More Vacation Stuff

   

     Just thought I'd write a bit more while on this great vacation. Things couldn't be going any better. Every morning we're going out on the beach and going for nice walks. The house is right on the ocean and the weather has been amazing. The first night we got here it was super cold and windy but now things have seemed to stabilize. These resort towns are pretty cool. There are all these antique shops with old instruments and stuff. I saw a clarinet, violin, flute, and lots of cool guitars. In fact, today we went to this guitar shop in a neighboring town. I walked in and saw a bunch of old geezers but the place itself was pretty nice.
     There was a big stage right in the middle of the shop, presumably for concerts. There was a drum set onstage as well as a microphone and tons of cables all over the place. The store itself didn't have anything spectacular when it came to guitars and basses. It was all mostly secondhand stuff but I did play this great red Joe Satriani signature model, it was so rad! The guitar itself was secondhand but when I plugged it into this solid state Albion amp it sounded great.
     I started by playing a few jazz chords and progressions and it responded beautifully. Surprisingly, it had a great throaty guttural tone for jazz as well as blues. I had a blast playing chords on it and playing a ton of my signature licks. Keep in mind that I haven't really picked up and played the guitar seriously for like a month so going in I didn't think I was even going to play a guitar today.
     However, the owner was so nice and generous that I had to. He was practically begging me to play on his stuff. He asked me if I was looking for anything in particular and when I said I was just browsing he told me that I could play anything in the store. What a guy! The funny thing is that later I went to a coffee shop and told the barista girl about the guitar shop and he said the owner didn't care about the customers XD. Anyways, once I played a few minor 7th chords into a few dominant 9ths I was back in business baby!
     My guitar playing definitely has changed after not playing for so long. I feel like I don't hit as many notes, partly because some of my technical aspects are lacking from not practicing but my melody and sense of original style stands out more if that makes sense. It's like riding a bike. Even though I haven't been bike riding in like five years I still know how to ride. I felt like the playing today at this guitar storefront kinda reinvigorated my playing. Once I get back home I'm definitely gonna start playing more guitar again, and maybe after a while try to form a band, finding members via the internet. My main thing has always been free jazz but I'm still into straight ahead stuff as well. I feel like I could go far if I had a band and started playing shows and stuff. Goals!
     The other thing we've been doing a lot is watching a lot of anime, Netflix, and movies via the Wii U. I'm glad that I brought it along. It has turned out to be great entertainment late at night when we're not out on the beach or sitting on the porch with the fire pit going.
     Anyways, I felt inspired to do a post because of the guitar shop. It was the best part of the vacation for me so far, although there have been other great moments so far like when I won against my bros in three player Magic the Gathering using a swamp and mountain deck, walks on the beach, and this amazing seafood dinner at this place called Dorn's. The dinner was so delicious! I got a seafood combination which came with fried calamari, squid, fish, scallops, and fries. It was a memorable meal that's for sure. Hope to have more memorable moments on the rest of this trip. We're going to be here for one last night then we're hotel bound for a day, and then we'll be back home. I can't wait to get back to work and earn some good paychecks. I miss my friends at work and my main friends too. It'll be great to be home again. Hope you're all enjoying your school spring breaks or if you're a working stiff like me I hope work has kept you fully engaged and fulfilled. Thanks for reading, catch ya later!

Vacation/Pokken Tournament

     

