PAX West 2019: Seattle, WA

I was invited to attend PAX West in Seattle this year.  I had always heard about attending one of the PAX conventions, so it was something I eventually wanted to see.  The friend who invited me was someone I met through an online Twitch community and I had friends who live in Seattle who were interested in going, so there were additional reasons to go check it out!

I arrived in Seattle on Saturday night with plans to attend the convention on Sunday and Monday.  The friend who invited me to go, nicknamed Corbz on Twitch, had been there since Friday and was staying until Sunday evening.  I had met him through Stapus, a Twitch streamer that I met at last year's Twitchcon.  Saturday night we met up and hit up the bars in Fremont, which was a chill time getting to know him in person since we had only gamed online before this. :)

Sunday morning got a bit interesting.  I walked to a local Starbucks, ordered a coffee, and called an Uber.  The car pulled over to the sidewalk and as I approached to open the door, the driver immediately sped off.  He drove off so fast as if he had just robbed a bank.  I didn't even have a chance to enter the vehicle or communicate with them.  This had never happened to me before and I began to wonder what set him off.  Was it because I had a cup of coffee that he didn't want spilled in the car?  Perhaps he was racist?  It would've been pretty funny if he was racist because he was also Asian, albeit and an older man, possibly racist against his own kind.  Regardless, I had to call for a Lyft instead to get to the convention.  I then reported the driver to Uber and they awarded me $3 in credits for his behavior and hopefully he will not be working for them much longer.  Still a pretty crazy start to the day.

I finally made it to PAX and I spent most of the day checking out the two main halls that feature all the big gaming companies.  It was a lot like being at E3, but a little more organized and less fancy of exhibits.  The highlight of the day was seeing the playable demo for Final Fantasy 7: Remake!  There were a limited amount of tickets per day for people to try the game, but I was able to watch everything from the side.  I am super excited again, as this has been a game I've been waiting for ever since E3 2017.

On Monday, I met up with my former roommate Ben and his fiance Mel who were attending PAX West just for Monday.  They spent a little time checking out the same two video game halls I saw the previous day, but then it was off to check out the board games!  This is a nice change of pace that comes with PAX and there were so many board games on display.  They even had ones you could check out and play if you had enough time.

Overall, I felt like PAX was a better experience than E3 and definitely more organized.  I can't really compare it to Twitchcon because that is more for the social-networking aspect.  Speaking of which, Twitchcon is coming up at the end of September and is my final out-of-state planned trip for the year for the time being.  I want to thank Corbz for inviting me to PAX West in Seattle and it was really good to see Ben, who I'll be seeing next year again when him and Mel get married. :)

Introducing Ember!

Back in April, I made my first step back into pet life by adopting a tuxedo cat named Benzi.  You may recall in that blog entry that I was planning to adopt a second cat later in the year.  On Saturday, July 27th, I had  finished a number of weekend trips and was back home in Tucson, so I decided it was about time to go take a look at more kittens.  I went back to the Hermitage first, where I got Benzi, because my application was already approved and good for 6 months.

When I got to the cat sanctuary, I didn't immediately fall in love with any of the kittens.  I had a preference to adopt a female cat, because I already had a male cat at home and had never owned a female cat before.  I wanted to give it a shot, but it did however reduce the options I had to choose from.  I spent some time in there before coming across a 4-month-old orange ginger cat named Ingrid.

She was extremely playful, but seemed more interested in her cat toy then myself.  She would let me pick her up and pet her, but after a few seconds it was back to being hyper and playing with toys.  I continued to play around with the other kittens, but again, none of them were really peaking my interest.  Eventually I picked Ingrid up again and put her next to the other kittens, seeing how she plays with others.  She started grooming one of the other cats, which I later learned was her brother, and that's when I decided she was the cat I wanted to adopt.  I figured it was a good sign to see her get along with another cat in hopes that she'd get along with Benzi at home.

I took her home with me that day and changed her name to Ember when I got to the house.  There's a reason I chose that name and it is connected to Benzi, but most people think I named her that because she is orange like burning ember on firewood.  Props to anyone who ever figures out the origin of the names Benzi and Ember.

