So it’s been a little under a year since my last post and a lot has happened within that time frame.

Here’s a summary of what’s been going down:

August-

• Went to San Fran for the weekend [at this point I've already been established as a full-time worker at this company]. Fun times there Museums, shopping + adventures. Visited the Baby The Star Shine Bright store and also missed my flight home. I managed to get a standby ticket though and got home 2 hours later than I was supposed to.

September-

• Didn’t have a cake for my birthday for the first time.
• Got drunk on a work night…that lead to drunken karaoke [my birthday was on a Thursday]
• Got drunk the following night [we continued the celebration Friday night...I threw up...and at midnight it was my friend's birthday]
• Put together my sister’s 30th birthday party: Paris themed
• SUCCESS
• Sweet Streets 2 [interesting as usual :D]
• Went to Round 1 for the first time [kinda crashed a friend's birthday lol]
• Chewbacca “Chewie” Hoang turns 1 <3
• Taste of Newport + seeing Pat Benatar perform there
• Goodbye celebration for my cousin [going to Japan for a year]
• Disneyland with the family
• Made Gamerbee [top player SF in Taiwan] rage quit in Tetris [he was light-hearted about it...and I tease him still today]

October-

• Ranbat at Alex’s Arcade for SSF4
• Celebrated my mom’s birthday <3
• BBQ for my auntie from Philly
• Tried Santouka at Mitsuwa for the first time [delicious! ]
• Galloween! [dressed up as a fashionable pirate]
• Halloween parties [House of Blues on the 30th...crazy night!]
• Karaoke on Halloween night [made a Gir costume!]

November-

• I made a “Welcome Sakonoko” sign for Sako <3 ___ <3 [top Cammy player in Japan]
• Met Sako in person <3 ____ <3…and I ostrich’d :< Literally burying my head in my purse
• …they caught me on stream and it has been revealed that I am “female”…or am I a trap?
• Apparently my sign is known now as well as the card I made for Gamerbee [chibi Adon with Tetriminos in the back with "I Rage Quit In Tetris" written on it]
• Went to SCR’s debut - only Grand Finals [SoCal Regionals]
• Met Tokido [top Akuma player] | Met Daigo again [Top Ryu player/EVO champ] + took pictures with them as well as with Gamerbee and Sako [again] GOT ERRBODY’S AUTOGRAPHS
• Spent a day in Pasadena after Designer Con
• Renewed Disney pass…and UPGRADED :p To Premium
• Thanksgiving weekend with the family

December-

• V-chat with my cousin in Japan
• Vegas for Avenged Sevenfold concert [of which I missed b/c I got drunk/threw up in the bathroom/was sleepy all before AX7 came on stage. I took a taxi back to the hotel ]
• Christmas fun with family and friends <3
• NYE with family

January-

• Watched Tron at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood [round 2: I finished the movie]
• WCW3 [West Coast Warzone 3] - My first time going. Met Markman at the Madcatz booth Streamed Grand Finals. Neo VS Clockwork match was intense [like a double rainbow]
• Mini surprise bachelorette for my cousin-in-law-to-be [Went to Past Memories for dinner + soju then off to Avec to go clubbing]
• Disneyland for Characters Fan Day
• Q-Pop shop grand opening in Little Tokyo

February-

• Lunar New Years!!!
• Drank strawberry beer at this placed called “The Copper Door” in downtown Santa Ana
• Dad’s Birthday
• level | up series’s 1 year anniversary/SSF4 AE tournament
• Party in a suite to celebrateee [but then we got booted. Tried Blue Moon for the first time. The entrance to my Beer Adventures!]
• SUPERBOWL. Lost $4
• Went to Avalon to see Porter Robinson DJ [tried Shock Top for the first time]
• Housewarming Party
• Ice Skating for someone’s birthday + eating at Roscoe’s :p
• I WENT TO THE OPTOMETRIST FOR THE FIRST TIME IN TWO YEARS. I WAS SO EXCITED.
• MVC3. NUFF SAID.
• Went to Vegas: Cosmopolitan [Marquee] to see Above and Beyond
• Rival Schools tournament at UCI

March-

• Went to a cowboy bar for the first time. It was pretty fun! Didn’t ride the mechanical bull though.
• Tattoo Expo [Musink] Thrice + Circa Survive performed and that there were only a few tattoo artists that stood out to me. However, it was a really great experience! Got to see a traditional Japanese tattoo artist doing his work
• Lent began: Gave up whiskey, soda, chocolate and chips.
• St. Patty’s Day event in L.A. with some buddies. Had my first taste-testing of beers!
• Bachelorette cruise First time on a cruise. AMAZING TIME
• Tat consultation. Schedules my first session [will posts pictures when it's done]
• Disneyrandddd
• Ebisu and karaoke catch up with a friend.