     Hey, how are you all doing? Life is good. Happy Easter and all that Jesus Christ jazz. I'm currently on vacation out on the ocean in this place called Cayucos here in California. Its a family vacation with my step-mother, my two brothers, my step-dad, and my step-mom's brothers and sisters (about 11 people all together). Right now I'm writing this at a hotel. Tomorrow we will be moving into a house that we'll be staying at the until April 1st. Things are looking up! I've got the Wii U hooked up and my bros are watching Netflix on this great hotel WiFi. We just came back from a great dinner at this seafood place called Dorn's. I had a seafood combination plate that came with fries, squid, calamari, and fish. It was terrific! I'm having too much fun for my own good. But you may have been wondering why I'm writing this on my vacation. I just want to keep up with the blog and keep it comin' with content. This time I want to focus on Pokken Tournament.
     So I got Pokken Tournament the day it came out, which was back on March 18th. I played the tutorial for a bit but I didn't really like it or understand the way the game played. After playing it with my friends I just got stomped on and still didn't get it. After some time I played the single player mode by myself and I'm finally starting to get it. The game isn't amazing by any means but its not a bad game either. It's somewhere in the middle if you will. My main problem with Pokken is that the roster is just crappy Pokemon that I've a) never heard of or b) don't give too shits about. The roster could've been so much better if a) they put more gen one pokemon in the game or b) put more interesting fighters in there or c) had a rotating roster that you could download like in mobas. They had endless possibility that they could've done with this game to make the roster better but they failed so hard. But I do believe that the game is very well made and plays great for a pokemon fighter, a first for the pokemon series. Namco done did good with this one folks. If I had to give Pokken a rating I would give it an 8 out of 10, which is being fairly generous considering that the combos can be rather generic.
     Also, people are trying desperately to turn Pokken into a tournament fighting game and I think that's just plain wrong. I don't think this game was intended to be a tournament esports game nor do I think it has that kind of potential as a fighter. The combos, as technical and theatrical as they are, are simple stuff that are basically Tekken cop outs. The SoCal Smash community have created a SoCal Pokken community page and there are tournaments all over SoCal for Pokken and I think that's a bit much for a game that just came out and doesn't have that much going for it yet. I might be wrong in the future and Pokken might turn out to become some kind of major esports game but right now I just don't see it. The game just isn't good enough in my opinion. Earlier I said that the game is an 8 but its a hard 8, like getting a C in a super difficult college course. If you have a Wii U you should buy this game just because its the first pokemon fighting game with combos and bad ass looking pokemon when they win a fight. However, I believe that they will make better iterations of this game in the future and/or patch the game until it becomes good. That's all I'll say about this game for the moment. I think it has untapped hidden potential (Gohan anyone?) for the future.
     Lastly, this past Thursday was a cool Fire and Dice smash tournament. I brought my friends along and they had a blast. They played doubles and singles and one of my friends won a set against this Lucario player. It was pretty cool seeing him annihilate this guy with Yoshi. My matches went okay but I didn't win any sets so things definitely could've gone better. I'll get 'em next time!

Fire and Dice Smash Tournamnet 3/17

     Another smash tourney at Fire and Dice today. I really enjoyed the tournament this week, partly because I wasn't taking everything so seriously and it was a super stacked tournament with a ton of great local players. Observe.
      Top 8 w/character usage
      1. K9sbruce (Sheik)
      2. Nicko (Shulk)
      3. Rich Brown (Mewtwo)
      4. SS (Villager/Ness)
      5. Mr. Concon (Luigi)
      5. KY (Yoshi)
      7. Zenyou (Mario)
      7. Angbad (Olimar)

