Gexup's 12 Days of Christmas - Top 2 Years of My Life

Sometimes when life gets so stressful, difficult, and unfair you want to just remember the old days. Though our memory is always foggy, the most important thing is that it not only stays with you in your mind but also in your heart as well. I'm a type a guy that loves to reminisce about the past and move on in hopes that in the future your days would be as special as the days you remember. Memory is perhaps the most important thing for you because you have to remember how to walk, how to do things, who's the members of your family, your friends, what you did yesterday, where you placed your stuff, where you supposed to be at, and many more! As quoted to one of my favorite songs from Dismemberment Plan "The only thing worse than bad memories, is no memories at all" and if there was one thing I wish I can do is to remember almost everything, even some of my regrets. But the one thing most people always tell me what I'm good at is my memory because when I tell someone remember the time, they forgot about it whether their memory jogs in or its forever forgotten. Surprisingly enough I can remember our apartment address in our first home in Korea, the names of all of my elementary school teachers, my first kiss, the places that I first met my closest friends, so many of them I still will never trade any of them for the world. Nobody will ever care for all of your memories except you and you must do what you can to keep remembering them. And that's why I play a ton of retro games, watch old movies/cartoons, read really old comic books/strips, keep old objects, and eat the same foods that taste the same all those years ago to keep reminding myself of the people that I used to play and thoughts I had when I played each game. Think of it, every single game I've played I have memories to cherish, even the bad games like Hey You! Pikachu! I've been gaming my entire life. There was never a time that I could remember that I never played a video game (except for Mass Effect 3), but when I want to remember a particular event in my life and I don't have the pictures or video recording that my folks kept, I usually go to a particular level/area of a game and remind myself on what I was thinking at that very spot. It's wondrous on how the human brain works!

But whenever I have a copy of a game, DVD/Blue Ray, and other things, I always look at the back of the label and see what year it was released/made. I don't know why, but I always want to know what year did I miss out on these things when they were released or what time did this remind me of when I first saw it. I always like to keep in track of all the years that has passed in my life like a record book. And today's list I'm counting down the two of the best years of my life from 1990 to 2014. Now, as for the past couple of years, it has been really difficult for not only horrible experiences with games but also current events like the Tsunami and Earthquakes in 3/11/11, the health problem that I've had in 2013 that send me to the hospital, and other personal matters in my life. Hell, even though I cherish almost everything from the 90's, I also had a lot of bad memories and experiences as well. So what I'm getting at is that even though I have selected two of the best year of my life that doesn't mean that I didn't have a bad day. I don't believe in a perfect year, but when there are more good days than bad, then it should say that you had a good year. So here is probably my most personal blog that I've ever posted on the internet! So feel honored to see Gexup in a different light from these two years of my life.

NUMBER 2. - 2007

2006 was definitely one of the worst years of my life. My enjoyment of living in Korea was getting really stale as high school bullies were always hurting me and my brother, performances in school wasn't getting any better, I was making more enemies than friends, the Halo-fanboys kept bragging about Halo 3 coming soon, members of our Church was getting uncivilized, and the new music was SO BAD that I could never tell you what was good to watch, listen, or even play games that was released in 2006. But even worse, both of my grandparents died in 2006. My grandmother passed away first from cancer and my grandfather slipped and fell on a curve when he was walking the dog. FUCK 2006 and every single second of that year!!!

