Mega Man Data

In my late teens, I would be writing my biggest fan fiction on various forums back then, which is called Mega Man Data. This would turn out to be my first and only fan fiction, as I love the franchise, but sadly I never finished it.

Previous stories and comics created by me would be written in Dutch, but this is aside from the RPG making, my first English story. Originally I wanted it to become a 2D action platformer with a twist, but then I settled with writing about it.

Set between the stories of the X and Zero timelines in their respective series, Mega Man Data follows scientist Dr.Erstrund as he is escorted and assisted by Maverick Hunters and other allies to face a rogue mercenary group, the Replenloids who are the latest generations of Reploids, and 1 individual with megalomaniacal ideals.

Instead of specializing in combat, Erstrund is more about preserving and managing information or data, as he gathers intel and adapts to his environments and situations. At one point he would also discover that a transparent, ethereal inner part would protect him.

The story would not only intertwine with famous characters from the Zero and X series, but also offer plenty of new ones, plus a backstory with the so called Replenloids War and the nefarious Illusional Dergur Company was already set, while the current story would eventually climax and basically create a prologue towards the disastreous Elf Wars.

8 Replenloids would be fighting against X, while Erstrund would be combating with his wits and dialogue towards scientific, political and authoritarian figures, giving a new outlook and perspective at the Mega Man universe.

If this would become a video game, then I could split it up as an X game, and a visual novel game. Anyway, because there was a small fan community for my fan fiction and I got too ambitious with it's plot, I never finished it.

But perhaps it did leave me with two things; the joy of writing, and the experience needed to do so. I'd like to think that Flok Factory is a spiritual successor of some sorts without a central story being present, except if you would count myself as that story, then yes, you would be correct.

Mega Man Data might be in hibernation, but I still have the documents and scripts surrounding it stored around. Perhaps one day, in one form or another, I might finish it. Otherwise, it's a nice reminder of simpler times.

Oh, and Mega Man 11? It's a nice surprise Capcom, but unless the gameplay and music aren't atleast on par with the rest of the Classic Series, then I will just consider it as another Mighty No. 9. And if it's a success, please consider finishing or continueing the sub series Legends, X and ZX, as they need proper sequels.

I wish you all a fantastic 2018, and I myself further happiness, determination, victory and most of all love.

P.S. I guess this wasn't the Year of the RPG after all as I thought back in January. I will get to those RPG games I still want to play, one at a time!

My Ear Hummering Story, Part 3

Sadly, my ear hummering, and my inferior hearing continue to stalk and handicap me, with no recovery in sight.

The former mostly happens when I get sick or I train intensely, while the latter plagues me 24/7. A few weeks ago, my titanium prosthesis device that was making things more stable inside spontaneously fell off from my right ear.

Combine that issue with the fact that I cannot hear my colleagues at my new job at all when they whisper or speak in low tones, and then I decided that it's time to get hearing aids.

Because I no longer want to pretend on a daily basis that I thought that I heard particular words, or that I keep guessing what the current topic is about if I happen to be unable to hear the decibel levels of audio.

After 6 operations on my ears and waiting years for natural recovery, my patience is done. After visiting my personal and original hospital doctor and the audiologist, they agree with my decision.

It's hard to accept as this strikes at my pride and finance, but in return another world will open to me, just like when I got my first glasses and eye pieces as a teenager.

Nowadays, there are invisible(expensive) devices available, and even glasses/hearing hybrids combining the two. For now, I will start with regular small ones, which I expect to get around February.

I also know for sure that the reason why my ears are lesser than others happened naturally and biologically, as I never went out to parties, festivals etc. back then, I was aware of protecting myself from loud noises, and there is no other known reason.

I'm sure that my overall condition will improve and that I will get used to the devices, but I will always keep my eyes out for a breakthrough in the world of medical science. Perhaps nanotechnology might be the answer one day.

Downloadable Content: Resident Evil 7

Almost a year later, I bought the gold or complete edition of Resident Evil 7, featuring all of the DLC including the final 2 epilogue chapters.

Banned Footage is a nifty name of two volumes consisting of sinister mini games. Nightmare is a classic survivor mode where each round gets more tough to get through the night.

