Your Day

Yesterday we went to Gamefest hosted by the Good Ole Gamers. You may remember me guest hosting on their podcast. Well, it was awesome.

I won a pinball tournament for Medieval Madness and got a poster for that.

I won 2nd place in a Nidhogg tournament and got 15$ (it was 5$ entry though).

The waifu hosted a Pokemon tournament.

The waifu won 1st place in the Pokken tournament and got 15$ (5$ entry) and a trophy.

The VR demos were great. The HTC Vive is so amazing. I played a job simulator game and did an office job. It was the most unique gaming experience I've ever had. The humor and NPCs and interacting with the world was so well done. I can't even. It's just so great. My poor broke in debt ass want's more HTC Vive, but alas I can't.

I had a fun weekend.

-Started watching Luke Cage on Netflix. I'm surprised at some of the content in the show, but in more of a "whoa, I didn't think they'd do that!" way than a "how dare Marvel do this, this is nothing like Avengers!" way. It's a little slow so far, but I like what I've seen.

-Saw my favorite youtube channel, Siivagunner, come to an end. It was bittersweet and I'm grateful for how it consistently brightened my day for the past 8 or 9 months.

-Started a playthrough of the Telltale Batman game with a family member. It's his first Telltale game, but he was really impressed from what I showed him of Walking Dead season 2 and Tales from the Borderlands at family gatherings. He started his own playthrough ahead of me because he didn't want for both our schedules to be available and because he wanted to see how different his playthrough would be from the one we're doing together based on the dialog choices I made. He was actually surprised by the dialog changes and was okay with them not mattering that much, which is a welcome change of pace from the complaints like "every Telltale game is the same!" or "they're not game-y enough!" or "your choices don't matter!" that pop up whenever I mention I enjoy Telltale's games to other people who play games.

Hahaha, I'm so bad at existing. This has been one Hell of a day. Story time.

Not long after I got to work this morning, I found out my boss had passed away overnight. I still don't know what what to think about that. I adjusted myself and went on with work, but didn't feel like I wanted to walk home. My regular rides weren't around to take me, so I figured I'd take the bus.

edit: This isn't going to make as much sense to people that aren't familiar with Raleigh, but yeah...

I got on the wrong bus. It took me 4 hours to get home. This is where the fun begins...so, I got on the wrong bus because two buses with the same number get at the same spot at the hospital at the same time. I was waiting on the right side originally, but a bus came on the other side of the road and I figured that was the one I needed since I hadn't realized another one was coming from the opposite way like 30 seconds later (we met it). I suck it up and tell myself all right, that sucks, but I'll just get to the station and ride back all the way around.

I get there, the lady driving tells me that she's about to drive another route and that I'll have to catch #4 or #16 on Martin street. That kind of confuses me, but soon after that I figured out why: they're doing construction at Moore's Square and not all of the buses are actually arriving at the station, but instead half of them on E Martin I think. I didn't figure that out in time. I meet a guy on my way to there that's selling his food stamp food really cheap, guy's like "you like pizza? 10 pizzas for $10!" And I'm like nah, I only have $1 anyway. He turns out to have a pack of turkey for $1 lol, which I turn down as well, but give him the dollar anyway.

I end up walking...way down somewhere on Martin and decide to turn back and just regroup at the station, maybe just wait and make the next bus. So, I'm chilling for a while just looking around and checking the times...when I realize, oh wait, I gave that guy my dollar and I don't have enough change to actually ride the bus at all.

So I queue up an Uber. It's estimated to be $9-10 or something, but whatever, this is getting old now. While I'm waiting for that guy to come, I meet Johnson. Johnson was a pretty nice guy, I could tell right off that he wasn't trying to get over on me and probably wanted to see if I needed some help. I explained what was going on.

My phone dies with the Uber driver less than a minute away on the GPS. Me and Johnson wait there for a bit to see if the driver will still come, ask a dude stopped and with his blinkers on if he's the driver, and nope. Johnson happens to have a charger that fits my phone, though, so he tells me where there's an outlet next to a restaurant a short walk away. He mentions that he sleeps at the top of a church behind the giant Wells Fargo building there...and I'm thinking okay, I can go to the ATM there to get money to ride the bus.