     It was awesome seeing Mr.Concon (Luigi) in action against Aphro (Bayo). That was a fun set. Aprho is probably my favorite local player but I saw so many great pr (power ranking) players today and the skill level was through the roof.  Another great set that I saw was KY (Yoshi) versus Mr.Concon. It seemed that they were even in that set with Concon taking both games with a forward smash after KY missed an attack. Angbad (Olimar/Zss) is another great player that I saw play. He seems to play a small plethora of characters but I thought it was cool seeing him play Zero Suit Samus when nobody else there other than me and him were playing her. 
      The matches on stream were great as well. I really liked seeing Rich Brown (Mewtwo) versus SS (Villager/Ness). At first SS was getting mewtwo'd but once he switched to Ness his true skill shined through. Nicko (Shulk) put in work tonight getting 2nd place. He played amazingly well against SS with all these great Monado sword strikes. I saw a great Shulk for the first time ever. It was pretty cool seeing him play Shulk over his usual Cloud. K9SBruce (Sheik) just stormed through everybody and took the tournament. I barely remember seeing him play Rich Brown but it was an exciting match full of the usual K9 shiekisms. 
     My tournament matches didn't go so hot. Its not like I played poorly or anything but I didn't play great either. First set was against my friend Saladin (Rosalina) and for some reason I decided to go Samus in game one. I ended up sding first stock and didn't play a very good neutral against his aggressive Rosalina style. Second match I went Zero Suit and lost my first stock pretty fast to offstage shenanigans but once I got into the hang of things I ending up spacing really well against him and thinking on my feet more. Thinking of other tactics, sometimes running up to him and not doing anything just to see his reaction. Stuff like that. 
     The other set in losers bracket was against Shinta (Robin/Pikachu). He had an amazing Robin. I went Zss first this time and just went all out aggression without much thought and lost pretty fast. He switched to Pikachu and I switched to Samus, thinking Pikachu was his easier character to beat. I was wrong. I ended up getting combo'd relentlessly by Pikachu's tail whip and electric attacks. It was a good experience playing someone as good as him in bracket though. I feel like I definitely learned a lot more about my play and how to improve. He ended up getting 13th place at a stacked tournament so that shows how good of player he is.
     Overall, this was a great tournament. I'm glad that Fire and Dice is able to draw out this many people and this many skilled players. For the last couple weeks it had seemed that there was a dip in attendance but now it seems like everybody's going to be there again. Some of my friends that weren't there the last couple weeks showed up so it was good to see them again. FAD is also going to be starting Sunday tournaments starting this Sunday, on March 20th. They host great tournaments and its a happy/friendly environment for both pros and intermediate players as well. I'll definitely be back next Thursday for some more action!

Little Tokyo

     Today was a great day off. My friends and I went to Little Tokyo, which is downtown LA, somewhere around there. It was the first time I've ever been there and it was a treat! The drive wasn't too bad but there was a lot of traffic going both ways. The first thing we did when we got there was eat at this place called Mr. Ramen, this tiny whole in the wall sort of restaurant with all this colorful artwork all over the walls. It was so colorful to the point that it looked tacky but my friends said that all the artwork was something new that they added to the restaurant recently.
     When it came to my meal I ended up getting the beef ramen. It had slices of shredded beef, cilantro, those vegetables that's always in pho (see through veggie), and noodles. The broth was so good! I ended up eating/drinking all of it. We ate a bunch of great snacks today. We got these things called Pocky's at a grocery store and there were all kinds of flavors. It's basically a chocolate/other flavor sweet cookie sort of snack. And then later my friends got tacoyaki, this fried bread-like ball with meat and sauce inside. Really tasty stuff. I really enjoy Japanese food as well as other aspects of Japanese culture-anime, gaming, waifus, swords, women, lol.
     We ended up walking all over the place. It was a little hot under the sun but we endured it. In terms of appearances Little Tokyo doesn't look very Japanese. It looks like a rundown area of LA. We saw plenty of homeless people, one guy even coming up to us and shouting,"Give me some money" lol. The shops we went to were all great but at same the time I thought I didn't have very much cash so I didn't buy anything substantial like a toy model or other bric a bracs. Instead I just got this cool black and red Japan rising sun head band that said kamikaze. I only hope it doesn't stand for kamikaze pilots lol. I won't be wearing it, its just something I wanted as a neat souvenir.
     The best part of the trip other than the great food was the anime/hobby shops we went to. I saw great anime model toys, waifu pillows(!), keychains, pins, anime, posters, shirts, manga, and trading cards. What really caught my eye was this Kirby (Nintendo's very own pink marshmallow) toy model. It was very detailed and if I knew I had the cash I would've definitely bought it. Oh well, maybe next time. It was a fun experience and I would definitely want to go back in the future, this time looking for things in particular that I can't find elsewhere.
     After we came back we played some smash. I've reconciled the fact that I'm going to be a Bayonetta main with a strong Zero Suit Samus secondary, sometimes even preferring to use Zss over Bayonetta in certain match-ups. For the time being I want to focus on Zss until I can master the Bayonetta 0-death combos that are so popular. I've got a tournament tomorrow at Fire and Dice, we'll see what happens. I'll probably use Zss if I feel like Bayonetta isn't as strong in whatever match-ups I get thrown into. I've been playing a lot of smash with my friends but they like playing free for all with the three of us, and that's just not going to help me in a tournament setting. We do have days where we just play 1v1's and take turns but that doesn't happen nearly enough for us to keep improving at the game. I've definitely got to get us out of playing those dumb free for alls.
     Hope you're all having a good work week. In other news I'm going on vacation next week but I'll probably still be blogging with my laptop. In addition, Pokken Tournament comes out on Friday, March 18 so I'm definitely excited for that. Wish me luck in the tournament tomorrow!