Bedroom is a twisted one instantly reminding me of Stephen King's Misery where Marguerite is keeping a prisoner stuck with horrendous food, and it's your job to figure out how to escape the room.

21 is a blackjack card game with very high stakes, as fingers, arms and heads are on the table for losing rounds. It's another Jigsaw esque game by Lucas to enjoy seeing the participants struggle and suffer.

Daughters is a prologue to the Baker incident where we see the family succumb to Eveline's gift, and you will have to avoid this demonic night as Zoe.

Jack's 55th Birthday is the exception having a comedic tone and concept of needing to feed Jack's belly in order to win stages as you search for food and beverage, while Ethan Must Die is a series of challenges with the highest difficulty.

Not A Hero is the most anticipated DLC though with about 2 hours of gameplay, where we really get to play as Chris Redfield yet again.

This time, Lucas must be stopped in the underground mines section before he sells the results of Eveline's behavior to an external party, while at the same time betraying his associate company known as The Connections.

It's a more actien oriented episode which we have become used to with Chris's previous missions in Resident Evil 5 and 6, and a new variation of Molded also appears. Not much is revealed at the end, but the mutated Lucas is a nice William Birkin esque fight, and Chris survives another day.

You would think that would be the final content, but End of Zoe actually is, where you play as Jack's brother Joe to go on a fist rampage to protect his niece.

In overall, Resident Evil 7 re-invented and soft rebooted the franchise yet again, and with all of this additional and varied content, it easily stands proud with the rest of the entries.

Xmas and 2017 Review

This year has been busy for me personally.

Fortunately, in my opinion, I have matured and become more balanced all-around. Although my previous employer decided to fool me and deliver false promises, I have swiftly recovered, and with my current job, I have more responsibilities, and I feel welcome.

I really, really had the urge to finally move out, and back in august I finally did. 4 months later, and even much earlier than that, I feel at home in Zeist, it's good to finally be independent and more in control, and my house is pretty much done as far as projects go, with the exception of post-projects coming up, which can all be considered luxury.

My IT knowledge has also improved in the form of work experience, studies and the people and colleagues I network and connect with. This year and the previous one I was on a good roll regarding obtaining certificates which companies and recruiters want to see, but I had to push it back later this year as 70-412 still lingers with challenge before me, and I got very busy.

My dating experience rose up from the grave so to speak, and during my latest journey of a vacation, I gained this with so much desire beforehand, most people cannot imagine this. As said in my previous blog post, it was for the most part amazing to finally realize that there are women who like me, but now that I am back in the Netherlands, I need to figure out how women over here will desire me.

Especially in the flirting department, or rather the first steps towards getting to know unknown beautiful women is what I need to work on most of all, without fear, rejection or any other negative factors. So wish me luck, because this is my biggest challenge before me. And despite some people saying that it will happen naturally, I cannot wait anymore in this age of social media, smart devices and rapid technology.

Don't worry, I will take my time when opportunities will arise, as I know that I am not a so called "player" or even romantic. Another positive remark for me this year is that I have been going out and have been dancing so much at festivals and clubs thanks to a party squad I became friends with last summer, that this too sometimes confronts me with the fear of approaching and talking to beautiful unknown women.

I'm sure things will work out, and I keep hoping. Meanwhile, I currently just had a historical Christmas dinner with my family, because my grandpa of 92 years old was able to experience 2 great grandsons, as my nephew Roy visited from America.

My young nephews Jens and Daxon experienced their first Christmas, while sadly my final grandpa is living his final years. Inbetween them, I am living my final months before turning 30, but no matter how old I get, I will always be grateful for turning 1 year older more than instead of having regret of not living life to it's fullest in previous years, whatever the fuck that may mean.

Basically, I really hope that I will experience love from a woman next year, and I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Mixed reactions have been met with Episode VIII, but personally, I went in with low expectations, and only saw one trailer. I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan, but this is one of the better ones!

Where does this fit with rest of the entries? Personally, I would say it takes around the 5th spot. Rey's seemingly natural and strong independent tendencies with the Force have brought her to the legendary Luke Skywalker, who has become the next Obi-Wan Kenobi.

