A Place to Shrug it Off

Have I mentioned much about Dragon Ball Sparking Zero ? Well, I got the early access version and finished the Story mode for all characters. Some were interesting choices like Goku Black and Jiren, but it was nice to have story missions for the non-Z-fighters. I dislike how they made it based off the anime and not the manga. For those unaware, during the tournament of power, Gohan wears his purple gi based off Piccolo and he defeats Kefla, not Goku. Personally , I prefer Gohan in his purple fit and am not a fan of him in orange. I know its based off Goku, but Piccolo was his original teacher, like how Goku always goes back to his orange gi, because Master Roshi was his teacher. The anime forcing the orange clothes on Gohan every time is exhausting. I get that majority of the audience like Goku, but Gohan is his own person, stop trying to make him Goku 2. Big fan of the Sparking Episodes, like the Gohan Black story or when Frieza gets to recruit his own teammates for the tournament of ...

When Crow Country first came out, I saw the hype. BUT, at the same time, I was playing Animal Well. Another great game that was getting hyped. I never did talk about it, so let’s talk about both right now. And yeah, I guess both will be spoiled . Animal Well I know I post a lot of high reviewed stuff, but I know what I like and consume the media I enjoy. A Metroidvania type game that was pleasing to play, I was so enamored by it, I focused on this game until I beat it. Once you start unlocking items, the game opens up in a new traversable way. The Frisbee, and discovering that you could jump on top of it to ride it across the screen until you hit a wall, oh I had a ton of fun. I do believe I found a trick that helped me reach areas I wasn’t supposed to yet, with the bubble wand. If you jump up and quickly look down and use the wand, you can land on the bubble. Then immediately jump and repeat the process to slowly make your way up. I used this trick to reach areas above or across the s...

Initially, I did not plan to give this special episode its own post, but after rewatching it for the second time…I have been moved even further. As a fan of One Piece and the slice of life genre , this hits on so many points for me. I do believe someone not familiar with One Piece could enjoy this, yet not to the extent of an actual fan. Everything you need to know is contained in the episode, but knowing the context surrounding the episode— being part of the real-life community— enhances the experience. My partner is currently watching One Piece , and I will not let them see this episode until they are caught up to the time skip reveal so they can get the full experience.  I highly recommend you go watch this if you have any interest and not to continue ahead with the post because I will be getting into spoilers now. At minimum, you need to watch/read One Piece up to the point of Fish-Man Island, when they actually leave Sabaody and start heading towards Fish-Man Island post ...

Okay so I’m feeling that Metaphor: ReFantazio itch. I played some more last night and realized that they’ve become generous with the save points in dungeons. Initially prepared to power through to find safe rooms, they have included a traveling cat that can be talked to, to save the game. This is a wonderful inclusion, because now I don’t need to make sure I have an hour plus of available time to play. I’ve gotten farther in Dragon Quest VI as well. In my head, I imagine that I will finish this game by the end of the year, only because I am playing it on my phone. There are so many games still planned to come out this year that I plan to play. Currently, I got Metaphor to beat, and the Dragon Quest remake comes out in November. Plus, games that came out that I still want to play, like Wukong and Astro Bot . 2024 has been a good year for video games and if someone tells you otherwise, they only play Call of Duty and don’t count. No hate to liking Call of Duty , but if it’s the onl...

I am baffled. This morning our front door lock was turned sideways, and no key could turn it. There was no way to lock the door from the outside. So that means this morning I had to stay home for a bit to wait for maintenance to fix it. I know some may think, “ Isn’t that a good thing? You get to stay home a bit longer. ” Yeah, but I must stay in standby-mode, ready to go into work when they’re done. If I get too comfy and relaxed, I’m not going in. Productive levels will decrease, and I’ll be calling in the later half as paid-time-off. Nope, got to stay ready. Luckily, the guy came right before my lunch, so I went into work by the afternoon. Now I don’t mind this turn of events. What I really want to know is how the heck this even happened?! You could lock the door from the inside just fine, but turning the lock outside just got the key stuck. Maybe it was just old? We did have issues earlier where sometimes you’d have to pull the door towards you to get it locked all the way. It real...

