FPS gaming event at Fire and Dice

     Today was the first time I've ever gone to Fire and Dice for an event that was not a Smash tournament. It turned out to be super fun! My friend recommended that we go because he saw that they were having an fps (first person shooter) gaming event on meetup.com. This is the first time I've ever gone to an event that was posted on meetup and it turned out to be a pleasant experience.
     We got there around 4:30 pm (it started at 4) and there was only like five dudes there plus the three guys who run Fad. We started things out by playing some Call of Duty Black Ops II, a super good game that I've played quite a bit despite not really being much of a first person shooter fan. We played zombies and it turned out to be pretty lame. We only lasted 8 rounds lol. Not sure how that happened but once we started playing four player free for all that was when the real fun started. Because there was so few people we all got our own monitor and xbox 360 to play on, and we just played in a local lan connection game. I really shine in Black Ops II because of the Mtar, a super good assault rifle that I annihilate with. My friend won the first game by a couple kills but I wasn't far behind. I think he won again the second time. The third time I tied the game with him. And the last match we played I won by a good couple kills. It was truly satisfying defeating my friend and these random dudes I just met because my friend is a super good fps gamer that destroys most people at shooters. He's the kind of guy who's born to play shooters. He should play Call of Duty, Counter Strike, or Team Fortress 2 competitively for money, he's that good. He was once a part of a competitive Team Fortress 2 team but he's no longer doing it for some reason
     After we played Call of Duty me and my friend threw down for a large pizza with one of the guys and we ate. Not the best pizza in the world but it certainly filled our stomachs. Then we played Gears of War III horde mode. It was kind of exhausting because unending hordes of monsters isn't really my thing but in the end it turned out to be pretty fun. It was the second time I've ever played Gears of War III and I don't think I quite get the duck and cover mechanics the game has to offer. However, we were only playing on casual mode which was pretty easy. Starting around the 26th round things started to get increasingly more difficult. Keep in mind that there are only 50 rounds in total. In the end we only made up to the 30th round, which had a boss fight. At that point I was very tired and disoriented from playing so much xbox that I wasn't really trying. But it was a good experience and my first time playing horde mode on Gears.
     Later, we went to my friends house and played the Overwatch beta. I find Overwatch to be very energetic and in your face but its also kind of a cluster-fuck if you don't know what the heroes do and how to play them. I'll have to play more of it at my friends pad when we hang out. I really like the game and the whole idea of heroes having their own special abilities and ways to play. That differs heavily from other shooters except maybe Team Fortress 2, which created that idea in fps gaming. We can see today that Call of Duty tried to do something similar in Black Ops III but I don't think they pulled it off very well. It's just another generic Call of Duty really.
     Lastly, playing so well in CoD today made me realize that I'm pretty good at shooters. I should play them more often on PC. I'm interested in playing more Team Fortress 2 for sure because my friend still plays that a lot. In fact, we used to play it a lot while talking on our headsets. Also, my brother is in the beta for Overwatch so hopefully he'll let me use his account to play it. First person shooters can be a blast sometimes. It was a good day off from work! If Fire and Dice continues to do more events like this I would definitely be down to go if I'm free.

Late night gaming

      As you can tell by the times that I write all my posts I am one hell of a late night person. I usually stay up until at least 3 am everyday that I work late nights. On my days off I stay up till 2 am, and other times I don't go to bed until 4 or a 5 am. I keep late hours and that's just the way I like it. If I ever get a more organized job or a another part time job to earn more cash I would have to change my schedule drastically and go to bed much earlier. Anyways, this post is about the games I play late at night. There are some nights where I just write and watch videos and don't play any games at all. Sometimes I'm just too tired and I watch anime (thank god for crunchyroll). But when I force myself to game I never regret it. It's always a blast.
     I used to play a lot of games on my 3ds XL in the past before I fell asleep. I played a lot of Smash 3ds, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, and Xenoblade Chronicles (I'm really feeling it!). I might go back to playing Mh4U and Xenoblade at some point after I finish Fire Emblem Fates. I even used to play Mario Kart 8 on my Wii U gamepad before bed sometimes. It's a super fun game and I like playing against people in Japan and Europe.
     Lately I've been playing a lot  of Heroes of the Storm at like 2 in the morning. Its such a fun game and I don't always get the time to play it during the day before work. Game queues are usually super fast even at 2 in the morning and it gives me the chance to earn that in game gold (from completing quests) so I can get more heroes. In addition, I've been playing a lot of Fire Emblem Fates Conquest. I'm on Ch.10 right now and the story is just getting interesting. I would say the whole story as of right now is very convoluted and that perhaps Awakening had a better story-line. However, I never played Awakening but my brother does own it so I can play it whenever. Sometimes when I'm done playing a few Heroes games I'll play some Starcraft II for a bit. Lastly, my other go-to late night gaming session game is Diablo III Reaper of Souls. This game has the perfect evil atmosphere for late night sessions.I definitely want to get back into playing Monster Hunter at some point. It's like the perfect handheld multiplayer rpg and I really want Monster Hunter X to come out in America at some point (its only out in Japan). What games do you play late at night? Have you ever played horror games at night with the lights turned off? That seems like a great idea for a twitch stream. Stay classy readers. And stay gaming.

