Movies I've Seen This Year (2018)

All the movies I've seen this year.
Movies I watched in 2018

• January
  • Sully (2016) - Based on the true story of Captain Sully's emergency landing of the commercial jet in the Hudson river.
  • Season of the Witch (2011) - Nicolas Cage as a knight during the 14th century Crusades in a town ravaged by the Black Plague. Evil is involved.
  • Carrie (2013) - Chloë Grace Moretz as Carrie in this remake. It was OK.

• February
  • The Death Cure (Maze Runner) (2018) - The last book in the trilogy. This took a while to be released because the lead actor was in an accident. No more mazes. Only a cure.
  • Brimstone (2016) - A frontier woman turns fugitive when she is wrongly accused of a crime she didn't commit and is hunted by a vengeful preacher. Stars Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce, and Kit Harington.
  • Trolls (2016) - An original story based on the Troll dolls. Also has a "Happy" like song by Justin Timberlake (Can't Stop the Feeling)
  • The Cloverfield Paradox [Netflix] (2018) - A space movie with very little in common with the Cloverfield movie. An alternate universe is bleeding into the other in space and they have to save each other. Also, they worked in very small details on the plot of Cloverfield into the story just because. Cash grab, to be honest.
  • Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) - A sequel to the original movie. Since kids don't play board games anymore, the Jumanji board game adapted and created a videogame of itself. Stars The Rock and Kevin Hart.
  • Cars 3 (2017) - Lightning McQueen races one last time... maybe.
  • Black Panther (2018) - Not really an origin story for Black Panther. More of a "How can you stay still and isolate your entire country to the rest of the world knowing all the atrocities happening to everyone and you have the means and resources to help? What do you do?" Also, there's a bad guy. It's like a different take on The Lion King, except it's superheroes and panthers.
  • Life (2017) - A space movie where they discover life on Mars, brings it onboard their space station. Now they have to fight for their lives and prevent the creature from reaching Earth.
  • Hell or High Water (2016) - a rancher and his ex-convict brother rob a bank as vengeance. A cop is on their trail. Stars Chris Pines and Jeff Bridges.
  • All Eyez on Me (2017) - Based on Tupac's life story.

• March
  • A Wrinkle in Time (2018) - Based on the book of the same name. I fell asleep on this in theaters. Rewatched it later. I feel the movie was lacking. I get what the director was trying to do, but they stripped away the Christian message in the book. That really hurt and pacing.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist [Live Action] (2017) - Bad. Do not watch.
  • Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) - Story was all over the place. Cash grab. Nice nod to previous actors in the series, but it's probably not salvageable.
  • Ready Player One (2018) - In the future, people are glued to virtual reality. When there is no outlook in real life, the OASIS is their escape. The creator hid an easter egg in the game. Whoever finds it will own the company.

• April
  • A Quiet Place (2018) - Alien creatures with thick exoskeletons and super hearing have taken over the world. One family survives by scavenging anywhere while remaining quiet.
  • War of the Planet of the Apes (2017) - The third movie on the new Planet of the Apes series. The virus that has killed off most of humanity has evolved.
  • Avengers: Infinity Wars (2018) - Everything that Marvel Studios has been planning since 2008's Iron Man has culminated into this movie. They are finally facing off the big bad guy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Thanos. He plans to wipe out half the life in the universe to combat overpopulation. The Avengers team up with everyone, including the Guardians of the Galaxy.
  • Unforgettable (2017) - Stalker movie starring Rosario Dawson and Katherine Heigl.
  • Wolves at the Door (2016) - Based on the Manson Family murders.

• May
  • Deadpool 2 (2018) - The sequel. Deadpool must save a mutant kid from a time-traveler trying to kill him. Hilarity ensues as always.
  • Ghost in the Shell (2017) - Live action versions of anime normally are bad and don't do well. No difference here. In the near future, Major is the first of her kind: a human who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals. When terrorism reaches a new level that includes the ability to hack into people's minds and control them, Major is uniquely qualified to stop it. As she prepares to face a new enemy, Major discovers that her life was stolen instead of saved. Now, she will stop at nothing to recover her past while punishing those who did this to her.
  • Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) - A standalone Star Wars Story about the beginnings of Han Solo. Great cast. Bad script.
  • Atomic Blonde (2017) - Based on a graphic novel. Lorraine Broughton is the most elite spy in MI6, an agent who's willing to use all of her lethal skills to stay alive during an impossible mission. With the Berlin Wall about to fall, she travels into the heart of the city to retrieve a priceless dossier and take down a ruthless espionage ring. Once there, she teams up with an embedded station chief to navigate her way through the deadliest game of spies. Has some good action.

• June
  • The Greatest Showman (2017) - Stars Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum and how the circus came to be. It's a musical that took several years in the making.
  • Pitch Perfect 3 (2017) - Cash grab. Weak plot. Okay music. Closes out the franchise on a mediocre note.
  • Downsize (2017) - Scientist discovered a way to shrink people, reducing their carbon footprint. People follow suit and live in downsize communities. Stars Matt Damon. Cool concept.

• July
  • Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) - Cash grab for the original movie. The Kaiju haven't left apparently.
  • Monster Hunt 2 (2018) - I saw this on the flight to the Philippines. It's the sequel to Monster Hunt (I haven't seen it) about a baby monster separated from it's parents. Stuff happens. Cool special FX.
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) - Ant-Man tool a plea deal after the events of Captain America: Civil War. He's under house-arrest and only a few days away from being free until he sees a vision of the quantum realm. Hope van Dyne visits (read as kidnap) Ant-Man to pick his brain on the quantum realm. Also bad guys.
  • The LEGO NINJAGO Movie (2017) - Based on the LEGO NINJAGO series of toys, Lloyd is the green ninja and must defend NINJAGO from his evil father.
  • Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018) - This movie is the reason why Superman's mouth looks so weird in Justice League. Henry Cavill was under contract and couldn't shave his mustache for his role in the movie. Also, Tom Cruise hurt is knee during a stunt. This is why Marvel requires their actors to have stunt doubles. No ifs or buts about it. Anywho, Tom Cruise tries to save the world again after the government sort of betrays him again.

• August
  • Inglourious Basterds (2009) - British and American soldiers conspire with German spies to rich Hitler in World War II. Nominated for numerous awards. One of Quentin Tarantino's best films, next to Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2.
  • Mary and the Witch's Flower (2018) - A girl finds a flower in the forest, which leads her to a witch's broom, unlocking her powers, discovering a new world for witches.
  • Ex Machina (2015) - A tech-billionaire invites a low-level employee from his company to his private home in Alaska, introducing him to his top-secret research on artificial intelligence with a human-like android. Things get real.
  • Crazy Rich Asians (2018) - Based on the novel of a New York economics teacher who travels to Singapore with his boyfriend for a wedding. It turns out his boyfriend is old-money rich. Her arrival is unwanted by the elites and his family. Best romantic comedy this year. I highly recommend.

• September
  • Bleach [Live Action] (2018) - Unlike other anime live adaptations, this one is actually good. They kept the plot simple and focused on the first arc in the manga. That allowed them to refine the story and fighting choreography. Huge potential for future sequel. If you're a fan of anime and action sequences, I recommend this movie.
  • Next Gen (2018) - It's not a typical kid's CG movie. They don't shy away from heavy subject matter (like death). Has a good message.
  • The Predator (2018) - It's considered a sequel to all the Predator movies that have been released so far (excluding the Alien/Predator crossovers). Mix action and comedy, unlike the original and Predator 2.
  • Geostorm (2017) - A company has mastered the weather with numerous satellites deployed around the world to produce rain, snow, artificial sunlight/darkness, and maybe wind. But something is wrong with the computer that controls it all and causing calamities in various locations worldwide. 
  • The Shape of Water (2017) - Sometime after World War II, US scientists somehow found a fishman in the Amazon. It's a love story.

• October
  • Venom (2018) - Based Spider-Man's arch-nemesis (one of them), the symbiote "Venom" attaches itself to Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock. It's an anti-hero comic book film.
  • Rings (2017) - The sequel that never should have happened. The same scary girl that comes out of the TV and turns your face all bent out and shape and scary after 7 days.

