardless, these were important to complete in order to unlock the more useful Magicite dungeons.  Magicite dungeons were all elemental based and my favorite dungeons in the game.  By beating these you'd be rewarded with Magicite, which was not only a summon you could call within battle but also increased your elemental damage.  And the more you combined your obtained magicite, the more powerful your party became.  I felt like Magicite dungeons were the most balanced dungeons in the game, where you really couldn't advance to the next level until you mastered the current level.

 

Nightmare and Magicite Dungeons Mastered

Like the Magicite dungeons, there existed Dreams, Torment and Cardia Dungeons (Dreambreaker and Dragonking), which instead focused on Realm synergy instead of an elemental focus.  So for example, instead of specializing on Ice damage, it was more important to bring characters all from the same Final Fantasy Realm to really boost your success.  Beating these dungeons required the use of Historia Crystals, which not only allowed a powerful summon to be called within battle but also boosted the power of characters from the same realm.  Again, beating the lowest levels of these dungeons made it easier to tackle the next, making for a progressive climb throughout the dungeon gauntlet.  Cardia dungeons were the hardest dungeons in the game to complete and unfortunately I could not master any of the Dragonking challenges, although I hoped that I would have eventually had the game service not ended when it did.

Dreams, Torment, and Cardia Dungeons

Magicite was definitely easier to obtain the maximum levels because it was in the game for longer, but I was unable to max out all the Historia Crystals given how late in the game they were introduced before the shutdown.

Magicite and Historia Crystals

The playthroughs of FFRK varied among each user, the strength of the characters mostly being determined by the Soul Breaks they obtained via the Relic Draws.  This is the fun of a gatcha game.  You spent your Mythril in hopes you'd gain the powerful Soul Breaks for the characters you liked the most.  In some cases, there were just some Soul Breaks that were so good, you just couldn't afford to pass them up.  In the remainder of this blog entry, I will go through each Final Fantasy Realm to describe which characters were the best in my playthrough, basically an ode to my strongest parties in each realm.

***END OF ENTRY***

Green Juice!

It's no secret that my diet doesn't always consist of enough vegetables.  I've been in talks with friends who promote "green drinks" to supplement a lack of vegetable source in a diet, so I am going to start drinking them on a daily basis.  At first they recommended I try "green powder", but I couldn't find it easily at my local grocery store.  What I did find was this stuff called "Naked", which has a couple of green juice options full of fruits and leafy vegetables like spinach and kale.

Honestly the stuff doesn't taste that bad!  My goal is to drink an 8oz glass a day and see how it goes for me.  I also bought some steamable veggies that I can make as sides with my heavy meat diet in an effort to be more health conscious as I grow older.

Yeah I know, not a super exciting blog post this month, but I didn't really have anything else to report lately!  Anyway, here's to living a hopefully more healthy life! :)

It's time for another Bowling Ball!

In 2018, I bought another bowling ball, the Code Red by Storm Bowling.  While things started out slowly, I eventually learned how to take my game to the next level.  I attribute a lot of it to a change in leagues.  In 2020, there weren't enough teams in the IBM & Friends league anymore to hold a league, so we were invited to play in the other league on Thursday nights at Bowlero (on Broadway / Camino Seco).  Not only was I more motivated to bowl against new opponents, I also had new teammates who were bowling well and pushed me to try harder.  Here are the averages for the past 4 seasons with the Code Red:

As you can see, 180 to 200 is a huge jump.  I've been a 190+ bowler before and my best season before 2018 was a 193, but I definitely had a struggle for a few years.  In addition to bowling motivation in a new and bigger league, I think a lot has to do with a change in my approach, which I've improved over the last two years.  I have a better understanding of where to start my approach and finish the delivery.  I'm also able to read the lanes better and tell if I'm hitting the pocket light or heavy when I leave a 10-pin.

My expectations of myself are now higher than ever.  These days, if I don't bowl a 200, something is "wrong" and I'm expected to be better.  I don't think the bowling ball really changes the results, but it certainly can help.  I'll be changing my bowling ball every 4 years now and next up is the Infinite PhysiX from Storm Bowling.  $200 for the ball and $40 to get it drilled.

Here's hoping I can keep up the string of 200+ averages!

