End of September 2014 Update

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Hey howdy hey, guys.

This is yet another blog/journal entry in which I talk about life updates and other fun things I feel like sharing. As always, it just seems that I’m behind on doing posts like these. When you’re on your feet for long periods of time and dealing with people almost on a daily basis, it can really wear you out. I’ll have to think of something to keep myself more active on doing different kinds of posts. What would that be? Find out before this journal is over. :)

LIFE

As mentioned before, work has been exhausting for the most part. When I’m not working, I find myself glued to the computer while browsing the internet. I will even play a game just to escape from everything around me. And while it’s nice to be invited to be with friends, the hard part is not spending anything while with them. True, I could bring my sketchbook to draw while I’m in their company, but it’s that temptation of eating along with them that I have to decline going out almost all the time… Money has been tight these days since I’ve found myself struggling to pay off my credit card once again… Seriously, I’m really going to destroy that card so I don’t have to worry about paying it off ever again!

It seems that summer is coming to a close for a lot of us. Even though I live in Florida, I can already feel that vibe of fall approaching. I honestly had hoped to have gone to the beach more often, but I’m still hopeful that I’ll go a few more times before the year is over. The weather should be nice then. :) All isn’t lost! lol

For this next part, I apologize in advance if this is a bit depressing to read, but it’s something I feel like sharing. My paternal grandfather was admitted into a hospital at the beginning of the month because he had trouble urinating, and it had caused him great pain. He hasn’t been doing too well for a long time now, but the fact that he was brought into a hospital had most of my family in great concern. Around that time, I went to see him along with a few of the relatives including my dad. It was surreal to see my grandfather in a hospital bed as memories of my maternal grandfather at a hospital had sprung up then. Even though you could tell he wasn’t doing too well, he was speaking coherently, and that seemed like a good sign.

Before I got to him, one of my uncles explained to myself and the other relatives that it was colon cancer that had spread into some of his system including small areas in his liver. There was suspicion of prostate cancer, but it was never confirmed. A few days later he underwent surgery to remove a huge chunk of mass of the colon cancer, and it was a success. The night after he suffered a stroke…

A couple of Sundays prior to this post, my dad said that my grandmother would like for me to see him. Before then, I had planned to see a few friends from Megaplex and hang out with them. And personally, I didn’t want to see him because I didn’t want that memory of seeing him in a coherent frame of mind be tarnished by what I would experience later on. After telling my friends that I would reschedule the meet-up, I ended up being with the relatives again. At this point, I was just overwhelmed and frustrated. Being overwhelmed came when I was asked to do things even though I wanted to just keep to myself with my laptop and just be there. I know it may sound harsh, but I was frustrated because I wanted to be with friends without having to deal with this. The two days that I was there were very exhausting, and I was pretty much quiet for most of the time. When I was asked questions, I just gave short answers hinting that I didn’t want to be bothered. Even before I left to go back to Orlando, I apologized to my dad for being so quiet, and he said that he understood with what has been going on.

Before I did go back though, the decision was made for my grandfather to be brought back home under hospice care. I, myself, and a few others noticed that there was swelling on certain parts of his body, and that indicated that parts of his system have started to fail. So what would have been another six to nine months to live before the stroke is now only a matter of time before he passes on…

BEING TIRED

Even with all that’s been happening, I’ve found myself in very unpleasant moods. Now I’m not one to turn around and snap on others, but there have been plenty of times that I just want to yell at someone. I think part of that really has to be that I’ve developed a really bad sleep routine, and it’s something that I seriously need to fix so that I don’t like garbage in the morning. There will be days where I just don’t want to be at work, and I’m not in the spirit of it 100% of the time.

As I type this, I can kind of feel my eyes burn a bit along with my head feeling very heavy. lol Way to go, me, for pushing yourself to the extreme when staying up late…

FUN THINGS

Enough about the day-to-day things. Let’s talk about stuff that we can all be happy about! :D
There has been this movie I’ve wanted to watch ever since I saw a trailer of it a couple of months ago. It’s an independent film called Boyhood. For those that may not know, this film project was started back in 2002, and it follows the same actors throughout the twelve years the movie was made. It may sound crazy, but it’s rather interesting to see those same actors actually grow up and experience certain changes for their characters. The film did hit home in so many ways as it shows how one grows up in very real situations and to find oneself in the ever-so-changing world. Boyhood’s theme on growing up fits as a whole with this song that’s played in the movie and in the trailer.

The late film critic Roger Ebert has given mention to certain movies from year after year that said movie would probably be the best that he’ll see all of that year. Well, I’m going to be pulling a Roger Ebert here and say that Boyhood will most definitely be the best movie I’m ever going to see this year. And out of some of the movies I’ve managed to see this year, here is a top five list of them as of right now.

1. Boyhood
2. The Lego Movie
3. Guardians of the Galaxy
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
5. Godzilla

Since my last journal update, I’ve been gaming here and there. Closer to the end of last month, I picked up Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed for the PS3. Now some of you are probably going to laugh and roll your eyes at me, and that’s okay. I have actually been enjoying this game a lot, probably more so than the last Mario Kart I played being the one on the Wii. Of course, you get some of your usual Sonic characters as a part of the roster, but you also get many others along with themed tracks from some of Sega’s other well-known titles such as Jet Set Radio, Super Monkey Ball, Samba de Amigo, and Nights into Dreams. What I like about it is that it doesn’t focus more on the items you can use in the game as it’s more on how skillful you are in a race. That’s something I always thought that Mario Kart in general lacked.