Music device II

     So i finally got an Ipod. Because I don't own a smartphone this Ipod is the greatest thing to me since sliced bread. I had an Ipod in the past but the button that turned it on ended up getting stripped somehow. Anyways, I'm excited to be able to listen to music while walking to work, on my breaks, and playing in smash tournaments. I'm working with 8 gigs of music so hopefully that will be enough tunes with some variety to listen to. I'm thinking 50% of it will be jazz, 40% will be rock/metal, and 10% will be just other stuff that I find interesting like classical pieces and entertaining songs. The one I got is a discontinued model. I haven't messed around with it yet but when I have the time its going to be magical.

Dealing with Frustration

     How do you deal with frustration? This could apply to anything really. It could apply to competitive gaming, work, or just life in general. One of the things that helps me deal with frustration is doing my daily routine, writing for the blog every night. Its become my go-to activity every night at like two in the morning. Another thing I like to do is put on some kind of music. Sometimes it has to be a certain kind of music that helps me deal with life's troubles. Lately, classical music just seems to soothe my soul. I find the acoustic sounds of orchestral instruments relaxing and its cool because not too many young people are into it. Yet another thing I like to do is to just play video games. It can be any game really. Sometimes I might take a break from a game that I've been playing poorly in. Gaming is just a great hobby and I don't think I'll ever stop unless I got some kind of super hot girl friend that is way better than gaming (lols). Lastly, I like to play the guitar. I used to play the guitar a lot more when I lived back in Wisconsin but I've kind of just lost my place in the guitar playing world. I just haven't been 'feeling' the guitar if that makes sense. Gaming has taken up my guitar playing time and I don't see myself organizing my time in a more effective way in order to do both. I'd have to wake up earlier, which means waking up in the morning, and for me that is downright impossible (lols).
     Sometimes life just seems to kick you in the balls and makes you struggle to catch your breath as you're lying on the floor. Lately things haven't been so great for me but when I think of other people with worse problems and see how happy they are, I can't be upset with what I've been dealt. It's easy to say that tomorrow will be a better day or that you should pick yourself back up again and deal with it but for some people its not that easy. I guess what I'm trying to say is that everybody has their own ways to deal with frustration and life's woes. In the end life's a bitch, and then you die. Better make good use of it.

New Music IV

     I've been listening to a lot of classical music tonight to calm down. I find the natural sound of acoustic orchestral instruments to be very soothing in comparison to the electronic stuff I've been listening to lately. Right now I'm finishing up listening to Mozart's Symphony number 40 in G minor. Earlier tonight I was talking to a smash bros friend and he was telling me how some player listens to classical music while he plays to calm down. It really does do the trick! Classical music is so good too. The harmonies and melodies just seem to sound mathematically correct (like organized equations), especially this Baroque era stuff. Baroque is music from the 1700s. My favorite classical music has always been the Baroque era stuff. My go to composers are Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Handel, and Beethoven. They just seem to sound 'right', if that makes sense. Their music speaks to me in ways that jazz music doesn't. You can say its the instrumentation, the time that it was composed in, or just the straight up white European aspect of it. This music sounds like Radio Top 40 of the 1700s, its ear candy to me. It has a certain 'catchy-ness' to it and has repeated patterns, much like pop music or electronic music but the form is still complex with unique twists and changes. There was once a time where I left classical music playing in my room all the time, even when I wasn't there. It just sets the tone and atmosphere for me. I've been a hardcore classical listener before, listening to Wagner's Ring Cycle and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Firebird. The whole tradition of this music is fantastic and still going to this day. It's good to hear this music. It truly is Europe's greatest musical tradition. Let me leave you with this tune by Albinoni Adagio in G Minor.  This shred metal guitarist Ywngie Malmsteen does a sick version of this tune with a Fender stratocaster and Marshall stacks. Here, we can enjoy the piece in its original form. Enjoy. 