TwitchCon EU in Amsterdam!

In July, I traveled to Europe for the first time in over 20 years.  In fact the last time I went, I was way too young and I really only remember driving around in a Lego car at the Legoland in Denmark.  This visit was for TwitchCon in Amsterdam, their first convention since 2019 since they others were cancelled due to Covid.

Amsterdam, July 14-18:

The trip was mostly to meet and hang out with friends from Twitch from over the past few years.  I met up with three other streamers in Salt Lake City (Noglek, Spitfire0088, JaredMetalhead) and the four of us flew to Amsterdam on a 10-hour KLM flight.  When we arrived, we were greeted by our friends from Europe and east coast U.S. (IamFericho, Mizzmacs, NoctisLP, and CzarOmega).  It was super exciting to meet most of the people in person for the first time ever!

Almost all of us were staying at an AirBnB together, which is the way to go for big groups who travel together.  The convention itself was a little bit of a let down when compared to the ones I've been in California (San Jose, San Diego), with small space and not as many exhibitors/sponsors as I've seen in the past.  But I mostly just chalk that up to being in Europe and the first TwitchCon in 3 years.

Amsterdam is beautiful city and really well kept!  The streets are super clean.  If you go to Amsterdam central where the concave of the city is, it's absolutely gorgeous.  I loved seeing all the small canals around the city roads and buildings.  The Netherlands is not known for it's food, but their snacks are pretty good.  I especially enjoyed the dutch pancakes and as a group we tried some really cool flavors like smoked salmon and cream cheese, asian teriyaki chicken, and fried egg and bacon.

Amsterdam was the highlight of the trip and definitely my favorite part, since it was the time all 8 of us were all together and you know how the story goes, the more the merrier.  After Amsterdam, it was on to other countries, since I wanted to explore some of Europe since we paid so much for our flights out there...

Germany, July 18-20:

Driving to Germany was really cool, as it's true what they say about the autobahn that features no speed limit.  We had a rental car (Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross) that I was only able to max out around 105mph, but that was good enough for me.  Really fun to drive several miles at that speed. :)

When we arrived at Germany, we had a friend (NoctisLP) still with us and he basically showed us around two cities, Dusseldorf and Cologne.  Unfortunately the weather was really hot and humid those two days, which made walking around during the day pretty uncomfortable.  It didn't help that the AirBnB we stayed at didn't have air conditioning either, but I guess this is common in some European regions.

My favorite things about Germany were the food and beer!  I especially loved this breakfast meal called "mett", which is literally raw pork served on a half-roll and topped with fresh chopped white onions.  I guess the meat is taken from finer parts of the ham, so it's not dangerous to eat.  But of course, it would never fly in the U.S., which is why it was such a rare and exciting opportunity for me.  I also had a pork shank for dinner one of the days and you know I love the fatty meats around the bone!  The two beers I liked were Alt in Dusseldorf and Kolsch in Cologne, and apparenty the two cities rival each other, which I found interesting.

Belgium, July 21-22:

We drove through Belgium and spent a day in Antwerp, which was an absolutely beautiful city.  It was nice to have a viewer from Twitch show us around the city and be our tour guide for the day.  I tried a couple Belgian waffles, and while they were good maybe they were too hyped up for me.  Unfortunately we spent the whole day outside and barely spent any time at our AirBnB for the night, which was actually pretty cool being a section of castle (although the interior looks pretty normal).

As we exited Belgium, we toured Brussels and ended up doing a couple touristy things like Atomium and Mini Europa.  And I will admit I really loved the Lambic beer in Belgium, which is a very sour beer, but for me it was really easy to drink. :)

France, July 22-24:

It was a 3.5 hour drive from Brussels to Paris and we got in pretty late on Thursday night.  It was really stressful driving around Paris, their roads are literally webs of streets with no real order and some streets you have to merge across one another without any lines in the road.  As much as I hated driving in this city, I will admit it was a sight to see.  Probably the coolest architecture of all the countries we had seen so far.