While the First Order and the Resistance are having yet another battle for the galaxy more or less, Luke has changed his beliefs, and is struggling with his new pupil before him, and his previous one, Ben Solo.

The movie has a theme of conflict in general, that of switching sides. Kylo Ren wants to end the whole organization of upholding the Jedi structure, while apparently the Sith religion already faded away.

If it didn't, then it definitely did with Stroke's death seen here, which was one of the bigger twists. Instead of keeping the successor to the Emperor's position alive, his own pupil takes over, or rather wants to destroy it all. Funny enough, he needs the First Order and his light saber to do so.

Finn and the new character Rose have a nice sidestory involving animals and a casino resort, and I find it funny that the internet is reminded of the prequels and Disney vibes in this CGI festation. But frankly, their final scene was very cheesy and cliché.

General Leia's bizarre moment of dying in space at first, then reviving again and flying like super man is controversial in execution, but the simple reason is that this finally shows that she controls the Force too.

Similar to Luke faking it hard during the climax, where he produces a clone of some sorts to face the army and Ben, but apparently it absorbed all of his life energy back at home, thus he sacrificed himself for the survivors.

Poe has also become a more interesting character acting more like a hothead while learning about consequences to be dealt with, as well as authority. It's Rey and Kylo though that are leading this and The Force Awakens's stories if you ask me though.

The revelation that her parents are nobody, as well as Snoke being nobody in terms of background or character development is rather difficult to accept, but this either means we must, or Episode IX will enlighten us about these mysteries.

Plot holes do exist apart from all of this though, and for some decisions made for production and directing, I still wonder why? Such as Leia's successor's hair being purple.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the longest episode seen yet, and it both has familiar trademarks to the franchise, but also goes in bold new directions, twisting the formula and blending it further to bring a story of old and new tellings.

Rating: 8.0

Philippines

This island country is my final journey stop for 2017, and I decided to minimize touring and sightseeing around here, while an extinct part of my life was finally revived and rejuvenated; I went dating with several women!

Surprisingly, thanks to modern technology like dating apps, I did have success over here(Over 250 Tinder matches!), and I took my advantage because of it. The results for the most part have been amazing for me, while it reminded and motivated me that yes, women do like me.

The Philippines have over 7,000 different islands which as said could take you a life time if you wanted to visit all of them. It has a history recently with the Spanish and Americans, and Christianity is it's biggest religion, which can be found everywhere.

Rodrigo Duterte as it's most recent president is a favorite of the citizens, as he has cleaned up the mess nationally, is true to his promises and is looking for new alliances to make around the world. As one result, scams, criminality, corruption and other injustice have lessened dramatically.

While I had a great time at Manila and nearby cities for a different reason other than touring in my other vacations, I do must mention that the traffic around the capital is some of the worst I have ever experienced, even after those Vietnamese and Chinese trains I took in the past.

Other than that, again, I had a very good time. Dating, clubbing, dining and doing fun stuff is what can be summarized about this, but the urge to return is strong not just so that I can really start exploring the Philippines, but also because I will be able to have reunions with my Filipina's then. :D

Taiwan

Often stated to be an overlooked country when compared with the rest of Far East Asia, Taiwan otherwise known as the Republic of China and Formosa, is different enough compared to People's Republic of China.

As my former favorite snackbar family hails from over here, I had enough reasons to visit. While I only sticked to Taipei, I might tackle more in the future.

The 2 major Taiwan figures known as Dr. Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek are worshipped and respected here in their memorial halls, detailing interesting history lessons on the far Eastern front during the 20th century. 

I did not know anything about them before visiting so that's a nice surprise. Experiencing Taipei 101 though with it's observatory deck, I don't know, I felt like I had seen it several times before with tall towers in other countries. 

I also hiked Elephant Mountain and Yangminshan for some pretty pictures, and it's always convenient that a metro/subway system is present.

The people and the food in general seemed to be nice and minded their own business, although I was approached by a few curious residents, and I saw the least amount of tourists here.

Taiwan might surprise you with it's culture and history, and it's rather unknown nature landscapes are also sufficient for visiting. I might not have made friends here, but I definitely had my hands full with sightseeing!