Then finally, my father said that he had enough of living in Korea for 12 years and wanted to take that job in Japan. Hearing that from my father was actually the best thing I've ever heard from him because staying in Korea was going to get worse for us and our family needed to change things around. I said good by to my friends, had a lot of fun with my brother in our hotel room before our ride to the airport, finally beat my biggest bully in a fight, and even got my revenge from my ex-girlfriend by fooling her that I wanted a good-bye hug and then I poured water allover her. Seriously, those were the moments that I'll never regret! On Spring break 2007, my family finally moved in Japan and I admit that this is the first time ever that my brother and I were ever the "new kids" in a school but sooner or later we fit right in. I remember starting the 4th Quarter of my Junior year in this new school was so cool. A lot of people were involved with each other and simply avoided those who they didn't like. But I remember a female classmate of my wanted me to get aquatinted with a lot of her friends, but one of her friends turned out to later be the greatest friend that I ever had! You all know him as Highwings89 from the Boochow Radio Podcast! Then later on, I've met my second greatest friend that I've had, Amuia! Together, we were known as the three amigos and was voted as the best best friends of Junior and Senior year because we were inseparable, participated heavily in the art club, and just did almost everything together! Hell, we even came up with our own podcast and then make itstailtime.net a possibility!

I'm on the left, Highwings is in middle, and Amuia was at the right. I still keep these two close by staying in contact with them and also calling them everyday on cell phones. Us three made plans to make an animated movie series together, but that proved to be difficult for us so we decided to take Amuia's turn by doing comic books instead, which is the field that I'm learning today. Highwings was such a great artist and guitarist and he loved to make folk music and once in a while us three love to just make hilarious drunk music.

There was no better friends to graduate than these two homeboys! Though we didn't graduate until 2008, our time together in 2007 was priceless. Highwings got me into many things like Avatar: The Last Airbender which was still on the air at the time, we went out to eat a lot of foods together, and we also played a lot of video games together.

I didn't have a PS3 at the time, but my brother and I did everything we could to get our hands on the Wii. Surely enough, we had a hell of fun time playing…

Man, I wish you guys saw Highwing's reaction because motion gaming was new to him and he didn't know how to bowl, gold, or bat at the time that Amuia and I were laughing our asses off. Highwings is still the funniest person I've ever met and whenever he play them video games, he always finds a way to make us laugh. But we didn't laugh with these Wii games because I still say that it's the best of the entire Wii library!

   

   

It's just too bad that the rest of the Wii's lifespan could NEVER get better than this! My brother and I didn't' want to wait till Christmas so we immediately bought it with our allowances and experienced it all! I didn't own a PS3 at the time, but I remember that I as SO psyched that a Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction was released. Luckily, a friend owned the system and the game.

 

Words cannot even describe how amazed I was with the system because the PS3 managed to make Ratchet & Clank to look just look like a fucking Pixar movie. Though I'm still iffy on the sixaxis controls, this was the very game that got me the PS3 system to begin with the following year. Though I didn't get a PS3, in 2007 my father got me my own LapTop and it was made to play games that were up to date at that time. It was also the same computer that I've made my first review on my youtube channel, Gex: Enter The Gecko review. That computer got me the opportunity to still play World of Warcraft (back when I was addicted to WOW), but also got me into the best deals I've ever seen in a collection…

Being able to play this level of graphics in my very own Laptop was some of the most mind-blowing things I've ever had and that's why I' still care about the PC community. My brother still to this day is hooked playing Team Fortress 2, but I had a special place for Portal. Being able to platform and change to any location as we shoot a portal on any surface was some of the most ingenious and innovative things that we've had in gaming. I don't think we have ever seen another game since that managed to take Portal's place as innovative. Not to mention that "Still Alive" track at the end that symbolized our entire gaming culture in 2007! I know people are going to hate me for saying this since the sequel is out to kill it, but I need to do it for nostalgic reasons … THE CAKE IS A LIE!!! lol

One of the best things that I've played with Amuia and Highwings and my brother was when we played Rock Band and Guitar Hero together like pros!