We actually checked out Disneyland Paris on the first day, which had some noticeable differences compared to Diseyland in California, but I would say the parks are about 80% similar.  A few rides are different such as Ratatouille, Cars, and Indiana Jones.  We saw both parks (Magic Kingdom and Walt Disney Studios) in one day, so it was definitely a long day.  The final day in Paris we took it easy and drove around the Arc de Triumph, checked out the Eiffel Tower, and ended the night with a dinner cruise that traveled the Seine river and you could see so many cool attractions over the course of a fancy 2.5 hour boat ride.  I highly recommend doing this if you visit Paris.

 

I had a ton of fun in Europe, but I will admit that maybe I planned too many countries in the time we had.  I think part of that was because I wanted to see Paris, but we also wanted to experience our friend's country of Germany, and Belgium was just on the way.  If I go back, I would like to see less countries and spend more time in each.  Regardless, it was still a great trip and again, it's always the most fun to meet friends that I make on Twitch since it's such a big part of my life now.  Next up will be TwitchCon in San Diego come October, which is something I'm really looking forward to!

Final Fantasy Record Keeper (FFRK) - End of Service

This week I received some very disheartening news.  My favorite game on mobile that I've been playing ever since it was released is being shut down later this year. :(  I actually blogged about this 7 years ago when it first came out, and as an devoted Final Fantasy fan I was super excited when I finally got a chance to play it (it had been out in Japan a couple years before).

The game has had so much content added to it throughout the years, but as a Day 1 player who basically logged in every day and rarely missed any rewards, I've been able to keep up with all the challenges the developers have presented me.  It's not really surprising that the game is getting shut down, in fact I've only ever spent $30 on the game lifetime at the beginning, just wanting to support the developers for a game well produced.  It truly was Free-to-Play with not even a single ad, so I imagine it does not bring as much income in as other games.

Here's the screenshot of the End-of-Service notice they announced earlier this week:

So basically my favorite mobile game of all time will be gone after September of 2022. :( At first I was really sad and somewhat upset, since I've invested so much time and love into this game.  However, I've accepted that some things will just come to an end and have made the following goals for me to complete before it's all over.  Here are the things I still want to accomplish:

Magicite Dungeons - I've pretty much 5-starred all of the Magicite Dungeons (which means beating all 5 bosses in each element).  I still have Wind and Lightning to do, but had been saving those to do for "Dr. Mog's Homework".  This will be the easiest thing I have to do on the list.

Dreambreaker - So far I've only mastered FF7 and FF9 and have not attempted any of the others.  My gear in each FF realm is good enough where I should be able to master all of them, but getting sub 30-second clear times in each is probably not going to happen.  It's okay, the rewards for clearing them fast aren't necessary, although it's gonna take up a ton of Rat Tail for me to upgrade most of the Historia crystals needed to help defeat each boss.

Dragonking - This one might be difficult.  The only one I've attempted and completed (no mastery) is FF7.  But since I'll be setting up parties for all the Dreambreaker runs, it should help prepare me for the Dragonking bosses.  This section is the final and most difficult of the Cardia Records.

Labyrinth - This one is my least favorite, since it requires clicking through a "maze of portraits" to complete each dungeon.  The rewards are really good (hero artifacts are some of the strongest gear in the game you can wield), but the time required to farm them is not really worth it in my opinion.  I've skipped the elemental/realm bosses in the labyrinth up to this point, but my goal would be to complete those as well if I have time.

And that's about it.  Everything else in the game I have basically mastered.  I have about 3 months to finish out my goals, which when set reasonably should be doable.  I'm still gonna be really sad when the game finally does get shut down and I'm not even sure what game I would play afterwards.  I still occasionally crush candy, but I moved on from Simpsons Tapped Out.  Square Enix's only other decent mobile Final Fantasy game is Brave Exvius, but I didn't like it as much as FFRK and eventually walked away from it with no intention of coming back.  Ahh well, it is what it is!

Updates to come at the end of September with tons of pictures to show off my collection and mastery of this wonderful game. ♥

2022 APA Regionals Winner!

Back in March, I went to Phoenix to play in the APA 2022 Regionals Tournament for 9-ball.  In order to qualify for this tournament, you must defeat players within your city during the "Regionals Qualiifer Boards", which I did back in late 2021.

The Regionals Tournament for 9-ball took place on Sunday March 6 and started very early in the morning at 8:30am.  I played with mostly other skill level 5s being a 5 myself, and in APA a skill level 5 must race their opponent to 38 points (where each ball pocketed is worth 1 point with the exception of the 9-ball being worth 2).