The competitive fighting game spirit

      This is something I've been thinking about the last couple days, the competitive fighting game spirit. What is it and how does it affect us? I would say its simply the will to win, get better, or just have fun. Everybody takes competitive gaming differently. For example, I aspire to be a great smash 4 player (get top ten at a local tournament) but my friend only cares that he can beat friends and doesn't think he has to go tournaments to prove himself. And a different friend of mine just enjoys playing the game when he gets the chance. I used to play a ton of 2D fighters on Playstation when I was a kid and I was pretty good but it wasn't until I started playing Melee on Gamecube that I became aware of the competitive aspect of gaming. I played my brother and all my friends and got really good at the game.
     Fast forward to today and I'm still a pretty good smasher on the latest version. However, my fighting spirit (ki, stand (ora ora ora ora!), mood, w/e you want to call it) has always been a bit lacking. I'm a very emotional player and that shows in my playing. Once I start to miss attacks and mess up I tend to become predictable and almost throw the match. Its happened to me countless times and I've got to find a way around it and/or just change. I don't like losing but it has occurred to me that sometimes I won't win unless I lose a lot first. It sounds stupid but not everybody started out being a great smash player. I just started playing Smash on Wii U in September 2015 so I can say that I've still got a lot of time and effort to put into the game before I can really consider myself 'good', and by good I mean tournament viable and able to take out good players in bracket. But yeah, Mew2King (pro smash player) didn't start off as a Smash god, and in smash 4 he definitely didn't start out being so great. It wasn't until recently when Cloud came out as dlc (downloadable content) did he really found his place in the big leagues with the likes of ZeRo and Nairo (other pros, the first and second best players).
      Its always hard not to be salty after I lose a match. I especially get upset when I lose to people online because they usually leave right away afterwards (can't get revenge) or they win because of lag (crappy Nintendo servers). I'm working on not taking it seriously and learning from my mistakes but it's easier said than done. The one thing that helps me from putting salt in the wound is the realization that I love playing the game. Just the mere love for the game can change your outlook on why you are playing, competing, and putting so much time into it. If you don't love it then what's the point?
     Also, I like the social aspect of being apart of the smash community. I know when every single tournament is happening because I'm in the SoCal smash page on Facebook and I know of all the players-big and small. In addition, I've met tons of cool new friends through tournaments at Fire and Dice. Meeting and playing against all these people has made me a better player, giving me different match-ups to learn and play styles to get used to.
     The one thing I would say that I need to work on in the future is to just remember that it's just a game. At the end of the day I'm playing a game that I enjoy playing. Nobody can change the fact that you're just there to have fun. If you're having fun then you've already won really. I know that sounds a bit daft but its the truth. That's the way I see tournaments. I go to a local, pay up $10, and get some great unlimited entertainment for the rest of the night. It isn't easy getting into a competitive fighting game that has like 56 characters and a ton of match-up knowledge but once you're in, you're set for life baby. Nothing compares to being apart of a great fighting game community. It will be some time before I really have that competitive mindset down for smash. Often times I'll go into a match worrying about whether I win or lose, and mid-match I just don't switch it up enough to compete with a good player from SoCal. Also, I'm still trying to find the best characters that I should use. I've got a long way to go as a player in the competitive scene but I'm already happy as a player. A year ago I didn't even know about tournaments for smash and I'd never gone to a gaming tournament ever before. You could say that smash changed my life. Lol, but seriously its been a blast!

