Past Week

The past week has been a hell of a roller coaster ride.  Let's start with what was my main purpose for heading to NJ for a few days.

NLSS (Next Level Speedrun Showcase)
This was an absolute blast!  I'm glad I got to be there for most of the event (other than dinners with family - I wasn't going to say no to a homemade meal!)  I wish I had gotten the chance to talk/interact with more people.  I feel like on the second day, I did more of that.  Some of the runs were amazing to watch.  I'll list my favorites below, as well as a link to my run.  Speaking of my run, it went very well.  The final boss bodied me as usual, despite doing very well in practice.  So close!  Other than that, 2 other deaths, neither of which was a surprise.  There were plenty of people there watching, which surprised me, and they seemed to be enjoying it.  Even the chat seemed alright when I rewatched the VOD later.  I'm hoping to be able to make it to NLSS Fall, and I already have some games picked out I want to submit, but whether or not I'll be able to make it remains to be seen.  I need to give a huge thanks to infinitemystery for what you did while I was there, you know why.

After that I unfortunately had to stay in NJ longer than expected and longer than I wanted due to multiple things, some personal, culminating in attending the burial of a close family friend who passed away about 2 months ago.  I had wanted to make it to this whenever it was, though I didn't expect to be able to.  We got the call the day before it happened, and I was able to make it.  Related: Philadelphia traffic SUCKS.  I do not miss city driving at all.

Speaking of traffic and driving, I say this every year, every time I take this trip, but it keeps getting worse and worse.  People cannot drive.  I watched so many people using the shoulder as their personal driving lane, so many horns, so many people weaving thru traffic like we're at Daytona.  I really don't want to take that trip again by car, but it's by far the cheapest way I can do it.

After 8 days, I'm finally back home, which means back to the job hunt.  So far I've had absolutely zero luck or leads.  I've received no interviews from places I've applied to.  I'm starting to run out of options, and at rate things are going, out of money.  I still have a small bit of time, but it's dwindling.  I'm going to have to start searching for options outside of this area, but there isn't really a good place for me to go.  I've had an offer to go out to my brother in Kansas and work for him, but to be completely honest, I don't trust the situation.  I feel like that can severely blow up in my face, as he doesn't appear to have stability, and I'm afraid to get tied up in that and end up with nothing.  That's pretty much a last resort, and even then, it's a bad option.  It also takes me about 20 hours from almost everyone I know, meaning I don't know how I'd be able to get back to the east coast for anything.

In addition to the continuing job hunt, I do have some goals in speedrunning to work towards.  First, this coming Saturday (June 1st), I am going to be doing a run for Blast the Process After Hours.  This is a mini BTP marathon.  I submitted 2 things I had never run in a marathon before, and one was accepted.  CD Tails All Good Futures, which I've been learning.  I still have about 5 stages I need to properly learn, so I plan on doing that, and then practicing so it doesn't blow up in my face.

Three games that I want to get better at for potential submissions to NLSS Fall include Chameleon Twist (I need to crush my PB, and can with learning new things and just practicing), Sonic 3 & Knuckles (I need to re-learn it and learn the rest of it), and Mischief Makers (I haven't done a run in almost a year and need to re-learn it).  I'm unsure how much of those will happen, but I'd like to try.

Beyond that I also need to work on Sonic Eraser.  JoeyBaby69 beat my WR a few days ago, so I'd like to beat that and then some, plus work on the TAS more.  There is also a Link's Awakening Warpless tournament coming up that I'd like to participate in if I learn the game/category.  I just need to have time/motivation to sit and go thru a guide.  I plan on doing commentary for the tournament regardless.

I think that sums up everything right now.  Hopefully I didn't leave anything important out.  Things have the potential to go downhill fast at the end of this month if the job search doesn't yield anything.  We'll see what happens.

Link to the BTPAH schedule https://horaro.org/btpah/schedule
Link to my NLSS run https://www.twitch.tv/videos/427701017

NLSS runs that I recommend watching:
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest https://www.twitch.tv/videos/427531572
Arkanoid https://www.twitch.tv/videos/427712805
Final Fantasy IV Free Enterprise https://www.twitch.tv/videos/427712808

There are more I watched/enjoyed, but those are the main ones that stuck out to me.