• November
  • Overlord (2018) - During World War II, a team of US soldiers on a secret mission in a small town in France discovered a castle operated by Nazis, performing experiments on the locals. What they found will shock you.
  • Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) - Warner Bros. is developing their "Wizarding World" shared universe because the DC Expanded Universe is tanking. But they're on a rough start. What's supposed to be a Fantastic Beast story about Newt Scamander has now turned into a backstory for Dumbledore and Grindelwald. There was a lot of padded moments for me. We'll see what happens in the next three movies.
  • Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) - Ralph from Wreck-It Ralph travels to the Internet with Penelope to save her game. Really well done movie.
  • The Firm (1993) - An up and coming lawyer at a firm discovers the shady dealings that his law firm has been doing for years with their clients' money. He's targeted and must escape. Starring Tom Cruise. 

• December
  • Rampage (2018) - Based on the videogame of the same name about a giant ape, wolf, and lizard destroying buildings and eating people except it stars The Rock and it's about a gorilla, a wolf, and a crocodile coming into contact with a gene-altering agent.
  • How to Train Your Dragon (2010) - 2009-2012 time frame was bad for me. I was depressed and hating the world. So I missed out on this movie and it's sequel. I watched it recently and it's REALLY good. A tribe of Vikings have been fighting dragons all their lives. Then the chief's son befriends a Night Fury dragon. 
  • How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) - In this sequel, the tribe of Vikings now live among dragons. The chief's son with Toothless, his Night Fury dragon, discover people capturing dragons. He must protect his tribe and their dragons.
  • Blockers (2018) - It's a comedy about parents cockblocking their daughters during prom night. The movie has potential to be a classic like Superbad.
  • Tomb Raider (2018) - This version of Lara Croft follows closely the revamped version in the videogame, down to the story. I like it.
  • Aquaman (2018) - One of the better DC Expanded Universe movies. Aquaman is born from two worlds with his human father and Atlantean mother, Atlanna. In the present, his half brother plans to unite the kingdoms of the sea to wage war to the surface world. Aquaman will have to face his destiny in uniting the sea and the ground.
  • Mary Poppins Returns (2018) - The sequel to the original Mary Poppins, the kids are now older. A crisis brings Mary Poppins back to the Banks family.
  • Bird Box [Netflix] (2018) - A surprise hit for the holiday season. When a mysterious force decimates the population, only one thing is certain -- if you see it, you die. The survivors must now avoid coming face to face with an entity that takes the form of their worst fears. Searching for hope and a new beginning, a woman and her children embark on a dangerous journey through the woods and down a river to find the one place that may offer sanctuary. To make it, they'll have to cover their eyes from the evil that chases them -- and complete the trip blindfolded.
  • The Mummy (2017) - Universal Pictures' attempt at creating a shared movie universe, dubbed the Dark Universe, Tom Cruise must face and defeat this version of the mummy. The movie bombed in theaters, but they're still planning to unite Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolf, the Invisible Man, Frankenstein's Bride, and other Universal monsters.
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) - This is the best Spider-Man movie they've ever made. Spider-Man: Homecoming is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but this Spider-Man movie is close to the comics version. Just like Peter Parker, teenager Miles Morales was also bitten by a radioactive spider. He gains spider abilities different from Peter Parker. However, the Kingpin is planning to open a portal into other universes. The multiverse is in danger. It's up to Peter Parker, Miles Morales, and other Spider-Men from other universes to stop him. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS MOVIE.
  • Life of the Party (2018) - Melissa McCarthy plays a divorced mother going back to college with her daughter. It's a funny comedy.

I'm done.

X-Mas Family Celebration Weekend 2018

On the weekend before Christmas Eve, the family and I went to MGM National Harbor Hotel and Casino. Ate at Shake Shack before heading to watch Cirque Dreams Holidaze. I don't have footage of that, but I recorded the scenery outside the hotel. Afterwards, we went to Gaylord National Resort to check out the Ice sculpture exhibit. This year it's A Charlie Brown Christmas themed. It was cold. Ended the night with McCormick and Schmick's restaurant.

Music
Song: Wassail Song
Artist: Jayme Stone

I'm done.

Crossing BOTH MAPS w/o TOUCHING the Ground! The Floor is Lava Challenge (Assassin's Creed Unity)

Is it possible to cross both Versailles and Paris maps in Assassin's Creed Unity without touching the ground? In this video, I'll do the "Floor is Lava" challenge, previously attempted on the New York map in Assassin's Creed Rogue on PS3 (I made it three-quarters of the way through).