This was the first time I had ever owned two cats at the same time, so learning how to get them to get along well was a lengthy process new to me.  I had Ember start out in the bathroom, just like Benzi had started.  I would then occasionally let her explore the house while swapping Benzi in her room, slowly letting the cats take turns sniffing out the new smells without introducing them to each other.  After a few hours, I'd crack open the door and let them see each other, but that was about the extent of any contact they'd get on Day 1.  Over the course of the week, I slowly let Benzi and Ember see each other until the point I felt comfortable letting them eat near one another.  It took about a few days before they were finally comfortable with one another and co-exist in the same area.

More weeks would pass and I'm happy to announce that they are the bestest of friends!  Haha, okay they are more like brother and sister but they certainly get along.  I'm quite happy with my new cat family and it's really nice to have an extra cat in the house.  Benzi is more aloof and Ember is very sweet and cuddly, so they have different personalities but I love them both!  Ember has now been at the house for a month and there have been no complications, she just gets really hyper and loves to play.  I get a little annoyed when the two of them horseplay too hard and get in the bathroom curtains or accidentally tear up the guest bed box springs, but they are kittens after all.

That pretty much does it for me in terms of cats for now.  I am still thinking of adopting a dog at some point, I'm just not sure if it will happen in 2019.  I want to let these two grow together a bit more before adding a 3rd party into the mix.  Hope everything is well with all of you and your families!  Thanks for stopping by and until next time!

Another East Coast Trip!

I typically try to visit my friends on the east coast every other year and you might recall, I did a tri-visit two years ago visiting Chris in New Jersey, Nate in Connecticut, and Mike in Washington D.C.

This year, I had a couple good reasons to make it out again this year (not that there's ever a bad reason to fly out there). 
1) My friend Jen had just moved from Tucson to Jersey City in February to look for a job and for a change of scenery.  Because nothing is guaranteed out there for her, I wanted to make sure to visit her before she moved back, if that were the case.
2) Mike, Nate, and Chris all planned to go to D.C. for a Washington Nationals game, so anytime this crew can all get together in one place at the same time is a great reason to join!  Especially since it's less likely that Mike and Nate will be flying back to Arizona as often.

Traveling Pains en route to the East Coast: July 1

I chose a flight on American Airlines that was to leave Tucson at 1pm on Monday and arrive in Newark at 11pm.  When I woke up Monday, there was an e-mail waiting in my inbox telling me I was rebooked to another flight because my 1pm departure out of Tucson would have made me miss my connecting flight in Phoenix.  The new flight would leave at 6:45pm and get me into Newark at 5am...yuck!  I decided to select a new route through Dallas-Forth Worth that would leave Tucson at 3pm and get into Newark at 1am...only a 2-hour delay. 

When I arrived at the airport, there was a 45 minute delay due to maintenance.  When we landed in DFW, we could not taxi to the gate because there was too much traffic caused by the rainy weather.  I ended up missing my connecting flight to Newark, which was the last flight out of DFW for the day.  American Airlines rebooked me on the first flight out the next morning and put me up in a hotel 20 minutes away from the airport.  I had to call an Uber because the Holiday Inn wasn't picking up the phone and thus there was no courtesy shuttle from the airport to the hotel.

I ended up getting to the hotel at 11pm, but I didn't have any of my things except my laptop because I had checked my bag.  I almost never check my bag, but I was feeling nice before the flight out of Tucson and wanted to save cabin space since I was boarding last group and it was a full flight.  UGH.  I ended up having to go to the gas station to buy contact lens solution and by the time I went to bed it was 1am.

I woke up the next morning at 5am to catch a shuttle to the airport for my morning flight.  Unfortunately, there were direct flights to Newark out of DFW all of Tuesday and they had me landing in LaGuardia, which is 90 minutes away from the house I'd be meeting Jen at.  When I landed, Jen was super nice to meet me there and had a Sapporo and BBQ pork buns waiting for me.  We took a bus and two trains to get back to Jersey City and I finally arrived at my destination some 14 hours behind schedule.  Funny thing is, our friend Matt left Tucson early Tuesday morning and arrived just a couple hours after I did.