My first match I actually got crushed, losing to a skill-level 5 from Suprise AZ with a final score of 19-38.  Fortunately, the tournament is a single-elimination modified tournament that guarantees that you play at least two matches.  One could argue that losing my first match didn't actually matter since I was going to still have to win the same number of matches the rest of the way after that first match.

My second match out of the loser's bracket, I played a skill level 6 from New Mexico and actually won pretty convincingly with a score of 38-24.  I then found myself back on the winners bracket between two more skill level 5s on my way to 38-11 and 38-28 victories. I had then found myself in the finals match and played a skill level 5 from New Mexico,  who I was able to defeat 38-32, the closest win of the day.

This was second time playing in the Regionals Tournament.  My first time, I played 8-ball in 2016 and lost as a skill-level 4.  I actually moved up to a skill-level 5 during that tournament, which ended up costing me the finals match since I had to win one more game.  Unfortunately the runner-up doesn't get anything in these tournaments.

But this was a new day and I am now qualified for the Nationals Tournament in Las Vegas!  I leave today and the tournament can go all the way until Friday May 6 if I do well.  There are payouts for the top 17 players (out of about 100), with first place walking away with $10,000 in prizes! :O Super exciting!

Wish me luck and stay tuned for updates!

"I'm going to Disneyland!"

When I was a kid, I remember professional athletes winning championship and being asked, "So what are you gonna do next?".  They'd respond with "I'm going to Disneyland!".  Not sure if anyone got the reference in my title, but if not, that's where it's from. :)

Last month I went back to Disneyland for the first time in over 20 years.  My parents had taken me there several times when I was young, although we spent a lot of time at Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain as well.

I know a lot of people complain about how prices have increased a lot for Disneyland, but seeing how I haven't been in so long, I wasn't one to have an opinion.  I bought a 2-day pass for a total of $250, allowing me to see Disneyland one day and California Adventures on the other day.  I've never been to California Adventures before, but I still .

Going to Disneyland is such a better experience when you are older and have money you don't mind spending.  My favorite area was the new Star Wars Galaxy Edge.  We immediately went there first and stopped at Oga's Cantina for a couple drinks, by far one of the coolest bars ever!  I highly recommend checking it out if you're able to get in.  I think we got in because we went there super early at like 10am.

My favorite ride in this area was the Rise of Resistance, it's a long and exciting experience.  Also, I did buy the Lightning Lane daily pass for an extra $20 because my time is invaluable and I don't mind spend a few extra bucks to skip lines.  We as a group also used the single rider options quite frequently, since these rides are short anyway and I just wanted to experience as many rides as possible.

At Disneyland, I went on basically every ride I wanted to, starting there at 9am and closing down the park at midnight (I got into Space Mountain at exactly 11:59pm).  California Adventures closes two hours earlier at 10pm on the weekends, but that was fine since there's slightly less to see.  At California Adventures, I'd say the best rides were the new Spiderman Webslingers and also the Radiator Spring Racers.

I've also learned that as I've gotten older, I'm more sensitive to motion sickness for some of the rides.  Kind of sad since I used to be able to handle roller-coasters so well (Six Flags Magic Mountain was one of my favorites as a kid).  But I admit that the Guardians of the Galaxy ride (formerly known as Tower of Terror) had me feeling a little nauseous after I got off.

While Disneyland was a really fun experience with my friends, I don't think I need to go back for a while.  Maybe once every 10 years.  My next trip is planned for later this month, I'm going to San Antonio for a friend's bachelor party!

I caught Omicron and it was terrible!

Early this month, I fell victim to Covid, catching what I'm pretty sure was the Omicron variant.  I know I put myself out there with all my extracurricular activities, so it was only a matter of time until it made it to me.  As you see in the picture below, Omicron spiked towards the end of January in Arizona and my symptoms kicked in on Sunday, January 30.

The week before I had symptoms, I had a pretty busy week.  I celebrated a birthday with a friend on Tuesday going out for Korean BBQ and drinks.  On Wednesday, I went to the gym.  Thursday I had bowling league.  And Saturday I had a pool tournament for most of the day.  There's not really any way to tell what day I caught the virus, but if I had to guess, I think it's most likely from the gym.