This was definitely one of my favorite moments of 2007 because I was invited to many friend's house just playing this game. My brother was more hooked to Guitar Hero and Rock Band than I was, but it sure as hell is just the most social that I've ever been in my life! Another great thing about Highwings is the the got me into more music. Before I used to just have modern music and go for the REALLY old ones from the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's! But Highwings showed me that there were really great music out there so he got me into indie rock. I don't give a damn if this is a music genre for hipsters, but I managed to find artists that I've never heard before and started my own album collection which is now filled up in my shelf. Even better was that in 2007, we also had old artists/bands and names that were getting into back on their feet and joined the 2007 year. I think 2007 was some of the BEST years in music and whenever I see a label that says 2007 at the back, I just blindly buy it because I want to know what else did I miss out from that year. But here are some of the best fucking music that came out from, not only 2007, the entire decade of the 2000's! 

    

     

      

    

So if you have any time, check these albums out because they still remain as some of the best things that I've ever heard in my life. As for the music, I remember that Daft Punk was doing their Alive 2007 tour and they were heading for Japan. I had the pleasure of seeing them live! It was the biggest surprise for me because they mixed all of their songs with other songs making it some of the most magical experiences that I've ever had. If only I knew Highwings and Amuia were Daft Punk fans like I was, then I would have the pleasure of taking them with me in the performance in Tokyo Stadium. I sanged out loud like a child with everyone in the stadium and dance around like it's the celebration of a life time! 

When I kept talking to Highwings about music, he showed me this thing that we all know now as… YOUTUBE! Don't ask me why I didn't hear about YouTube till now but being part of YouTube in 2007 was the best time ever because I was able to see so many video posted on the internet like CRAZY! On August 22st, 2007 I decided to join YouTube, but at the time I was afraid of posting anything on the internet, even a comment. That is until there were a bunch of "Gex" video that got me hooked to communicate with these Gex fans. That's why I'm called "gexup" because it was my take to bring life into this character. And guess what! Look at what I'm doing now, I'm even communicating with all of you guys on itstailtime.net. So constantly I was addicted to go on YouTube, and unfortunately, I also loved going on myspace at the time when it was popular. 

In 2007 I just wanted to watch any popular and funny video, watch wrestling vlogs, video game reviewers like the Angry Video Game Nerd, and also watch any cartoon posted on YT. I also got so fucking hooked with Avatar: The Last Airbender with Highwings introduced me to the series and at the time Nickelodeon was starting its second season, a.k.a. Book 2, and almost everyday at school I just kept talking about Avatar: The Last Airbender with everyone; even the adults who hasn't seen a cartoon in ages! That's the reason why Avatar: The Last Airbender is my favorite cartoon series of all time! 

Also, living in Japan, my brother and I also got hooked with the new anime out at the time such as… 

      

  

And we also caught up with anime that we also missed out on, and now my brother is an Otaku! Still to this day we still argue if Western animation or anime is better to I will no deny that it was so much fun to watch. And speaking of Western animation…

I never EVER imagined this would be possible, but after an entire childhood of waiting we fucking got ourselves a Simpsons movie. It was so hilarious that I almost crapped my pants. Also, Highwings told me that he crapped his pants just laughing at these movies…

  

But hands down the best movie I've seen in 2007 was probably 

I always wanted to see an art quality movie in the theaters and I finally got my chance to see it all on the big screen. It's still today one of the most amazing films that I've seen in the 2000's. Though "The cake was a lie" for video games in 2007, "I drank your milk shake" happened in movies in 2007! 

Can you just remember the times before the Dark Knight hype was everywhere as shoved in your faces as "the greatest movie of all time," before Call of Duty surrounded the hype for video games, motion gaming was actually good, we had a good economy, and Youtube wasn't even sold to Google? That's what's so special about 2007, it was able to show me a BUNCH of new things and it changed me. It was a big chapter of my life and I'm still the same person since back in 2007! I'm still best friends with Amuia & Highwings, I'm still watching videos like crazy, communicating with all sort of people on the internet, and be part of the 7th generation of gaming by getting involved, though I still favor more for retro games! Damn, 2007 was fucking cool! I'm not going to say it was perfect because there were some duds and issues with some students at school, but if I were to go back in time and start over again but even better, it would have to be back in 2007. I never been as social, outgoing, brave, and carefree as I was in this year because everywhere I turned just amazed me. Now, I'm not as amused any more because Japan is getting very old for me and I want to finally stay in America because that's where all my friends are and I'm stuck with these old farts in Japan with nothing new or exciting. I hope that there will be another great year like 2007, because it's being argued as one of the best years of all time! 