"If you want to learn how to talk to lady, ask your mum." -Bayonetta
      

Smash tournament at FAD 3/10

      Today was another local weekly smash tournament at Fire and Dice located in Woodland Hills. Some of my friends from Simi Valley showed up today. It was cool to see DJDemon play S2H. I felt like DJ (Captain Falcon) could've taken S2H (Metaknight) but there was some highly intricate edge guarding that took DJ off guard. It would've been great to see him beat a PR player (SoCal power ranked player, players ranked by how many tournaments they go to and how high they place). I didn't play too well today but I did beat a super good player named HLB (Jiggly Puff) in one close, exciting game. I spaced super well and had a great neutral in that game with Bayonetta. I was very proud of beating him but I didn't win any other games. He plays an aggressive style jumping around a lot with Puff, and when you least expect it he jumps up and hits you. It forces you to play super patient even if that's not your thing. I also met this super cool Cloud player that gave me some great advice after I was feeling salty after losing my matches. K9SBruce also gave me some great advice when I was feeling down. It's not that I was seriously feeling upset about losing but at the moment I was super salty. It's great to know that great players have my back and will take the time to talk to me about my playing, and more importantly my mindset going in and out of the game. Thanks guys!
     My first set was against Dipper, a Fox main. As soon as I knew I was going up against him I knew it was going to be super difficult for me because he's a part of Zork's crew. Zork is probably the best Bowser in SoCal. Anyways, I started out okay but then I started to fall behind. The up-airs were nonstop (so hard to deal with as Bayonetta) and after a while I just couldn't finish his first stock. He plays a campy Fox (defensive, runs away, forces you to approach). When I wouldn't approach him right away he would just blaster fire me and then when I approached he would punish hard. He's definitely a great player. In the past he once played me as Ike and I beat him with my Veria Suit Samus. Possibly a counter-pick character in the future? But I wouldn't pick Samus versus his Fox. That would be reckless. My other option would've been Zero Suit but I'm the type of guy who sticks with his main character by any means necessary. He played a super clean set with very few mistakes and whiffs.
     My second set was against Jiggly Wiggly, who oddly enough used Diddy Kong. I went in with a lot of confidence against him because I have beaten him in the past with my Zero Suit Samus in friendlies, just not consistently. Regardless, I still went in feeling like a million bucks. I started out the set amazingly well, going toe to toe with him. But then again, just like in the first set the opponent got the first KO and I wasn't able to finish out their stock in time before they were able to take me out. It was very frustrating to deal with and I guess you could say that nerves got to me during both sets because I started going in more recklessly and getting punished for it. If I had played more patiently and wasn't fiending for the kill I would've stood a much better chance. Wiggly's grab combo game with Diddy is really good. He noticed that I was going for a lot of defensive options a lot and he started going for a lot of grabs into some cool custom Diddy combos. I definitely learned a lot from that set.
     Lastly, I ended up leaving after my sets. I had agreed earlier in the day to meet up with my friend after my matches so we ended up hanging out for a bit. We played some racquetball in his apartment racquetball court. It was the first real exercise I've gotten in months. Needless to say we were tired after forty-five minutes. After that we played some of the Overwatch beta on PC, taking turns playing. I've become really fond of Overwatch and although the game seems jank (broken mechanics and heroes) I like the idea of an arena shooter made by Blizzard. Although I didn't do well in the tournament I'm gonna keep my head up and keep trying to compete. If I really want to improve it might take me a year or even two before I start taking out some of the best of SoCal.