Fire and Dice Smash tournament 2/25

     Today was just one of those days where nothing worked out for me. Unfortunately that was what went down in my tournament matches as well. Before the tournament I was hanging out with my friends in the morning and we decided to go to some no name Mexican restaurant that wasn't very good. They messed up my order and then made me pay extra for the mix-up because my meal was more than whatever they gave me. Then later on when I got to Fire and Dice I went to this pizza place called Fretteli's and they messed up my order as well. I ordered a large pizza with bacon and pepperoni and instead they gave me a small pizza with bacon and pepperoni. In the end I guess it was ok because they decided to give me the small pizza for free and then make me my large pizza as well. I ended up sharing a lot of the extra pizza with my friends and some fellow smashers. This isn't really bad stuff but it really got to me because I was super hungry when I ate at both of those places. To put more salt in the wound, earlier in the morning my friend and I played smash and he's not better than me or anything and I just got bodied super hard, a lot of the time barely losing matches. In the last match he zero to death-ed me with Gannondorf and I just walked off the stage and left the room. I've never been that salty before to do that but there's a first time for everything. Today was just not a good day. But I digress.
      In my first set I played against Jinx, this really good Rosalina player that I saw playing doubles with Aphro. I just got bodied. He played a super campy defensive Rosalina, focusing on punishes. I don't think I played bad against him but I did sd (suicide death) in one of the games. I would say overall my neutral and spacing has gotten much better but there are sometimes when you can't do much against a more skilled player. I was playing Bayonetta in both games. It was a fast 2-0 for him.
     My second set was against Abyss, a random character player. He doesn't really have a main. He's a cool guy and we've talked before but never got to play until today. He played Lucina game one and kept breaking my shield with her side-B sword charge. I kept falling for it and getting shield broken and forward smashed. This happened three times in a row! Needless to say that game was over fast. Game two I switched to Zero Suit Samus and he went Game and Watch. This game was much closer but again, what can I do when my opponent is much more skilled than I am? I'd have to play a perfect game without any mistakes and pull a rabbit out of my hat, which didn't happen unfortunately. In the end it was another quick loss. I lost two sets in the blink of an eye. It was the worst I've ever played smash in tournament ever. I was pretty salty but I still said good game and stuff to the guys.
     My reaction to playing my worst day of smash 4? Just sitting down and taking it all in by playing some friendlies and talking to friends. This didn't help at all because I was in such a bad mood and funk that I just kept losing every game to dumb stuff. I kept doing dumb stuff and getting hit by dumb stuff. Everything was just terribad and I couldn't focus on the game at all. I'm thinking about listening to music when I play at tournaments just so I can calm down and focus. Today just wasn't fun. But there are going to be days like this and I need to accept the fact that people are just better than me at the game and that it might take be months, if not years to surpass them. I consider smash a big part of my life and I want to become good enough to get top ten at Fire and Dice but the more I go, the more I realize that it's becoming insurmountable.
     I watched a few games but I was kind of detached from everything. I saw my friend lose to a Sonic because he sd'd and lost his momentum. My friend Saladin played really well today although he sd'd in a crucial game three. One of my Simi Valley friends beat JeDi using Toon Link. I didn't really watch any of the high level players today but I saw Aphro pull off this sick Bayonetta combo where he took his opponent super high into the top of the stage and killed them. I've gotta learn how to do that if I'm going to seriously play Bayonetta. As far as all the salt goes today, after writing about it and venting I'm honestly not that upset. When I got home I played some matches on For Glory and did pretty well, until I lost a game because I was timed out by a Greninja that just kept running. In the end its just a game and there will always be players striving to be the best. Everybody has bad days. I just have to put in more hard work and effort, and just keep playing the game. Hopefully, I'll be able to take these guys out sooner rather than later. Thanks for reading, peace out. 

New Music III

      Right now I'm listening to this girl play a version of Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) on an ancient Korean instrument. It sounds so good! One of my guitar friends from Facebook shared it. She does justice to the tune and makes it sound original.
      But lately the main music I've been listening to is video game remixes done in a dubstep and trap style. I've gotten super into it. I listen to it when I'm just chilling late at night, relaxing, and working on the blog. The music is simple and is basically just patterns of electronic noise organized into a rhythm. I would like to learn how to use Pro Tools so I could make some sick remixes like some of the stuff I've been hearing. Check out this version of Sonic's Green Hill Zone by DreMcCloud (Green Hill Zone by DreMcCloud) That beat is so infectious. This is what they call in rap music candy beats. You got a simple melody going on and underneath it is a crispy beat. Everything about this just oozes chill. It reminds me of playing Sonic when I was a kid. But nostalgia aside this is a great remix.
     Another one I've really liked is this one (Mario and Luigi Victory remix by Raisi K) This tune is another super chill tune with a some more candy beats. Once you start to hear one of these tunes you tend to kind of hear them all because they all sound similar. They're all electronic stuff made on computers by synthetic instruments. But I've come to really enjoy this stuff. I've still been listening to jazz here and there as well. Today I re-listened to Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch, something I do quite often.
      Lastly, its always cool to find new music that appeals to you. The music I've listened to has always changed over time. Let me just leave you with this gem I heard the other day. Melee Where you at remix by HuggerMugger What do you think of vgm (video game music). Would you even consider this stuff video game music or is it more dubstep/trap/edm. I consider this stuff video game music but I think it also stands high next to any kind of modern dubstep out there. It's been a blast looking up these tunes on YouTube. The search for good music continues! I've been trying to get back into buying new jazz albums and doing reviews for them but I've just been so side-tracked and haven't gotten to listening to all the latest jazz musos. I will get to it at some point, and then I'll blog about it. Until then, stay classy readers!