The one thing I will cherish the most is getting to know Highwings and Amuia. And if you want to see how strong our friendship is, check out any episode of the Boochow Radio Podcast to see how close we are as friends.

Here's to you, the three amigos! Forever we will Boochow!!!

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NUMBER 1.  1998

I did an entire Boochow on this very year, but I want to go beyond that extent of just gaming.

I remember that this year started to get good when I entered the third grade in Korea when I had the best year of my elementary school days with Mrs. Parker and he just love to give us excitement and love to all of us. Then it kept getting better when my family moved into a new house, a villa that looks like a dojo! It was two stories, that had two living rooms, a front yard, and a garage. It was so cool to live in that house because upstairs is our living room where we play our games and downstairs is my parent's living room where they watch what they want and have their bible studies there. My brother and I were spoiled to have that life style and still to this day I wish to have a house just like it again, now that it's demolished. But back when we still lived in the house, it was the perfect place to invite friends over and have a blast playing together.


 Not to mention that I had childhood friends from this year that are still very in dear in my heart as the closest things to family I got! Though I was loosing one of my best friends since I arrived in Korea because his father died and he had to move back to America, for some miracle, I had a new best friend that had the same face as him, except that he was more proactive and more sociable. Better yet, he had three younger brothers that became my brother's best friends. Sooner or later, my mother got contact with a friend that I haven't seen since we were both babies. Fortunately, the girl turned out be not only my closest friend, but also my fiancé!

That's me and her when we were both 7 or 8 years old and I never regret having her as my childhood sweetheart! It's crazy to say it, but she was in love with me at that age. We both just played outside, pretended that we're husband and wife, I was the hero while she was a villainess casting a love spell on me, and we played a lot of games and watched cartoons together. But I will always remember 1998 as the year I had my first kiss with her. It's amazing that she still has those same affections for me since we were kids and still to this day she's holds a special place in my heart! I love you, Ashley!

Anyway, back in 1998, I remember that this was the year that I got a Playstation 1. You heard the story from Boochow, but I'm going to repeat it. I remember that my family was so close to a black family and their daughter was my babysitter when I was around 2 years old. Her older sister was graduating High School and we were invited to their place in Osan, Korea which was many miles away. She and I used to play a ton of Sega Genesis games while she came over to my house to play the Super Nintendo. I was expecting to see her have the Sega Saturn, but when she showed me the Sony Playstation for the first time…

...I thought it was the single greatest thing I've ever seen in my life! I did have the Nintendo 64, but this was even more amazing with it's cutscenes, voice acting, fast 3D-polygons, and fluid controls. I remember that my first games on this very system were…

  

  

  

I thought that these games were some of the best games that I've ever played at that point in time and still to this day I'm still a Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games fan! I remember that we were sitting on her bed just playing these two games like non stop!  I was so hooked with the Playstation and my dad stepped in to see that we were playing Final Fantasy VII and he was impressed with what he was seeing. So the next day before we left Osan back to our home Seoul, Korea, he bought the PS and the games that I was playing and a couple more for just him. He was becoming more and more of a gamer and millions of other people around the world were also getting the Playstation, which is known today as the console that made the video game industry into a pop culture sensation! 

We were still buying a lot of Playstation games and we all of the sudden forgot to pick up the Nintendo 64 at that period of time! We were bored with the Nintendo 64 because they only sold at least one good game in a month or two while the Playstation just kept releasing games for everyone, at the point where anyone could just be entertained. Little did we know that many of the things that was released in this very year will be forever remembered!! Look up 1998 and you can see endless of memorable things that are still to this day praised and loved!

Hell, I ever got friends that was fucking obsessed with the Playstation that we came over to each other's houses to share the experience. Hell, I even got a chance to experience my first mature and horror games and you all remember that story in my Top 4 Video Game Boss Fights! 

It's a game that scared the living fuck out of me and my friends, but it was one hell of a time to mature with the game in order to appreciate it!

One of my biggest highlights with this year was when I started to become a real Pro Wrestling fan. I haven't seen it since 1997 after the Montreal Screwjob with Bret Hart leaving the business and coming back to it in 1998 was really wild for me because I was picking up on the 90's extreme/hardcore culture. We're talking about the fucking Attitude Era and having a year without Bret Hart was something to watch because we have the carnage by Stone Cold Steve Austin…

The sex revolution with D-Generation-X

And the legendary Mankind throw off the Hell of the Cell… twice!!

I miss the mad-TV style of television and wrestling for the WWF (now known as the WWE) was really taking all the risk of being as interesting and as violent to compete against WCW. Now many of these matches are on YouTube and I just love watching these old footages on a daily bases. Crazy to say it, but seeing this stuff at age 8, I was scared of it, but at the same time I was so hooked to see it and the older I got the more I love the old days in wrestling when they had characters, stories, and top notch action that today's wrestling seriously lacks! The attitude era was the best moment of 1998 and yet there are still a lot of great things that came out this year! Like one of the funniest comedies ever!

The best romantic movies

The most violent movie at that time

But there was only three movies that kids around my age was obsessing at that time. 

Believe it or not, I REALLY wanted to see this movie as kid and my mother got me into the older Godzilla movies from the 1950's - 1970's at our local library before we got a chance to see it in theaters. Instantly, I became the biggest Godzilla fan from those old movies. So what did I think of Godzilla 1998? I remember I went to see it in the theaters with just me and my dad and all I could remember is that the whole theater laughed when Matthew Broderick said "That's a lot of fish…" Yeah obviously! After watching this film, I wanted to just watch the other Godzilla films because the ones I've seen before seeing this movie was much more exciting than this trash! But here's another film that my generation loved

For the longest time we wanted to see another Pixar movie because Toy Story blew my mind away in 1995. Then trailers started coming in and all of us kids wanted to see this film so badly.  Every single one of my friends were going crazy over this film, when it was released in theaters and VHS. What's crazy is that this is the only movie where the home videos all have different covers on them

All of my friends bought different covers, but the one I owned was Flick. Sorry to say it, but I just hate watching this film [now] because I watched A Bug's Life so many damn times that I quoted every single line from this film and it's cringe-wothry! I like to look at this film now as just an amusement for us kids, but instead of watching this movie again… can I play the Playstation game based on this movie instead? I think it's a game that's better than the movie that it's based on.

I'm going to have to confess, I like this movie so much better than Bugs Life. Imagine if there was a logical explanation of why the toys in Toy Story have a mind of its own. Well, even better! Have a war with each other and the owners as well! Sure it's a cheesy concept, but it was very well made. Also, all of my friends kept quoting this game like crazy and I can't watch this film as much as I did because I still cringe because I remember every single scene from this movie! I haven't watched it in years and I still remember all of it!

Though we didn't have Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon like all the kids on the U.S. base, we did have Star Plus (the coolest channel on TV) and Channel V. Channel V got me into music with their amazing music videos and also live performances. In 1998 there were two artists that got me into music; The Beastie Boys in their performance in Glasgow!

Instantly, I asked my folks to get me Hello Nasty and that was my first CD I' ever owned and today I'm one hell of a crazy album collector!

Let's not forget that this was the year that anime has rose to the peak of its popularity. Thanks to animus like Dragon Ball Z and Neon Genesis Evangelion that open doors to anime around the world, there are timeless animes from 1998 that is still being watched to this very day!

Cowboy Bebop (one of my favorites of all time)

(Outlaw Star)

(Flame of Recca) 

There was this new channel called AXN and back when they used to show anime, this was the coolest thing I've ever seen on television since WWF Raw is War and the Attitude Era. But what's so amazing about AXN is that there are just so many animes to watch (some I can't remember) that it continues to get interesting the more you watch it. I remember my friends and I were shocked to see animation for adults that was more serious than the Simpsons and as violent as well. I'll never forget watching Flame of Recca with my dear Ashley when Recca summoned his 8 dragons against his evil brother. That' was some of the most amazing things I've ever seen on TV. But yet, you know what's the most popular anime in 1998…

We did an entire episode of Boochow on this very franchise, but it was worth it because it's so damn nostalgic. It's an adventure that all kids want to have. Not only you, not only me, not only your friends and family, but EVERYONE and I mean…

Was into the Pokemon hype. And it was worth the hype because it took an ingenious idea for an adventure where you capture these creatures and train them and evolve them to face other people who uses these creatures. We understood the concept and we couldn't' get enough of it! I didn't give a damn about the Nintendo or the Nintendo 64 since I got a PS1, but the reason why I still kept the Gameboy was because…

This is no doubt the most popular game of all time! Merchandises ever flowing everyone with the Pokemon name and Pokemon characters. You couldn't go outside without hearing the word Pokemon and yet I'm very proud of growing up with this franchise as the whole. I talk to a lot of guys from my generation, though not all of us have a lot in common but when Pokemon pops up then we can get somewhere. Being a Pokemon is not the same as it was when it reached its peak because of friends you love to spend time with talking and obsessing about it, trading Pokemon in your gameboy, and so many more.

I remember distinctly when I was introduced to the series. I remember I was riding a bus to school and saw many of the kids trading these things called Pokemon card and I though they were the coolest things ever. Then one day when my parents brought me to the video store, my brother rented...

I remember that I was in shock to see a gigantic Dragonite invading Bill's lighthouse and that awesome battle between Raichu and Pikachu as it was the coolest fight I've ever seen in anime at that time. Instantly my brother and I became probably the biggest Pokemon fans. Hell, my bro even collected a fucking Ash Ketchum cap! That was so cool! Nowadays I always take a peak on where the series is going since I'm not much of a fan as I used to because of the show's repetitiveness, fucking Team Rocket, and even bullshit moments with Ash' loosing and winning, it was a fun ride nonetheless. It's because of Pokemon that got me back to the N64 and just in time for…

Though I did miss a lot of things that came out in 1998, but whenever I look at the back of the label and I see that it was made in the 1998, without hesitation, I will buy it! 1998 for was nothing more than just a fucking great time! It continued to be a great life years later like 1999, and 2000, but 1998 still makes me feel warm and very happy inside whenever I think of all the memories. I don't really remember having any bad days per say in 1998, but all I remember is that I had a lot of things to see, a lot of things to own (mostly Pokemon and Godzilla), and a lot of friends to play with. But my biggest highlights in 1998 for me will always be  the day we got a Playstation, when we moved to the best house I've ever lived in, and also met my childhood sweetheart who is now known as my fiancé! I'll say it once and I'll say it again!

"For crying out loud, I want the time machine to be built! Murder the guys who are going to pilot the machine so I can take control and go back to 1998 because I'm in a great mood to once again Gotta Catch'Em All, Travel through the land of the dead, obtaining the triforce in 3D, having Psycho Mantis reading my memory card, escaping black mesa, torching Gnasty Gnorc, taking the jiggies, destroy the zergs, This was the year 1998!!" (Applause to Gexup!)

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So those are my 2 favorite years of my life! I was expecting this to be a short list, but instead it became a blog of my favorite memory. I'll be more than happy to hear all of your responses in the forums. Tomorrow, I'm going to post the last list on Gexup's 12 Days of Christmas. And that's Top 1 One Wish I want to Come True! It was sure fun to write these blogs and Top lists during my Christmas break, so everyone enjoy their last days of winter break!