 “We shall heal our wounds, collect our dead and continue fighting.” – Mao Tse-Tung

Nun chuka kata by Buckethead

      So I'm starting a new series where I write more about music, in particular writing about favorite songs and/or songs that I think people should hear. The first song for this series is Buckethead's Nun chuka kata.

     This is a great tune that sounds like a pure heavy metal climax that mixes the music up with techno and hip hop beats. At the same time it sounds like a pure quiet gentle sort of sound. The guitars are pure rock and roll power chords but the lead guitar parts are these harmonious melodies that sound sad and euphoric. What he's doing is this tremolo guitar riff for all the melodies. It sounds like a countdown to something that was once great. The whole tune is kind of a linear progression until the end where Bucket plays a super fast orgasmic guitar solo. This is the stuff that Big B has been known for all his life since he was young guy first featured in Guitar World. He's doing a ton of 3-4 per string scales and trying to add some melody in there with the flare. There's even some bluesy lead guitar stuff that sounds like Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page but with Big B's gymnast-like technical prowess. It sounds like he just recorded this tune live, especially the guitar solo. Although the solo shows a lot of grandiose guitar technique it still sounds very sloppy in parts which is strange because all his newer guitar solos all sound flawless on record.
     I heard this song when I was around 18-19 and at the time it was one of the greatest rock guitar instrumentals I've ever heard. And trust me I've heard a lot of instrumental shred guitar stuff back in my day. I've since moved on from shred and rock and now mainly focus on jazz. But when I hear a song like this it brings me back to my shred guitar phase. I've even seen Buckethead in concert in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I went with a friend and I can say that although Buckethead played amazing, sounded great, and looked cool he only played for about 45 minutes and the show was over. For a while I heard that he was retiring from music but recently I heard he's playing a concert in Milwaukee again. The album that this song is on is Monsters and Robots and its the final song on the album, probably the best. 

Update 3.0

      Things have been good lately. You might even say great. I've been getting fewer hours at work these last two weeks but I've been using that free time wisely, getting in some great guitar practice. I'm back on the guitar grind working on jazz standards and improvising. It's been fun. Today I was working on Wes Montgomery's Four on Six. I can solo through the changes pretty well on that tune. I've also been watching a ton of anime, sleeping a lot, and just relaxing in general, sometimes even hanging out with my buddies. Life has been so good! This past Saturday I went to a fighting game event at CSUN (local college) where we played Smash 4, Blazblue, and Street Fighter V all night. It was a great night and some of the guys that go to the tournaments at Fire and Dice were there. I got to show off my skills with Bayonetta and I was able to dominate some people that were there on a big screen classroom projector. I would say that I've definitely gotten better as a player, especially my spacing and my neutral in particular but there are still people who are just more experienced than me. Meaning they've just played the game longer than I have and they know the ins and outs of more characters than I do. There were some guys there who were super good with like every character, it was cool to see. I'm more of a two main characters type of guy. If my Bayonetta doesn't stand a chance than most likely my Zero Suit Samus will probably lose and I'm more the type of guy to stick to my guns and just play the same character I tried to fight you with first. It was a great event! I just randomly hit up the guy organizing the event on Facebook and asked him for a ride, and lo and behold I got a ride! It all worked out because he doesn't live too far away from me. He's become a friend of mine that I look forward to hanging out with more in the future.
     I'm looking forward to the the end of this month in particular because on the 18th Pokken Tournament comes out and also I'm going on vacation with my family out on the ocean. I'm going to bring my Wii U so I can practice smash when I'm not relaxing out on the beach. I've been getting in some good use of my Ipod at work on my breaks listening to a lot of Coltrane. The jazz fire is still within me. I haven't forgotten about music and jazz in particular. In addition, when I went into work yesterday I saw the cover of the new Guitar World magazine and it has Dave Mustaine on the cover. He's really come a long way since Megadeth broke up twice, and now he has a new killer album with a Brazillian guitar virtuoso named Kiko Louriea. A lot of good things are coming up and a lot of good things have been happening recently. I would like to get more hours at work but sometimes its good to just take some time off and chillax. I'm planning on going to the next tournament at Fire and Dice tomorrow so we'll have to see how I do there. My record at smash tournaments is such a bad numbers game (0-2, I've only beaten two people in tournament) but when I think about how I've evolved as a player you can see that I've improved at the game so much that its incredible. At the same time though I need to have those good tournament results otherwise its just all talk. See ya on the next post where I'll tell you all about the tournament. This time I'm going to stay until the end and see who wins. It'll be great to watch the grand finals set. I want to say thank you for reading the blog whoever you are. The blog has reached 7,000 views which is just insane for a no-name music/gaming joe that's just started up their blog. I want to become bigger and reach a wider audience but this is definitely a good start. I'll definitely find ways to keep the blog entertaining and interesting. One of the things I want to get back into is the jazz album review series I used to do back in 2015. That was pretty exciting for me as a jazz fan and I believe I could go far as a music critic. The gaming stuff has taken over most of my writing at the moment but I will write about other stuff as well in the future. Thanks for reading!