April-

• Sister’s day out <3
• UCI’s Fight For Relief tournament [all proceeds went to Japan]
• Worked on decorations for nephew’s 1st birthday. Yo Gabba Gabba themed!
• Nephew’s 1st birthday and R1
• Bridal shower
• MK9 launch at Microsoft store [which is pretty awesome]
• WNF on Friday night: Momma Tatsu, Jay Jay + I unite for the first time. Oh what that night did…lol
• Family wedding <3

May-

• Tat! Session 1- Lines
• Mother’s day
• Jay Jay and I troll everyone: Crappy MK9 MM [streamed at WNF] She really trolled me though…got me on STREAM. DAMN YOU STREAM PERVS.
• Dim Sum with Kara + Lainysky!
• UCI ranbat + pho afterwards
• Saw Bridesmaids <3
• Pirates of the Caribbean 4 [it was OK]
• Birthday celebrations at a k-bar
• Tat! Session 2: Leaves and centers of the sunflowers
• Graduation parties/Memorial Day celebrations
• Disneyranddd

June-

• R1 fun
• Star Wars in Concert. Special appearance by John Williams!!! He conducted the encore song :p
• Took Chewie to the vet [cleared his exam]
• Hung out with sister
• RAWr MEN with some awesome company
• Got my 2 free PS3 games

General stuff + upcoming events-

• Been disliking my job for a while now since I’m doing things that I wasn’t meant to be doing. I’m a web “manager” now I guess/graphic designer/production artist/IT. I’m waiting for my official 1 year so I can look for another job that’s closer to home and pays me better for the things I do.
• I still suck at SF; still suck at MVC3; I’m OK at MK9; going back to my puzzle roots
• VIDEO GAMES LIVE. <3 <3 <3
• RevLAtions [a new majors tourney]
• U2 concert!
• TAT! FINAL SESSION!
• Epic Drunken Karaoke
• COMIC CON [first timer!]
• Japan Bound September <3 Happy Birthday to me!
• EVO 2011 :p

That’s all I can think of for now. More updates to come + revamp of the site. Closer insight on my first year in the Fighting Game Community later on

Peas Out,
Amando

[*Side Note: I guess I'm going to try and make it a habit to blog more often and try to post images up. But in order to post more images, maybe I should start bringing a camera with me...just maybe.]

—–

I took Cho Cho shopping this morning for her birthday [that passed...] and it was quite a productive day. I just feel bad for being out all day and not playing with Chewie I love you, Chewie!!! You’re the weirdest little cute dog ever [don't they say that dogs are like their owners?]!!

After that, I got picked up to go to a local tournament at Alex’s Arcade and it’s kind of my first local tournament [that I actually paid attention to...]. My first one was at Arcade Infinity a while back and that’s where I just played Puzzle Fighter and Tetris [Tetris machine @____@ So different!!! Harder to play b/c of the stick imo].  The tournament today didn’t start until around 3PM and I found out prior to arriving that I would have to…be a “sponsor” lol

To keep it short, it was an interesting day with some great fights. I tried my best to learn from Cammy players and only found two to keep an eye out for [Otachris, obviously, and uhh...James? I think that's his name]. They made me sit and play casuals again…I was still nervous even though I’d done it that Wednesday. It’s completely different than playing online and I find that I panic a lot more in person.

I’m sure all of them had super low expectations of me when they saw me sit and play  [I'm not surprised, actually] and I don’t think they realized that I was OK with losing. How else are you going to advance if you don’t learn from mistakes? The thing with me is that I see all my mistakes and I see all these openings, but I’m super slow at execution and it gets sloppy most of the time :\

We had a little Cammy clique in casuals haha Otachris, Alex, James [?], and myself and I really appreciate all the tips I was getting from them. I met a few people today and they were pretty cool. Later that evening, we had a mini Cammy session where I learned a few more moves as well as a couple of combos. I know what to do…and, again, execution was my issue.

Practice, practice, practice! I know what to do, I just need practice!

It’s only the beginning, so no “wah wah”-ing haha Cammy is such a difficult character for a nOOb like me D:

So I typed up a kinda long summary of what I’ve been up to…and then I decided to click on something else [bad moveeee!!!] and I realized I hadn’t saved a draft of what I had
What I’ve been up to:

-Went to the Grand Canyon

-Went to EVO 2010 [Too lazy to post about it Got a picture with Daigo and Marie [Kayane]. Funny thing was, I had a random conversation with her during the Women’s Invitationals. I didn’t know she was that good, but I started a conversation with her since I saw her play the night before on the screen She took a picture with me on her camera too, saying she doesn’t encounter a lot of female gamers.]

-Picked up SF [I'm not a poser. I'm nobody's gf to want to play because my bf is playing. I've always wanted to get good. Never had the motivation until I saw the women who participated this year :p I don't know how I'm going to have the time though...]

-TRIAD!!!! Got schooled last night by a 12 year-old [booo]. Saw all my mistakes, but panicked in the matches :\ Loads of fun though!!!

-My room is messier than a guy’s. Why? I have make up, clothes, accessories, gadgets, consoles, electronics, games, books, random junk etc… all over the floor and chair and sometimes bed. And a kid’s bean bag. I’ve been “cleaning” it for a while now. Never seems to disappear…

-People are seeing the true nature of Robotic Amando: She’s a nerd/geek/gamer :3 Nothing to be ashamed of, girls. Just…beware of creepy guys
Those are the big points summed up, I suppose.

Time to get my grub onnn.

Peas out
-Amando