I start from the farthest "non-ground" surface on one side of the map and climb/hop/scale walls, trees, roofs, and other above ground objects towards the opposite side without touching the main ground. Below are interesting sections in the playthrough:

00:17 - Explanation of the challenge
01:22 - Start of Versailles section
04:48 - Close Call #1
05:23 - ???
06:40 - Close Call #2
07:11 - Almost at the other side of the map

07:35 - Next up, Paris!
08:57 - Start of Paris section
11:00 - YOLO Jump, Close Call #3
16:30 - ????
17:10 - Co-op dude says 'Hi'
20:30 - Heading to row houses on top of bridge
21:28 - ?????
23:55 - Two-thirds of the way across Paris map
24:22 - Close Call #4
26:41 - Rant about how beautiful this game is
30:00 - Home stretch
32:23 - Scaring bullies
34:30 - Random cat


Music:
Alex Nekita - Jazz background music 15 min(Free download - CC)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Assassin's Creed Unity Soundtrack - Pause Menu

I'm done.

Duck Walking Through Assassin's Creed Unity (Time Lapse)

The streaming quality was so-so in my previous video. Whenever I have too much movement going on, the screen starts tearing and pixelating. Unless I'm directly connected to the Internet, my stream quality will be a downgrade. I managed to get my Live Gamer Portable working on PS4. I can get 1080P HD resolution. Only problem is it can't get to 60FPS at 1080P. Good thing is AC Unity maxes out at 30FPS on consoles, I believe.

So this is a first for my channel and for this series: Duck Walking.

In previous AC games (AC3, AC4, and AC Rogue), crouching is contextual. There is no dedicated crouch button. Your character automatically crouches when you're near a hiding spot like tall grass, plants, and when you're stalking a target. AC Unity introduced a crouch button. This means you could crouch walk throughout the entire game as long as you're not running. This is me duck walking through the main game maps (Versailles and Paris) to see how long it takes cross.

Music:
Duck Tales - The Moon (Mega Drive Soundfont) by Num-Kirby

I'm done.

Strolling Through Assassin's Creed Unity (Time Lapse)

I haven't played the rest of the Assassin's Creed franchise in the current gen consoles. I'm working my way up from Unity to Odyssey right now. Of all the stories I've played so far, Unity's is the most tragic.

It's been a while since my last Assassin's Creed videos. I decided to try and record walking through the main game maps (Versailles and Paris) live with PS4.

Music from Assassin’s Creed Unity:
On Father’s Watch
Versailles for Sore Eyes
Artists: Chris Tilton, Sarah Schachner

I'm done.

DC Weekend w/ the Fam (November 2018)

Final found time to upload this.

Early November, family and I went to DC. We walked from L'Enfant Plaza to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, crossing the National Mall. Afterwards, we walked the opposite way towards the Wharf to eat and hang out for a bit.

Music:
Beyond Good and Evil - Thoughtful Reflections

I'm done.

Sprinting and Strolling Through Yakuza 5 (Time Lapse)

This was a pretty difficult game to go around the cities with invisible barriers, corners, NPC crowding, and random fights. I had to equip Silent Shoes and Beads of Good Fortune special items to remove random enemy encounter altogether.

I stuck to the major cities in the game and changed to the playable characters that have access to them. Since the walk/run animations and speeds are different for each character, the times are not as accurate.

I'm done.

LEGO Ideas - Adventure Time

I bought this set last year at Toys R Us. And just like Toys R Us, Adventure Time recently wrapped up it's 10th and final season with a one-hour special episode. I'm no longer a child, but you're never too young to enjoy walking around a toy store, playing available toys, just browsing. The same with Adventure Time, it's a very grown up show disguised as a kid's show. The show ending is like losing a best friend you've watched over the years, but the whole premise of the show is that there will always be adventures. The spirit of adventure is passed on to the next generation and spiritual successors of the main characters. No matter how different those adventures are, the themes are the same at their core and that's what makes them fun.

The set features Finn, Jake, BMO, Ice King, Gunter, Marceline, Princess Bubblegum, and Lady Rainicorn.