I would eventually write to American Airlines about my frustrations and asked for a travel voucher for the inconveniences.  I was awarded $175, which is about the cost of one leg of a round-trip flight.  I guess that will have to do.

New Jersey / New York: July 2-4

The first night in Jersey, Chris and Priya met myself, Jen, and Matt and we all went out to New York to try North River Lobster Company, which is dinner on a boat that goes around the Hudson river.  The food was average, but you are going for the experience.

We would end the night on Grove Street where Chris and I usually hit the bars whenever I visit him, although we didn't make it out to our usual spot O'Hara's this time. :P Regardless it was a good first night, even though it was a pain to get to this city.

The next day we relaxed around Jersey City and found ourselves a pool hall to shoot at in Jen's neighborhood.  It was an interesting hall because it didn't serve alcohol and was a bit of a hole-in-the-wall sitting above a car mechanic's garage.  It was only $6 a person per hour though, you could BYOB, and there was even a pool hall cat roaming around...my kind of place!  We also ran into an APA league that was playing there and got to spectate how Jersey players shoot.  Free scouting for Nationals. ;)

That night we would end up in Hoboken, which is always an entertaining experience.  Lot of young people in Hoboken.  Jen and Matt proceeded to get very drunk and the night ended with a stop at Taco Bell before bedtime.

The last day would mostly be spent in New York.  We rented Citibikes via the Lyft app and biked around Battery park with plans to watch the fireworks near the Brooklyn Bridge for the 4th of July.  It was super crowded but they had several fireworks going off around the East River, so there was plenty to see.  I don't think I've actually ever been that close to a fireworks show before, so that was something different.

Washington D.C.: July 5-8

On Friday, Chris and Nate picked us up and the 5 of us all carpooled to D.C., where we would all hang out at Mike's house in Arlington.  We went out to Old Town Alexandria that night and had dinner at this amazing seafood restaurant called Fish Market.  They had clams, mussels, amazing shrimp, the works.  Even Herman came out and hung out with us, who Mike had not seen since the last time I had visited!

After dinner, we found a bar that had trivia cards and we actually had a lot of fun guessing the answers.  We made an impromptu game off of the Smart Ass cards, in which Jen won barely over Herman.  Good times with good friends was exactly what we were hoping for and I was especially lucky having so many of my close friends all in one place at the same time. :)

The next day, several us went to attend the Nationals game (Royals at Nats) for an all-inclusive package.  This ended up being a good decision because there was all-you-can-eat-and-drink, but it was also a bad decision because it was all-you-can-eat-and-drink. I ended up eating so much that I passed out for a couple innings in the hot summer heat.  We'd continue drinking throughout the night, but by the end of the day I was just exhausted and tired.  Ready to move onto tomorrow.

The next morning, I skipped watching the Womens soccer match to sleep in and get a quick workout in before venturing out for what is always drinking when I'm hanging out with Mike.  I eventually met up with them in downtown D.C. and we'd basically bar hop for most of the afternoon.  In the evening we had pho back in Old Town Alexandria, but it was funny to witness the power go out and find ourselves eating in the dark, haha.  It would end up being a chill night back at Mike's because everyone else had gone back home, so we watched Shazam and Skyscraper.  I enjoyed the former and found it funny, but the latter was a little ridiculous. :D

I flew home the next day and no trip would to D.C. would be complete without a stop at Theismann's. :) Here's to another fun east coast visit and I had no problems getting home!  Until next time!

My first Twitch paycheck

You may recall that I got back into streaming last year and reached Affiliate status.  I haven't intentionally tried to increase my viewership, but I seem to have grown naturally just by supporting other streamers and making friends on Twitch.

I was shocked to see that today I had received my first ever paycheck from Twitch!  The money must have come from the small amount of bits, subs, and ads viewed from people who visit my channel.

As you know, I'm not in it for the monies, so this was a fun little treat to see in my e-mail.  It's really amazing to see that I'm actually getting support from many people while just chilling and playing video games.  Thanks to all of you and looking forward to many more chill streams!