I am quite flabbergasted. How do we still get cutscenes without a pause function? Currently playing Metaphor: ReFantazio and I watched a cutscene where the only options were to sit and watch or skip the cutscene. No way to pause in-game. Technically, you can pause if you Alt-Tab out of the game, but I didn’t learn that till after. Also, that is so dumb. Why is that my only option? At least if I go see a movie at a theater, I know beforehand that I won’t be able to pause it at any moment. And there are plenty of different cutscenes in the game you can pause . At least the movie theater will tell me the approximate length of time of said movie, while with the cutscene I am just stuck until it’s over. And it’s soooooooo long. Trust me, my partner was upset with me because they wanted to show me something, but I was stuck in the middle of it with no way to pause . I could see them in my peripheral, waiting, excited to show me this clip they saw. Slowly…I saw them put their phone down...

Okay so I got a couple updates. With Yu-Gi-OH , I’ve started playing another mod called Last Memories . I do plan to go back and beat Mod 15 , but it’ll be a grind to get good cards to update my deck. This other mod, Last Memories , took me awhile to get working, but I figured it out. This one is a big overhaul, new cards and new campaign run after the first act. Currently in act 2, stuck in the Weevil duel. I can beat Rex a good amount, but Weevil always gets a high-level monster early on while I either cannot get the fusions I need or just get bricked hands (cards that don’t synergize together). I will continue to persist! Also finished this book called This Thing Between Us . No separate post, not because I didn’t enjoy it— it actually got me in my feels a couple times— but I don’t think I have anything to add to it for a whole post. So, I’ll talk about it here. The main theme is dealing with grief. I don’t fully relate to the story, but when I started empathizing with the lead, I h...

Okay so this all started four weeks ago. We received notice from our apartment complex that a worker will be coming by each apartment to check smoke detectors and AC filters. That’s fine, but I have a pet and would like to know when someone would be entering my apartment. I emailed asking if we could be notified when they were coming by to make sure the pet wouldn’t be in the way and got no response . Luckily, I was home when the dude came by, and everything went smoothly. Funnily, we had taken a smoke detector down because it had started beeping. When the guy came to check, he didn’t even notice– or didn’t care– that it wasn’t on the wall. I had to stop him and inform him about the beeping before he busted out new batteries for it. This procedure was going to take two weeks to get every apartment checked. We did not get notified that our place was inspected, but I thought maybe it was because I was home for it. Then came the notice of another inspection for fireplaces. We have one, un...

I know this might be annoying to see, but I have decided to stop adding scores to my reviews. I know, I know, I had previously made a post about the review scores and now here I am, within the same year, getting rid of it. Why? Well when I was editing my blog, removing the word “Review” from titles– I was no longer a fan, I noticed my label “ Shrug it Off .” My first post was about me complaining about a chicken sandwich I ate, the catalyst to the start of this blog. The header for my blog is about shrugging it off, continuing with life, moving forward as things may not end up as planned. Hinderences may come, but you keep pushing forward. Onward . And most of the stuff I review turn out…positive. I’m not shrugging  a lot off anymore. Only some reviews have fallen into this category, like Sonic Frontiers. With my newest review of The Substance movie, I was still positive on it, but I still had issues that I had to “ shrug off .” I guess I’m still out here finding myself. I thought...

An interestingly enjoyable movie, fitting for the spooky season. The body horror in this is phenomenal and a good take on the Hollywood need to be hot . Before mostly done by the old and rich, we now see a younger generation inject their body with substances to get that sexy look that is currently trending. A movie like this is needed as a reminder to always do your research before filling your body with an unknown substance . Now let’s spoil this movie. Initially, I thought this movie was how main girl’s conscious mind would transfer over to the new hot body (younger self), but she would have to go back to her old body to stay alive. Instead, main girl, Elisabeth, produces a hot girl, Sue, who has her own conscious. And this isn’t apparent, at least for me, right away. Not until they start complaining to the owner about the other person, then I was like, oh, they are completely different people who share a life line. I would have made it the same conscious mind, but I’ll get i...