So, we walk to WF, I do that, then I have a $20. Can't put a 20 into the bus meter, so we have to go to a store to buy something to get change. I do that, we walk back to the station...to see that it will be another 45 minutes before the bus comes. At this point though is when the both of us figure out that #4 picks up on that stretch of Martin street for the time being.

He asks me if I can spare any money, and yeah, I do help him out a bit, the guy definitely earned it tonight. We go to where the bus will arrive and wait, talk a while. A guy on a bike rides right by us and goes straight into the sidewalk curb, falling over. One of the first things dude says is "I'm not drunk!", which I thought was pretty good. Pretty sure he was drunk. The supervisor for the station was nearby, so he probably was trying his best, lol...

So, after a good wait, #4 rolls up after the buses change drivers and routes. I shake Johnson's hand and thank him and he leaves, then get on the bus. The driver asks me when I get on "Where are you going?" and I explain where I live, and she tells me and I immediately recall that #4 does not go farther than Rex Hospital after...8 pm iirc. Then, I have to get off, and try to find #16. I'm not sure how I knew, but I felt like it was supposed to show up in the same area as #4.

Another guy hits me up for money. I'm wearing my scrubs and I'm super white, so of course I can help people. Says he's from Alabama and doesn't know anybody here, and I'm thinking ha, I don't have anybody up here either. Guess I could have called and pestered somebody for a ride, but well...we're making progress now, right?

I get on #16. Thing is, that bus goes around another way and stops at Crabtree, then goes back how it came I guess, not using Blue Ridge like it does during the day. This bus doesn't actually take me home at all, lol. When we get to the mall, I talk to the driver about my day for a bit and she tries to think of something to suggest (there was nothing else, no buses at this time of night), but I say nah, looking like I'm walking from here.

I've walked from Crabtree to my apartment several times, it's not exactly a big deal, but I am on the OTHER side, where the buses let out like near the McDonald's. There's a stretch of road back there that I get to and follow, that I thought lead back to Edwards Mill, It does, but it's pretty dark and getting chilly now lol. I was wearing just my scrubs.

SO, I get to that spot...and I know exactly where I'm at now, just a matter of walking 30 more minutes. This part was pretty much uneventful. No one is really out walking or biking this late and there's much fewer cars. It could be worse, I could have had to walk to my apartment from Moore's Square lol?

And now I'm back. It's now 10:15 after ordering a pizza and recalling this story. My pizza coupon didn't work right and I had to order extra to get it to do something. "Free" pizza, huh? Shoulda bought those 10 food stamp pizzas.

#winningatlife

Oh, also, I had someone staying here last night. He left after me, so the door had to be left unlocked. My door was unlocked all day, but no one stole everything I had, yay! Shoutouts to Matt Taylor though for taking out the trash. Coming off of a not so great tournament weekend for me with TFC as well, this has been...interesting.

Thanks. It was one heck of a Monday. One good? thing I forgot, right when I got to the station for the second time or something, a lady stopped me to ask if I needed to register/renew for voting. I did need to do that, so there's one thing...unless she was just taking my info to scam me lol. I'll get something in the mail in 5-7 days, or my identity will be stolen in 5-7 days. One or the other, I'm sure.

I'm pretty sure it was legit, I was more or less just adding to the humor of the situation. Someone called me earlier today confirming my information.

...or confirming my info for their shopping spree

Anyway, I'm fine, it was just a weird day. I do know about those online resources, I for the most part hadn't gone further with my effort to register because everything wasn't online haha.

Well to be fair, anytime more socks come into your life is a good time! I actually bought some more today and was pretty excited for it. The comfort levels of socks can make all the difference in the day. Also had some pumpkin pie today which was pretty cool.

On Saturday the 5th, I went to see Doctor Strange at my local theater. It turned out to be better than I expected, and I (biased toward Benedict Cumberbatch) already expected it to be good.
^
Guess which future Marvel movie he'll be guest-starring in?


Tonight (the 11th) is also the first time in 9 years that I got to try Armand's Chicago-style deep dish pizza again. It was just as good as I remember it being! (...And I'm stuffed. I had a total of 9 slices.)

Saw Moana last weekend. Got promoted yesterday at my civilian job. Getting promoted tomorrow at my unit. Got my motorcycle last night. Definition of an awesome week. 

The bike: