u/GuybrushThreepwood99

TLDR: Sonic Boost is a convention in San Diego that was on August 15th and 16th. It had most of the voice actors from Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes, as well as a few others. Johnny Gioeli, Bentley Jones, and TJ Davis also performed at a concert on Saturday. Unfortunately, the AC was broken, the venue was small and not really suited for a convention, a lot of technical issues occurred, and some panels I was looking forward to got canceled at the last minute. Despite the issues though, I had a good time overall, but if they want to keep this convention going, they need to make a lot of changes.

I was a kickstarter backer, I got the VIP tier. I ended up getting a poster, tshirt, and glow stick for the concert. When I first got there at 9:30am on the Saturday, things seemed very chaotic and disorganized. There was a lot of people on line, and not a lot of staff to check people in. Since I had the VIP pass, I didn't need to wait on the super long line, but I imagine it wasn't pleasant for the people who had to wait.

When I got in, there were three main sections, the outdoor area with the main stage, the autograph area and a small vendor hall, and the secondary stage area with the other vendor hall on the second floor. There wasn't much in the way of signage on where everything was, and what the show schedule was, they posted it on social media, but it would have been nice if they printed it somewhere. They also had bunch of life sized figurines of the sonic characters to take pictures with, but they weren't built yet, so there was a bunch of dismembered sonic characters just laying out in the middle of the ground.

I could tell that the staff was super stressed and overwhelmed. A band was playing on the main stage, but because it was super hot, and there was no shade or chairs, not a lot of people were watching. There was this one poor woman who was just frantically laying out chairs, and trying to find some umbrellas and canopies. Eventually they provided more shade and chairs, but it took a few hours.

The AC was also seemingly malfunctioning, so just about every area was super hot. Just about everyone at the convention was very sweaty, I heard a few people say that it smelled like wet dog.

For the first hour or so, I was worried that I had wasted my money, I had a thought that I was stepping into the Sonic version of the FYRE festival. But I figured that I might as well power though and at least meet a few people and have fun at the concert.

The panels were hit and miss, I saw a bit of "surviving Sonic Schoolhouse" didn't care much for it. Sonic Jeopardy was fun enough, despite the buzzers not really working. There was a panel on the art of voice acting, the host of the panel had people come up on stage and read some lines, and he'd give advice on how to improve their acting. The real time fan dub of Sonic and The Secret Rings wasn't great, I didn't stay for long, but there was technical issues, and I was getting hungry and tired, so I left after about 10 minutes.

Outside on the main stage there was a cosplay contest that was entertaining enough, someone cosplayed as Maria, and got shot on stage but a GUN agent. I left for about an hour to get some lunch and I returned at 4pm to see a panel about the rise and fall of Sonic, it was information that we already knew, but the host was charismatic.

At 5pm there was a panel hosted by Johnny Gioeli, he's partnered with a charity to provide financial support for autistic people, and he was auctioning off the opportunity to sing with him on stage. I was considering bidding up to 250, but the winning bid was 450. Johnny was very funny and charismatic though. And he did a brief Q&A.

Before the concert started, I figured I'd meet a few voice actors. I got a signed print from Rouge's voice actress. I could tell she was very tired, but she was very nice. I also got a picture with Scott Drier, super sweet guy, loved chatting with him. I also got a picture with TJ Davis, and also talked a bit with her pianist, I surprisingly got along with Mark pretty well, very nice guy.

The concert started and it was very solid. TJ Davis has a beautiful voice. She performed Sonic R music and some songs from Sonic Frontiers. Bentley Jones was after. I'm honestly not a huge fan of them, not the biggest fan of EDM. But there was a surprisingly nice moment where they sung with Silver's voice actor. Pete Capella sang "Say Something I'm Giving Up On You" and it was very sweet. and Johnny was the closer. There were some sound issues while he was on, I think they might have blown out the sound system at some point, and that caused some delays part of the way though. He sang all the hits, and was super funny and energetic. A pretty great concert all things considered.

For Sunday, they unfortunately canceled being able to play Rock Band with the three musical artists. I was really looking forward to that, so that was a real bummer. But that lead to Johnny having time to do meet and greets with fans, and he originally wasn't going to do that. I waited about an hour and a half to meet him, and it was very fun to talk with him. There wasn't a whole lot left to do in the day, so I mostly waited in line to meet other voice actors. I got a signed print from Sage's voice actress, she really liked my pokemon bag. I got a picture with Ryan Drummond. And a signed print from Pete Capella. I had to limit it to that though since I had a limited amount of money that I could spend for the weekend.

And I closed things off with the panel with some of the voice actors. I asked the cast what roles they would want to play in the movies if they were ever offered to act in them. Scott Drier wants to play Knuckles' dad. Ryan Drummond wants to do the spiderman pointing meme with Jason Griffith and Roger Craig Smith.

I wasn't able to stay for the rave at the end, so I have no idea how that went. But I'm not really a rave person, so I don't know if it would have been my thing. Overall, I'd say that this event has a lot of potential, if they get the glitches sorted out, it could be a truly great experience, but I'd rank it a C+. I do hope they keep it going though.

I seem to remember that Caddy mentioned in a stream that he wanted to do a video on more lesser known Playstation games. I feel like that idea has a lot of potential, and I wish he would revisit that idea. There are a lot of fun franchises that never really took off. Games like Pandamonium, Tomba, Skullmonkeys, Jersey Devil.

I’ll be honest, this wasn’t my favorite comic con. It was pretty overcrowded even for comic con standards, and I missed a few panels that I wanted to see due to line mismanagement. And I feel like a lot of areas of the convention center had really bad AC.

But I still had fun. The Forgotten Island panel was fun. Dave Franco saying “where my furries at” and the camera immediately cuttings to a guy dressed a wolf was pretty funny. The musical performance at the end was a nice surprise. It was the first time that happened at a panel that I have attended.

I also went to the panel with Robert Kirkman,Rob Lifeld, and Todd Macfarlane. Pretty good panel. Some fun anecdotes.

Later on in the day I went to the God Of War Laufey panel. Very funny and charming group of people. Corey Barlog was surprisingly funny.

I ended the day with seeing Avatar Aang The Last Airbender. Not quite as good as I wanted it to be, but great animation and it was nice to actually be able to see it with a crowd since it was dumped to streaming.

It's been more than 10 years since Pop Quiz hot shot ended, and I was honestly a little bummed at the time that Doug gave up on it. I know that the show as a whole was mired with controversy and development hell, but it had it's moments in my opinion. It mostly depended on the episode and the quality of contestants they were able to get. I enjoyed the episode with the guy who could do the Chris Rock impression, the Big Lebowski episode, the one with the guy cosplaying as Ed, and the one with Brad Jones and Uncle Jo.

The show definitely still had fundamental issues that needed sorting out, the opening challenge was kind of a waste of time, some of the contestants either had no personality whatsoever, or were trying way too hard to be funny. Channel awesome was hit and miss when it came to vetting a lot of these contestants. Also the trivia questions were pretty filler and repetitive. And the "Spazzies" were more off putting than funny.

I feel like a better version of this show would have been to keep it more simple. Only have it on once in a while, only get guests who have good improv skills, and restructure the game to be more about being funny than just answering trivia. Something like @ Midnight, or Jackbox games are good examples of games that are more about being funny and creative than just knowing about pop culture.

TLDR: my mom seems to be trying to make it so my dad can’t be her primary caretaker anymore, but the only other option would be me and my wife, and it would probably ruin our lives if that ended up happening.

My mom is going through a lot of mental and physical pain, and she’s having marriage problems with my dad.

My dad (m58) is her primary caretaker, and is going through burnout and his own pain as well. My mom is telling people that he’s showing early signs of dementia and isn’t fit to take care of her any more (even though that isn’t true as far as I can tell, my sister (f28) also doesn’t know what my mom is talking about)

if my dad isn’t allowed to take care of her, it doesn’t leave her with many options. We don’t have the money to put her in a facility, my sister can’t do it, her elderly parents can’t take her in, which leaves me and my wife.

Theoretically speaking, I could physically be her caretaker, I pretty much was her secondary caretaker when I lived with them, but I don’t think I have it in me to do something like that again. She requires pretty much 24/7 care. She can’t use the restroom by herself, she can’t clothe or bathe herself, and she frequently needs to be helped in the middle of the night at least once or twice.

If we were forced to take her in, I would have to quit my job (and we pretty much live paycheck to paycheck) we’d need to completely change the layout of our house and bathrooms, we would never get any sleep, and I feel like it would put a real strain on my marriage. My wife has the patience of a saint, but I don’t feel like she should be put in this position.

I might be selfish for thinking of this, but I never in a million years want to put me or my wife through this. I know it’s not my mom’s fault for being disabled and needing help, but I wish she would work things out with my dad instead of trying to put us in this position. I most certainly will always be there to help my family, but a caretaker position is too much for me.

I'm only going for Friday and Sunday this year, but I really want to do the Dreamworks, Forgotten island panel, Lanterns, Spaceballs, and Pan's Labyrinth.

I'd like to also meet Kristin Kreuk, since it looks like she has a comic book she's advertising, and I remember liking her a lot in Smallville when I was a kid. It also looks like John Cusak has a graphic novel, I'm somewhat curious to see what that's about.

For Sundays, it doesn't look like there's a lot I'm interested, but I'd like to see the Billy West Panel, and I might try to go to the air bud signing if I get selected for that.

I had a lot of fun with the character creator from Miitopia and Tomodachi Life. It got me to thinking about how perfect this mechanic would be for Paper Mario. I don't know how in depth it would be exactly, but if Nintendo doesn't want to let Intelligent systems create original mario characters anymore, they can just allow the players to populate the game with their own original characters. It could also potentially let you add mario characters that have never been in a paper mario game before, like Daisy, Wario, or Waluigi.

On one hand, it might be pretty unlikely for Nintendo to allow this since you run the risk of people making a lot of un-family friendly things with a character creator, but on the other hand, games like Tomodachi Life living the dream sold very well, so there's clearly a market for something like that.

TLDR. I live with my wife about 20 minutes away from my family. My mom (f61) dad (m57) and sister (f27) all live together and they are dysfunctional and are having hardships. They lean on me for emotional support and keep calling me whenever things go wrong. But they are doing this every day now, and I want to just cut them out of my life. But I would also feel very guilty if I did do that.

My mom is severely disabled and my dad is her caretaker. She has cerebral palsy.

For most of this year, my mom has been dealing with chronic pain and mental health issues, isn’t getting any sleep, and she is becoming a much more short tempered and unpleasant person to be around.

She is becoming more prone to panic attacks and fits of rage. My dad has never been the most patient person on earth, and he’s going though a depressive spiral because he can’t seem to be able to help her though this.

He’s told me on multiple occasions that he feels like he wants to die. My sister is taking this hard as well.

She is financially dependent on my parents, she works, but doesn’t make enough to live by herself, and she doesn’t drive. I tell her constantly she needs to look for a new job and get her drivers license, and she always has an excuse on why she can’t.

They know that I’m generally the one who is more on the patient and empathetic side, so they have been texting and calling me to vent their frustrations. My mom has told me some pretty nasty things about my dad and sister. How she wants to divorce my dad, and that my sister is useless and doesn’t help her. Though divorce is not an option since she can’t take care of herself, and they wouldn’t be able to afford a facility for her to move into (and I would not be able to do it myself under any circumstances)

I have been trying hard to help my family the best I can. To try to talk them though this. But I feel like they are leaning on me too much. And it’s been hurting my mental health a lot. I’ve told them this, that every-time I see an incoming call from them, I get a spike of cortisol, and it’s not fair to dump all this on me, and it’s not my responsibility to always rescue them. But they keep calling me every day and, I don’t know how much longer I can take this. I tell my dad that they all desperately need group therapy, and he needs to reach out to social services to get some more caretaking help, but I guess for whatever reason he doesn’t.

I’m also worried that this is affecting my wife as well. She’s a super empathetic person, and can tell when I’m upset. I don’t want her to be dragged down with me.

I honestly don’t want to cut off my family. I love them a lot, things weren’t always like this. It only got really bad in the last year. But I don’t know how to get though to them at this point.

I just met Doug and Brad not too long ago. I got a signed copy of his Santa quits book. I told Doug I've been watching his videos since I was 12, and I've always found his energy and passion for what he does to be very inspirational and infectious. He said "thank you so much, that's so nice of you"

I also bought a book from Brad, I'm not as much of a fan of his, but my dad is since he's more familiar with the type of movies that Brad tends to cover, and I had Brad personalize it for my dad. And I took a picture with both of them. Overall, a nice experience, I could tell they were a bit on the tired side, but it was worth the drive.

I also met Lindsey Ellis for a book signing a few years ago, this was during covid, so I had to take my picture with her masked and several feet away, but I got to chat with her a bit, she's very witty. I actually haven't gotten around to reading her books yet unfortunately.

I'm a Sonic fan, and I have come to realize that at least a part of why I like a lot of the sonic games is the music. Sonic 06 is an objectively janky and unfinished game, but I don't hate it completely because it has one of my favorite soundtracks of all time. I feel like the music kind of has this weird psychological effect on my brain where the music makes me forgive a lot of the flaws of the game. I feel a bit similar to games like Spyro Enter the Dragonfly and Crash Bandicoot Wrath of Cortex.

And on the opposite side, I feel like if a game has mediocre to bad music, it can take away from the experience. I feel like if Metroid dread had better music, it would be my all time favorite Metroid game, but the sense of atmosphere that's very vital for a metroid game isn't quite there. I would always pick the original Metroid Prime as my favorite, even though I feel like Dread is more satisfying and fun to control.

I absolutely love Journey to the Center of the Earth from Disney sea in Japan. It's super atmospheric, the creature design is great and the big drop at the end is very thrilling.

I feel like the ride would fit in somewhere in Animal Kingdom.

TLDR: I moved out of my parent’s house last year. They’ve been struggling to adapt without me. My mom is disabled and my dad and sister are struggling to take care of her. I help out as best I can. We’re exploring options to get my family more support.

I moved out of my family's house almost a year ago.

For context, I used to live with my mom, dad and sister. My mom is severely disabled, she has been since she was born. My dad is her primary caretaker. Over the years I grew into her secondary caretaker, and my sister would help out when she could, but usually only if me or my dad were at work or some where lese.

I met my wife three years ago, and we married and moved in together last year. I felt conflicted about moving out since taking care of my mom is a full time job in of itself. But I do feel like i'm entitled to want to create a life for myself. And I still live in the same city, so I could visit and help out where I can. And I was hoping that my sister would step up a bit and take on more tasks.

For the first 9 months or so, things seemed to be relatively fine. I would have lunch with my family once or twice a week. I would facetime. I would visit and assist with chores. But I feel like things are crumbling. My mom's health is taking a turn for the worse. She has chronic pain and her previous methods to cope with it don't seem to be as effective. She also has super severe allergies, which only get worse around the spring time. and she seems to get very little sleep, which in turn affects the sleep of my dad and sister.

She's been having a very short fuse, getting into fights with my family quite often. Even when we are having lunch in public. She's also apparently been telling my dad that she wants to divorce him, and move back in with her parents (which would not be possible since my grandpa is almost 90 and is currently caretaking my grandma)

I can tell this has been very badly affecting my dad and sister. My dad sometimes vents to me of how lost he's feeling, and how hurt he is by what my mom has been saying to me. Now my dad is not perfect by any stretch. He gets caretaker fatigue and can snap at her more often than he should. But he is devoted and loves her very much. He just seems to struggle with handling everything, but he puts so much on his shoulders without reaching out for help.

My sister is also not handling this particularly well either. I feel like over the years, me and my dad mostly took caretaking duties, and my sister usually didn't do quite as much. In hindsight, we should have insisted that we divide caretaking duties more fairly, but she was always more on the stubborn side. I don't want to make it seem like she did nothing, but I imagine that she's not been quite used to it as I was since I took over certain caretaking tasks at a younger age.

In terms of solutions. There's a few possibilities that we've floated. Group therapy is a must. There are plenty of issue that my family needs to sort out. My dad is looking up some social workers or nurses to help pick up the slack. I'm trying to stop by the house a little more than I have. I'm just worried that this is only going to get worse. I don't feel guilty for leaving. I feel like my family should be able to stand on their own two feet, They should ideally be able to adapt without me being their all the time, I just wish that wasn't becoming such a nightmare.