21308 - LEGO Ideas - Adventure Time

Finn and his best friend and adopted brother, Jake, roam the Land of Ooo, righting wrongs and battling evil. Along the way, they make friends with a whole range of wacky characters such as Princess Bubblegum, Lady Rainicorn and Marceline the Vampire Queen. They also have to deal with the grumpy Ice King, the mean ruler of the Ice Kingdom, who really needs to chill out.

The animated television series created by Pendleton Ward has achieved both cult status and widespread popularity, and is now also the 16th set in the LEGO Ideas series.

Sets released under LEGO Ideas are originally made by fans and submitted to LEGO. The LEGO Ideas community votes on submitted ideas as a supporter. Product ideas that achieve over 10,000 supporters will be reviewed by the LEGO group and may even have a set released based on the fan idea.

Music:
Jake - Bacon Pancakes (Remix)
Adventure Time Ending Them (Come Along With Me) - Ashley Eriksson

I'm done.

My Labor Day Weekend 2018

For Labor Day weekend, we visited my cousin and her family in Michigan. We went to the Michigan State Fair on Sunday. Here are the clips I took that day.

Death of Your Online Presence

I find it off-putting making my first non-video related piece in a long time be about this topic. I've been contemplating this subject for a while now. This is similar to a person leaving all of their social media.

After Xanga's demise, I thought about leaving blogging altogether. I created my WordPress account as an alternative placed by Xanga admins to importing archived posts to WordPress. It worked in a way, but posts with images are still linked to Xanga servers, which they were taking down to begin with.

Five years later, I've been more active on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. I have Twitter, snapchat, and trusty old Blogger. I mainly use WordPress and Blogger for cross-posting and sharing my creations on YouTube. Lots of platforms to be creative out there... until you don't feel it anymore.

I don't have a big following. Feedback is appreciated, but that's not what's driving me to create. For every video I make on YouTube or piece I write here, I'm improving and honing my skills. Lately, I just don't have it in me to do these things anymore. It starts to feel like a chore. To put something out there for the principle (this post is an exception cause I really wanted to write this down).

So what would the death of my online presence be like? I know of two ways.

1. The Purge

The hoarder in me is the only thing preventing me from going about this route. It's the most extreme example I can think of: Permanently deleting all social media accounts. All videos uploaded to YouTube? Gone. Instagram photos? Gone. Tweets? Gone. Everything is gone with or without saving backups. Online connections you don't have a contact with offline? Gone and severed.

People have done this for privacy reasons, identity theft. Sometimes bullying. Or maybe you're just fed up and realized how you respond and talk to people has completely changed, taking everything as a personal attack, enforcing your authority, etc.

2. Soft Reset

A soft reset is another term for a restart on a device (typically a smartphone), that closes all applications, clears RAM, and any unsaved data. Data stored on the harddrive is not affected.

A social media soft reset would be deactivating your Facebook accounts or privatizing all posts and shared media from friends, subscribers, with no updates. You can always go back to a deactivated Facebook account as if you never left. All your private posts are only viewable to you. You simply stop posting and end up being a lurker. With an active account, you still have access to your social media, but you don't comment, leave a like, subscribe, retweet, etc. There are third-party versions of social media apps that completely masks your presence: read receipts, "Seen by" for Instagram stories, etc.

It's not as drastic as a purge, but it's the same idea of minimizing your online presence. Not entirely a death.

----------------

It's really hard to do a complete purge, especially if your online presence is tied to you in real life. There are services online that lets you delete your accounts online. It will find all sites you have access to with all the emails you provide and ask if you want to delete them.

For Twitter or Instagram, if your account is not set to private (or was set to public at some point), chances are your tweets and photos have been crawled through by countless bots, aggregated by third-party sites, hashtags, metadata, and everything else replicated.

As an experiment, try googling your full name or social media username. Scroll past familiar search result and check all search results in subsequent pages. With my username, I found that several of my photos on Flickr have been used in online articles in different states or countries.

Some people have devious-feeling reasons for purging or minimizing their online presence. Which leads us to number three.

3. Rebirth

They want a fresh start. Free from their previous account(s) online presence or online presence in general. I wish I knew then, as a fellow pioneer of this new frontier called the World Wide Web, how precious and golden being completely anonymous is online.