Last night I had a work dinner and used GPS to get to the location. Due to an accident on the highway, I took some side roads that led to the dinner from the other side, the side I had never driven on. For the most part this was all good and dandy until my four-lane road quickly turned into a left turn only, two forwards, and a right turn only lanes. I was on the right side, and I needed to go straight. Luckily, I was able to switch lanes but got stopped at the light. Once the light turned green, this dude on my right sped up to get ahead of me. I. Was. Livid . For that split second, as I was driving and I saw this guy come up beside me, I thought about not stopping. Maybe if I wasn’t going to a dinner I already said I would attend, maybe I would have kept going, letting the guy hit me. Dude was in the wrong, he was in a right turn only lane. I literally know this because I was in that lane a cycle ago. Past the light, there are only two lanes, no space for this dude to squeeze in besi...

Surprisingly, the one old game I've found myself drawn back to is Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden Memories. I could never beat it as a kid, only getting past the present time tournament arc. Now as an adult, I've gone back beat this grueling game. I thought after finally beating it I would no longer yern for the grind, yet here I am playing it again...but differently this go around. Mod 15 . What is fascinating to me is the mod community behind this game. Known for being one of the most challenging Yu-Gi-Oh games to date, they're modders who not only approve the game with more drops per win (making it less of a grind-fest) and those who aim for "lore accurate" decks that destroy you duel one. Luckily, I watched a video from Daiya Beatus  who actually tried all the mods so I don't have to. I was already playing Mod 15 , but now have a few other mods in mind. Since I'm playing the new Dragon Ball game, I've already decided that the next mod I'll try will be a DBZ...

Reality TV isn’t normally my jam, but sometimes my partner likes to watch a show called Hoarders. I’ve only seen glimpses and clips from behind my partner’s shoulders, but one night they put on the show as they fell asleep. As I was doing my own thing, I could hear the show in the background and one line in particular caught my interest. Season 14 episode 4 titled Jim, at around 50:52, the doctor says, “We need to stifle this conflict. Now, I’m not gonna be able to fix this (pause) in the amount of time that we have.” For context, they’re having a group meeting to discuss how they felt about yesterdays clean of Jim’s place, the hoarder. A friend of Jims and their daughter, have beef towards Jim’s daughter. Jim’s friend’s daughter speaks up about how she believes Jim’s daughter is not helping or is at fault. Things start to get heated and the doctor, David Tolin clinical psychologist, chimes in to quell the kerfuffle. I copied the quote from the subtitles provided by Netflix, except for...

What a show!  Seeing it all happen and play out like that. That's amazing. I was willing to sit through those obnoxious Amazon ads.  Spoiling Ronald really is the core of the show, picking him out was key. Everyone else played their roles so well, making them quirky-real enough to be believable people. Giving him prize money at the end was great. He turned out to be a commendable guy. A person who was helpful to those around. Him actually being interested in the case, trying to solve it. The big reveal episode at the end, definitely smart to include a behind-the-scenes episode; explaining the magic to not just the audience, but to Ronald himself. Everyone he interacted with was an actor. That's intense . This is 10 out of 10, an enjoyable dose of reality-meets-sitcom. I need more of this .

A Classic Rom-Com. My partner and I decided to watch an old movie. Like this movie is old old––came out 1953. Black and white, no color. Of course I was skeptical, because who knows if it could still hold up all these years later? In my opinion, it does. Spoiler time. Now I will start off with saying, the main guy, terrible at his job. Not the real life actor, but the so-called journalist he plays. Your job is to interview the princess who is visiting and you don’t know what she looks like? I understand the townsfolk not knowing, she’s not their princess and they have no reason to know. But HIM ? C’mon. Now, if he would have just said stuff like, “Hmmm you look familiar” “Do I know you from somewhere?” “Have we met before?” Or even something remotely similar I would have been fine. No, I don’t expect him to know who all the royal families look like, just her, because he is going to LITERALLY interview her the next day. Other than that, I quite enjoyed this film. Sure it does the trope...