The first two days of Covid were the worst (Sunday and Monday Jan 30-31).  On the first day, my throat was very sore, never before in my life has it ever hurt that much.  I was in so much pain that all I wanted to do was lie in bed.  I started having chills in the evening.  On the second day, I was so tired.  I had so much fatigue and could barely leave my bed.  All I wanted to do was sleep, but it was difficult to since my throat hurt so badly.  Even if I could fall asleep, it'd only be for like an hour or two until the pain woke me back up.  I finally broke fever that night and I woke up the next day dripping in sweat.

The third day (Tuesday Feb 1), I was less fatigued, but my body felt sore.  I still remember my right elbow being sore to the point where it felt like I had just worked out the previous day.  My throat was still sore and to make matters worse, I was coughing as well, which was extremely painful.

The fourth and fifth days (Wednesday and Thursday Feb 2-3) I finally felt okay enough to sit in my chair at the computer, so I was at least able to play a few games to pass the time.  It wouldn't last very long as I would want to go back to my bed and lie there, trying to pass the time by watching some movies in bed.

After 5 days, it felt like Covid had passed, although I still had a lingering cough that wouldn't fully go away for a couple weeks.  I also noticed that my sense of taste and smell had weakened, and wouldn't come back to full strength for a few weeks later.

I didn't get the booster and it had been 8 months since I was vaccinated in May of 2021.  In hindsight, I probably should have gotten the booster.  Who knows how much it would have helped lessen the symptoms.  Regardless, Covid was the worst flu experience of my life and I can see why some people feel the need to go the hospital from it.  I'm glad Omicron variant seems to have passed, but of course we have to assume that there will be another mutation coming later in the year.  I can't get boosted until 90 days pass, so I'll be patiently waiting for that opportunity.

Stay safe out there guys!

Bowled a 299- Game

I've been getting a lot better in bowling and you may recall that I ended the 2020-21 bowling season with my highest average ever, finishing with over 200 for the first time.  Last night, I did something that I never had done before: I started a game with 11 strikes in a row.  Usually in the past, I miss around frame 6 or 7.  That's also when the pressure starts building up because you realize you're halfway to a perfect game in bowling, which is 12 strikes to record a 300.

My nerves really kicked in on the 10th frame, in fact I don't even remember watching what happened to my teammates before my turn because I was zoning out so hard.  As I approached the lane on my 10th frame, I knew that everyone was watching.  I couldn't see anyone down the lanes to my left or to my right.  It's like I had the whole entire bowling alley to myself.  3 more strikes is all I needed to record my first ever perfect game.

My first ball went down the lane and perfectly hit the pocket and I could hear my teammate Butch yell out behind "GET UP!".  One strike down, two to go.

My second ball, I tried to stay focus, but had so much adrenaline in the system.  I let it fly and it wasn't as clean as the previous strike, but everything still went down smoothly.  I clapped my hands pretty hard after that and was then holding them up to my face, breathing through them as if they were cold and I was trying to warm them up.  Just one more strike to go.

The last ball of the game felt like an eternity.  I was up on the lane going through my pre-bowl routine and almost wanted to stop to take a sip of beer so that I could calm the nerves more.  I decided not to and thought to myself, "just get this over with".  I was throwing well all game, it should fall right?  I ended up extending my pre-bowl routine because I was so nervous, my body hadn't felt something like this...like ever?  I let the ball roll, it was a great ball, and in the end the only pin that didn't fall was the 10-pin.

And so my game ended, with a 299.  Not perfect, but literally the closest you can be otherwise.  It's my best game ever, and here's hoping that I can get it someday.  Everyone came over to congratulate me on the game, the bowling alley announced it over the intercom afterwards.  Some of the top bowlers came over to give me encouragement, telling me that it's happened to them before, or when and how that perfect game eventually came.  It was a definitely a wild ride and so unreal that a game could make you feel like this. :)

Anyway, here's the three throws in final frame of the game.  Thanks to leaguemate Crystal Kennedy for recording this.  Yeah, I don't like watching myself bowl and my pre-bowl routine was exaggerated because I was so nervous and it helped calm my nerves.  Until next bowling night!