Smash tournament at FAD 3/3

     Today was a great time at Fire and Dice's weekly smash tournament. There wasn't too many people at first but later more people came. I can say that I played great compared to last week although I still have a lot of work to do to prepare for the next tournament. I did amazingly well in friendlies, defeating people endlessly multiple times in a row, even with some of my off characters. But when it came to my actual tournament matches I ended up sding (suicide deaths) twice in two different matches. Sd's are unacceptable in competitive smash and I really need to work on that for the future. Part of it is that I'm still not completely sure about everything Bayonetta can do with her recovery. I still have to work that out in the lab, aka training mode. Let's talk about my sets.
     My first set was on stream (a first for me) against Pluto, my first ever opponent that I played at my first tournament. Back then he was a Captain Falcon main but these days he's rocking Meta Knight, a pretty solid switch. I started off the set with a bang, playing pretty well against him even though he's a much better and more technical player. He won game one but I like to think it was pretty close. I got the first stock with a clutch witch time but once he started getting his up-air strings everything just started going his way. Game two was more good spacing from him and me trying to get in and out with some attacks. Again, once his up-air strings started working out the game just went in his favor. To put salt in the wound I ended up killing myself on my last stock. Not that it was close that game anyways but it was a bad way to go on stream. He ended up sding himself too so its all good. I'll try to find the video of me on stream because that first game wasn't bad at all for me. I was going toe to toe with him! Lol, it was awesome. I've definitely come a long way from my first tournament days. You can watch the set here http://www.twitch.tv/fadgames/v/52214336, set the time to around 6 minutes and that's when the match starts. It looks like I have complete control of the situation but then he just comes back with the up-airs. I feel like a couple more clutch witch times would've helped a lot because he's a very aggressive heavy type of player. But it was a good set and he's a good player. I hope I can face him again on stream sometime.
      My second set was against Captain Andrew, this Sonic main. He was pretty good but I felt like I lost because I don't know the match up. Plus I never get the chance to play good Sonic players. He pretty much just ran around at the speed of sound and grabbed me a lot. Once I was in the air he kept doing a lot of up-airs and there wasn't too much I could do to get out of it. He never approached or fought me straight up he just kept running around, which I guess is what Sonic is suppose to do. It was a little disappointing losing 2-0 super quick to a Sonic main but I should've known the match up more. I shouldn't have just been playing on autopilot during that set because you really have to change your play style and go for the punishes when fighting Sonic otherwise he'll just run circles around you. He ended up losing in a close set later against my friend FuzzBallJones, who was playing Roy.
     All in all it was a good time. I ended up going home early because a lot of my friends weren't there. Its just not the same without them ya know? I'm a little ashamed of going out like that on stream with the commentators even saying "Pluto won" before the game was over and crap like that but its just a game and I can improve. Even though it looked like Pluto was all over me I would still say that I was holding my own. I've been improving every tournament I go to. My neutral game has improved a lot over the last couple weeks. I'm still figuring out a lot about the game. For example, I'm not sure if I want to keep using Bayonetta. I might go back to using Zero Suit sometime soon. There were a couple great players that I haven't seen there before. There was this kid who played Villager that took out Rich Brown convincingly. I didn't really watch too much of the matches on stream today though because I was more into playing friendlies this week. Gotta keep playing and keep improving!