This veers more towards conspiracy theory levels, but there are many legitimate reasons for remaining off-the-grid online. Top of all reasons being your privacy. With social engineering, it only takes a few keywords to find out where you live, your phone number, an email address, and your name. The more personal information you have out there linked to various sites (social media, banking, email, websites, etc.) the bigger your online footprint is.

On a grander scale, you could hire a lawyer and use a service to help remove your online presence as much as possible. There will always be remnants of aggregated data obtained by companies (mostly spam) that shared your info, but search results on your name/username moving forward will be minimal and whatever you or a company has on you that you put out online.

For social media, it's using a completely different username with no ties to your older account. You can be fancy and roleplay a different set of likes/dislikes, hobbies, interests, etc. But that's reserved for catfishers. Or simply start a new random account that doesn't stand out. You can blend in with the crowd.

10-15 years ago, I can probably do a complete purge in heartbeat. Didn't sign up to as many sites as I have now. Now, I have more real connections online. Some tend to be more annoying than most, but it's like everybody else's situation. They're good people. This is our reality now. Our aging infrastructures just needs to keep up.

I'm done.

My Trip to Cebu 2018

It's been 7 years since I've had a full 2-week vacation in the Philippines. We went there to see family for the most part. Celebrated my grandpa's 90th birthday and saw my siblings and cousins for a weekend when we were there. I didn't want to leave.

I'm done.

LEGO Architecture - Statue of Liberty

"True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what's right."

This set took about 6 hours to make spread across two days. The Statue of Liberty was recently featured in the LEGO Architecture - New York City Skyline series in 2016, comprising of a several LEGO blocks a micro green minifig. This 2018 set is the most detailed LEGO Architecture set so far at 1,685 pieces.

21042 - LEGO Architecture - Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the United States, and has since become a universal symbol of freedom and democracy throughout the world. Dedicated on the 28th of October 1886, she was often the first thing people saw as they sailed into New York’s harbor to start a new life in America.

Music:
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Main Theme
Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault - Main Theme
Medal of Honor: European Assault - Dogs of War (Main Theme)

I'm done.

South Park - The Bus Stop

In Fall 2017, McFarlane Toys released the South Park Construction Sets. Here's the iconic bus stop.

12876 - South Park Construction Sets - The Bus Stop

Music:
South Park: The Game (1999) - Roaming

I'm done.

South Park - Mr. Garrison's Classroom

In Fall 2017, McFarlane Toys released the South Park Construction Sets. Here's Mr. Garrison's Classroom.

12899 - South Park Construction Sets - Mr. Garrison's Classroom

Music:
South Park: The Stick of Truth - Counselor's Office (Elementary School) Music Theme

I'm done.

Funko POP! Marvel - Deadpool Unboxing

Deadpool 2 is now out in theaters. Enjoy the unboxing of this Deadpool Funko Pop! figure.

Hit the Floor

“So many people like me walk on eggshells all they long. All I know is that all I want is to feel like I’m not stepped on.” - Linkin Park

It’s not a way to live. So don’t spread it onto others.

Stop projecting your assumptions on what you think happened vs. what actually happened.

Not everything has to be bad. Know the difference.

Don't be baited into getting upset for things out of context.

Don't ruin your mood and your day. You can control what's offensive by seeing the full picture.

Don't be that guy. There are too many in the world. Don't be an unnecessary asshole to others just because you had a bad day.

I'm done.

Only One Floor Away

Can’t fully process my emotions right now. I know I would be transferring to another contract, but I didn’t think it would be so soon. My last day with my current project is this Friday. I start orientation for the new contract Monday. Completely caught off guard by this. I thought it would be next month or sometime in August.

- Happy/Excited for the new opportunity and challenges.

- Grateful for my managers for the opportunity and trusting me with our work, promoting over the years to a leadership position.

- Overwhelmed/stressed for transitioning my programs within your project, a really sped up knowledge transfer and communicating it to our client.

- Sad cause I’m leaving my team. I really like them.

It’s been a good two and a half years watching our team grow from 7 people to 20, to 55, to 30.

Good thing is I’m only one floor away, literally.

LEGO Star Wars - R3-M2 and DJ Minifigures

Found both of these at Toys R Us. I'll miss this store when it closes.