Although having Wreck-it Ralph makes sense, Danica Patrick is a bit out of place despite that she’s a NASCAR driver. Another complaint I have of this game is the Pursuit races in the World Tour mode are a pain. The objective in those races is to take on a tank that will leave behind obstacles that will damage your car as you try to hit it with missile items. Watch this video.

I don’t know how many times I’ve had to restart after being hit with oncoming obstacles that damn tank leaves behind. lol It’s super frustrating, but the game overall is a lot of fun. Even though it’s a bit like Mario Kart in some ways, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed offers plenty of content and challenge that would rival Nintendo’s prized racing series.

I’m still working on Final Fantasy VI Advance on and off. I have reached the Fanatics’ Tower by following a couple of walkthroughs. However, I ended up getting killed every time I reach the area’s boss. So I asked a good buddy of mine on what was the easiest way to level up my characters to at least level 50. He mentioned about the forest that is outside of Jidoor, and it contains leap frogs and greater mantises that offer high XP. He advised to use one character at a time and use certain espers to help boost the characters magic abilities every time he/she leveled up. To help speed up the process, I’ve equipped each character at a time a growth egg which gives them double the XP after every battle even though it’s a very tedious process. So that has what I’ve been doing for most of this month with the game. I had hoped to have this game completed before this month was over, but now I don’t know when I’ll have it done. It’s all right though since I do look forward to completing it soon. :)

With October coming up, it’ll be a Castlevania month starting with Symphony of the Night! After that, it will be Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow, and Dawn of Sorrow. I don’t know if I can manage to fit all of those games in a single month, but I’ll see what I can do. lol With Castlevania on the mind, I plan to do some art related to the games involving some of my characters. It should be fun coming up with costume designs that might fit the game universe. :) And it gives me a good excuse to work on drawing clothes that are not swimsuits. XD

Even though I have a bunch of games to play, I have bought more thanks to these deals that just keep happening on Steam and GOG. So I’ve found myself getting into SimCity 2000 and Rise of Nations as far as PC gaming goes. I actually did manage to finish a game thanks to using save states, and that would be the Sega Genesis game Castle of Illusion, which I got with the remake during a PSN promotion. So if my money hasn’t gone into food, gas, and art commissions, it’s certainly gone into buying games… ^^;

As far as art goes outside of my Castlevania idea, I plan to get to doing more personal and owed art along with drawing up some gifts. I feel that I need to get better with my drawing before I can take on any more commissions. I have even thought of coming up with a webcomic after coming across one called Save State. This is a comic I can get behind mostly because the chemistry between the characters are great, and it has a unique charm that makes me want to see more of it!

The gaming webcomic idea has been done before, I understand that much. However, that doesn’t mean that it can’t have another person’s take on it with his/hers personal experiences. It would even give me an excuse to exercise both my writing and character development with a couple of characters I have in mind. Hopefully, that will help me gain the courage and experience needed to go into other story ideas for other characters I have in my ever growing roster.

WRAPPING UP

Before I wrap this up, my birthday is going to be coming up soon. October 17 is the date. :) I don’t really expect much from it, but I hope to hang out with a few friends I made at Megaplex. So that should be something worth looking forward to. ^^ I could really use a break from work. I know this year has been a lot of ups and downs for myself and many others I know. Despite all that, I want to work on finishing this year on a very strong note.

As for the journal posts I plan to do, they will have their own unique theme to them. It’ll be a way of getting to know me a bit more as far as interests go in games and movies. You’ll see what I mean soon enough. I think what I may do is do one of some of my favorite game music selections. So keep an eye out for those in the near future.

As always, thank you all for coming by to read. I hope you guys have a good one! Any plans for Halloween this year?

Until next time!

This is Eddie the Wolf signing off!

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MoonsongWolf's avatar
I'm sorry to hear about your grandfather, Eddie. :( That's a tough thing to have to deal with, so soon after the loss of your other grandfather. I'm always hesitant to say "I know what you're going through," because everyone perceives emotional pain differently... but I do know how rough it can be to lose someone so close to you. I wish you the best in the healing and grieving process. 

In regards to the sleeping issues, are you having trouble actually falling asleep? My partner recently started taking melatonin, which has helped regulate his sleep cycle greatly. Of course, it doesn't work on everyone, just people with specific biochemical imbalances, but it wouldn't hurt to try. There are other sleep aids, but I would be hesitant to recommend them without having a physician monitor the doses (even for the over-the-counter products). If they're not used correctly, they usually end up making things worse, blegh. I hope you'll be able to feel better soon!

Best level up area, once you can actually take on the dinos without dying: finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Di… The bonus is that they sometimes drop economizers! Super-great relic. I remember level grinding the hell out of this place on my first play-through. Back in... high school.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on SOTN! I think you'll like it. It's one of my favourite PS1 games. :)