Hong Kong

Wan Chai Market song

Growing up, this city always felt special in the sense that East meets West culture beautifully. With James Bond and favorite martial artists Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee popularizing it further, alongside it's cinema library having a spectacular amount of action and horror movies, I simply needed to discover this for myself at one point.

As I came out of a familiar metro/subway system, the skyscrapers are a totally different world from Vietnam, and they mesmerized me. The famous spot where you can see the buildings the best is when you look at Victoria Harbor, while a ferry boat drives by.

Hong Kong is also a special economic zone and expensive, while having a different political and social structure from mainland China. As I ate the delicious dim sums and discovered the nightlife, I also checked out Big Buddha and the monastery, but as far as religious sites throughout this vacation goes, the 10.000 Buddha temple in the north excited me the most, as along the route towards it, hundreds of statues each with original faces kept me impressed.

A view that rivals Victoria Harbor is when you ride the 120+ year old tram to go to the top and see the beautiful skyline. Hong Kong is thus worth experiencing for it's buildings, it's food, the night life and it's unique culture.

Additionally I did a daytrip towards the other special zone called Macau, of which it's revenue is said to be 7 times more than Las Vegas. Both are casino areas and over the top, but I preferred walking The Strip.

Still, seeing a live Grand Prix tournament take place, while I checked and wandered through old Portuguese buildings and the ridiculous casino resorts make it all stack up for a day well invested.

On the ferry towards Macau I also befriended my first Bhutanese acquintance named Norbu, another interesting country for me to visit in the future.

Vietnam

It took a while for this year to kickoff my vacation, but in November it finally happened; I was gonna travel for a month as a backpacker again, but unlike the similar year of 2013, this time I would arrange everything completely, and I was basically all alone.

Starting with Vietnam, I landed in Hanoi, and I was overwhelmed by the numerous motorbikes, but managing the chaotic traffic was actually do-able as long as I monitored every cross section with my eyes.

With the Vietnam War or Second Indochina War having piqued my interest, it's the main reason for me to visit this crowded country, as I visited several war attractions in Hanoi, Hue and Ho Chi Minh.

Uncle Ho's biography and revolution and such is similar to other socialistic and communism characters from the 20th century. It's interesting to see his teachings still functioning in the next century after all of the invaders have been defeated.

The Old Quarter in Hanoi is the heart with the Sword Lake nearby where I witnessed the unique Water Puppet Show. Numerous food street vendors, bars, markets and people venture inside this area, and it's definitely worth starting or finishing here.

I did a group tour towards the picturesque Ha Long Bay, which reminded me heavily of my time spent in Guilin and Yangshuo. I befriended a Brazilian here named Silvio, and later on we also drank beer in the Old Quarter.

I also checked out the Imperial Citadel, the Military Museum, Quan Thanh temple and of course Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, but his body was temporarily getting "refreshed" in Russia. Still, I was content to see it's exterior.

After taking a nighttrain on a ticket I booked online long enough before visiting, I entered Hue, the former capital of Vietnam, and nearby, the old DMZ zone also split up North and South Vietnam from one another.

Hue's Forbidden Purple City was ridiculously large, and it obviously reminded me of Beijing's Forbidden (Red if you will) City. My Airbnb owner arranged a driver named Mr.Long for me, and alongside the city and some royal tombs, he also brought me to key DMZ attractions such as the actual old border.

After taking another very long train ride from Hue to Saigon which took 20 hours, I was of course reminded of my 25 hour China train trip, but this time, atleast my seat was reserved. At one point the Vietnamese people would sleep all over the floor and below the seats, while smirking at my tourist face.

Ho Chi Minh or Saigon was the final stop in Vietnam for me, and I experienced the nearby highlights such as the Mekong Delta and the Cu Chi Tunnels in group tours. While I fired my first AK47, I reflected back on Vietnam´s ancient and recent histories, as the Vietnam War surely was a mess.

For an average sized country, Vietnam surely has been growing more prominent economically in the region, and the country felt like it was modernizing at a good pace. There´s plenty to see in this country when speaking of nature, culture, history and communities, and I had a good time exploring and experiencing!