R3-M2 was an R3-series astromech droid that served the Alliance to Restore the Republic. It is a droid character created for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

DJ (short for "Don't Join") is a human male slicer in the galaxy during the war between the Resistance and the First Order. He first appeared on Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.

I'm done.

Your Grandparents’ Language

I grew up with English, Cebuano (Visayan), and Tagalog spoken interchangeably around me. At an early age, I was accustomed to Visaya and English. In the 1st grade, Tagalog (Filipino) was taught as one of the subjects along with English. Having moved to the US, I'm more fluent now in English than Visaya (which we continue to speak in the house). I can still read Tagalog, but it requires more concentration on my part and digging deep to form a simple phrase coherent phrase.

My cousin and her family are now in the Philippines and visited my uncle. It's the first time her toddler and baby have met their grandpa. I was looking through their pictures posted on Facebook and one of my uncle's friends commented in deeply-rooted Visayan, which is like almost comparable to modern English and Old English. I could barely understand some of the words. It reminded me of my grandpa's toast during my other uncle's wedding, in which he spoke in old Visayan as well.

Spoken Visaya varies from region to region. The common thing between them is that it now has more borrowed words and phrases from Tagalog and English to make it easier to talk to everyone. It's pretty much how modern and spoken English has evolved, with borrowed words and terms from other languages around the world. This is what makes English so hard to learn from speakers of other languages: it's not consistent.

I read somewhere during the 2018 Winter Olympics that the joint North and South Korea women's ice hockey teams needed English translators and a list of different vocabularies to understand each other. Almost 70 years since the split that their common language usage have diverged significantly.

I wonder how language will evolve in the next 50 years. Will we still talk to each other in English or emojis? Will we be communicating in image macros and memes?

I'm done.

Alcoholic Beverages

Why do they have to taste so bad by itself? I enjoy the mixed drinks more than a regular beer or straight shots of hard liquor. I can only speak for myself when I say that I drink them for the buzz. It's been many years since I've been of drinking age and before that and I don't think I've developed a preference for beer. My preference for beer are that they don't taste bad and those that don't attack my taste buds.

Does anyone feel the same way about it?

LEGO Star Wars - Millenium Falcon in 2 Minutes (Easter Edition)

Don’t know how, but I found the LEGO Star Wars Millenium Falcons on sale at 30% off. So I bought two: 1 to build and 1 as a future investment.

Here's the time lapse build of the set.

South Park - PC Principal's Office

In Fall 2017, McFarlane Toys released the South Park Construction Sets. Here's PC Principal's Office.

12877 - South Park Construction Sets - PC Principal & Principal's Office

Music:
Hootie & the Blowfish - Hold My Hand (Midi Version)

I'm done.

Unused Footage from Otakon (2009-2017)

I've been recording videos on/off at Otakon since 2009. These are the clips that were cut from videos I posted online.

00:05 - 2009
01:10 - 2011
02:54 - 2012
13:13 - 2013
15:01 - 2014
15:58 - 2017

Music:
Ectisity - Distorted Sakura

I'm done.

South Park - Cartman's Basement from The Fractured But Whole

In Fall 2017, McFarlane Toys released the South Park Construction Sets. 4 of these sets were most likely tie-ins to "The Fractured But Whole" game and centers around the kids playing superhero in Cartman's basement.

12861 - South Park Construction Sets - Human Kite & Super Computer
12862 - South Park Construction Sets - Toolshed & Top Bad Guys Board
12863 - South Park Construction Sets - Professor Chaos & Holding Cell
12869 - South Park Construction Sets - Cartman, Kenny & Token & Cartman's Basement (GameStop Exclusive)

Music from South Park: The Fractured But Whole Game:
We Need A Hero (Create Your Character Theme)
The New Kid's/Cartman's House Theme
Main Menu Theme
The Coon League Meeting Theme

I'm done.

Birthday Weekend

Eight years ago on my birthday weekend, I was snowed in with my mom. We shoveled out of the driveway on my birthday. My dad was on call at work to help neighborhoods affected by the snow. Sibling One was at their apartment and Sibling Two in college in the dorm. We celebrated my birthday on a Friday that week after the snow storm.

It was raining the whole weekend. Watched Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle with mom and dad. It held the number one spot at the box office four weeks in a row. We joked it was a sign that we should watch the movie after avoiding it and watching other bad movies instead.