Update 2.0

     This is just a general whats up kinda post that I wanted to do. I haven't written for a couple days and I don't the blog to get too stale. I gotta keep up the content to keep things interesting. Life has been good, better than usual. Last couple of weeks have been rough at work because I was getting over 40 hour weeks with one day off or no days off. It was all good though because of that money! This week is super relaxing and I've got a couple days off to boot. I even got to hang out with friends earlier this week and today I was chillin' at my friends house playing the Overwatch beta.
     In terms of music I've been listening to all kinds of stuff. I got my Ipod loaded up to the max with rock, metal, and jazz music. Right now I'm listening to Yngwie Malmsteen's 1996 album Inspiration. The album opens up with a cover of Kansas' Carry on Wayword Son, such a good song! I remember in high school doing a marching band show while playing trumpet and opening up with that tune. Brings back many memories. It sounds so much more bad-ass and neo-classical when Malmsteen solos over the changes. There's even a sick cover of Hendrix's Manic Depression on this album. Malmsteen does a sick Hendrix impersonation!
     Speaking of Malmsteen, I have his autobiography. I got it not too long ago but I haven't finished. The beginning part of it is all about how he was such a great musician but nobody noticed him in his native Sweden. It wasn't until he came to the States and played with some bland hair metal bands that his talent was appreciated. Other stuff I've been listening to is Eric Dolphy, Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Symphony X, etc. All the standards that I've come to know and love over the years. I'm always searching far and wide (through the net) for new music to listen to. It comes in any and all forms really. Lately my new thing has been electronic music, which is a little strange for me because in the past I'd always hated electronic music because I thought it sounded bland and soul-less with no musicality. But tastes change as time goes by. Who knows, maybe there will be a time when I don't really want to hear the sound of post-bop saxophones?
     Lastly, gaming has been fun. Last night we had a smash-fest at our friends house. We were playing five player smash for a bit and it was really fun! I've played eight player smash before and that is just absolutely stupid because there's too much going on and you can't even really see the screen and what your character is doing. Once we started playing 1v1's I absolutely dominated, defeating everybody in the room convincingly. I would say my neutral game with Bayonetta has improved a lot and I've learned to switch up my style mid-match more if my opponent starts baiting and reading me. The weekly smash tournament at Fire and Dice is tomorrow (today, technically speaking) and I'm excited to go and try out my newfound skills on people there. The people at Fire and Dice are really good, some of them are even way better than me but I can still beat them if I play a nearly perfect game or pull a rabbit out of my hat. It's going to be rough but I'm going to give it all I've got and see what happens.
     I've also been playing a lot of Heroes of the Storm and Diablo III. Today I got most of the set items for Immortal Kings, a good set for Barbarians in the game. It gives me all kinds of buffs, its really sweet! In addition, I want to get back into playing more Street Fighter V but I just haven't been up to it lately. Maybe I'll play a bit tomorrow after the tournament. Life just moves so fast and there's only so much gaming you can get in on a busy day when you still have other commitments. For a while I was focusing on playing only smash but I felt like I burned out pretty quick. I have to get a variety of games in otherwise I just don't feel it. I'm still working on the Fire Emblem Fates Conquest campaign and I gotta say that the game is hella difficult. Chapter ten took me three tries to beat and all it was just a hold out mission where you had to hold out for eleven turns. Doesn't sound difficult but it took everything I had just to win. Looking forward to more chapters like that lol. I've also been watching a lot of anime at night. That's it for now, sayonara!