Two weeks prior, Sibling Two treated the family to Iron Age, a Korean BBQ buffet grill. To keep it different, we celebrated my birthday at Seasons 52 with their rotating seasonal and calorie friendly menu. Went home to blow out the candles on my birthday cake and opened my gifts.

It's been a tradition with my family to send an Amazon wishlist of gift suggestions prior to our birthdays or Christmas. My dad is more carefree and is content with Best Buy gift cards. At lowest priority, I put down the LEGO® NASA Apollo Saturn V set. Parents bought it :)

At 1969 pieces, this will the biggest set I've ever built when I get to it.

Overall, it's been a chill birthday weekend. Just as I like it.

I'm done.

My YouTube

I’ve had my YouTube channel since March 2006. I posted videos from time to time. After a few years, I was eligible to post videos longer than 15 minutes. Then I verified my account in the background and the channel was eligible for monetization and I became a YouTube Partner.

The cool thing about these are that it allowed you to upload videos longer than 15 minutes. By verifying, it allowed you to upload custom thumbnails. By enabling monetization and becoming a YouTube Partner, I could schedule when my videos would be published.

I just uploaded random videos of vacations, karaoke, and building LEGO sets for fun. When I reached 100 subscribers, I was able to add a custom URL (http://www.Youtube.com/StupidSystemus).

There is no set theme for my channel, but I do like creating time lapse vids of me building LEGO sets. I’ve incorporated gaming videos when I learned how to do that for console. I still post random videos from time to time.

Last year, YouTube made a requirement for channels to have 10,000 lifetime views to be eligible for YouTube Partner Program. On January 16, 2018, with the recent problems plaguing YouTube (Adpocalypse 1.0, 2.0, Logan Paul), in response, YouTube sent emails to small time content creators informing them that unless they have 4,000 hours of watch time within the past 12 months and 1,000 subscribers, they will lose all monetization tools and features within the YouTube Partner Program. They have until February 20, 2018 to surpass that threshold.

With my generous 250+ subscribers, my channel makes about $5-7/month. It’s peanuts compared to how much these other channels make, but it puts a smile to my face and keeps me making videos when I can. I don’t speak for all creators, but that small amount is probably what keeps them going and making videos as well. That small amount is enough to justify pouring your time effort to grow your channel.

YouTube’s response to the adpocalypse and their golden boy uploading a video of a dead body on Aokigahara is to punish tons of small time creators. They're just telling us they care about him and not about the rest of us cause he brings in a looooooooot of money. Can you imagine if websites that relied on page clicks get the same treatment? This just reinforces clickbait content and creating controversy to increase watch time from creators.

This whole thing sucks. It’s demoralizing.

At the same time, I never set out to make money on YouTube. I only enabled monetization because of the features that come with them. I hope they don’t go away. I love making videos.

I’m done.

Bad Dreams Again

Just woke up from a bad dream. Tired so went to sleep early, but now up. Hate how dreams are litmus tests sometimes on how you would react to a situation and it’s so awful. I went through this years before my father died when he was already sick and gets hospitalized for complications.

Anyway, the dream started with me staying late at work. Had my co-workers there, too. The sky gets dark and the clouds started swirling and dipping closer to the ground. Ran back inside and it was a full-blown storm-like scenario with tornadoes everywhere. For some reason, the dark clouds have some sort of lint, or possibly candy, confetti in each cloud hump. A lot of thing went haywire, including a man who serviced my car and made it pink after the storm.

Was walking around the area in the dream and three teen-looking kids walk towards in a coordinated move to steal something. One of them purposely tried grab the wallet on the right pants pocket. The other, swipe car keys on the left. Moved around, looked at them, and yelled no. They were pretty happy with what they did. Went to my car and the key wouldn’t work. The whole hunt was replaced with rubber. The car wasn’t mine as well with sticker decals. This was the part get made me anxious in the dream. Tried reviewing how the keys were swiped. Then thought about everything that needs to be replaced.

Still had my wallet so I was fine. It was the car itself and possibly my smart phone in the car.

It was also then I realized I’m in a dream and I forced myself to wake up by yelling. So glad it was a dream. Combination of last week’s weather, car in the shop for repairs, and the show “The Chi” might have something to do about it.

I’m done.