Mom Staying in the Hospital, and What Did We Do In Final Fantasy XIV

Good morning everyone,

First, update on my mom, she spent another night at the hospital, and after speaking with her this morning, turns out the doctors are saying she should stay, a large part being because of what I pointed out the other day in regards to Uber & Lyft not having proper vehicles to use for contracted hospital transport to and from people's homes. She is eating, and had a physical therapist see her, and I believe she will still get her scheduled radiation therapy treatments. We are raising money to cover these medical expenses, for more details, visit: https://gofund.me/6adf8354

In terms of how I'm handling things... its... worrisome on so many levels, but I kept getting the impression people are just waiting for me to snap. I know my father doesn't want to hear me vent, he made that particularly clear a few days ago. I know internalizing it is 'bad', but one has to keep up a strong front right? I don't really have a choice, I either step up or crash and burn. Too bad everything I've been trying to do has been a utter failure.

Sorry...

As for last night's stream, we played Final Fantasy XIV, and I was happily surprised to find the next two installments of the Endwalker Hildibrand story arc involving aliens, bunnies and a tabloid reporter. We also finally accessed the Moogle Tribe Quests, and got Carpentry up to level 51. Did a couple of raids, and basically got my face stomped in... I really hate the NieR inspired raids... I truly do Still we had fun.

For the raid we dropped in on PrincessPashley as they were playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt over on twitch.tv/PrincessPashley!  The Witcher 3 is a game that is on my list of things to eventually play.

Stream Clip Links

• Let it be a dance sequence!
• Dancing Bunnies On The Moon 
• I think he went down easily
  

Got only a little bit of writing done on the Mass Effect short story commission, as I was distracted with checking in on mom, so I didn't feel like writing too much during the afternoon. I hope to finish it today, then get started on the next commission short story which is based on WWE.

Recorded a new Tier List making video for my YouTube channel, this time focused on 80s movies. It ended up being an hour long based on trying to justify where I placed each film. Doing it did bring back to my mind the disappointment that was Kingdom Hearts III in regards to its World selection, since I did give The Great Mouse Detective and The Black Cauldron fairly high ranks.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Hook Combo #1, Weaving Combo #2 and Waist Shape Focus Combo for 28 minutes.

I still remember the last thing my grandfather said before kicking the bucket: "Hey, you want to see how far I can kick this bucket?"

Song of the Day:  Centuries by Fall Out Boy.

For tonight's stream, the plan is to play Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, continuing the story mode from the Persona 4 cast perspective with maybe an arcade run or two as well.

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone,

I know some folks set off for traveling yesterday, and so I hope everyone made it where they wanted to be for today's holiday!

Last night's stream was a variety night,  featuring four games, and it would've been five, if the UK exclusive, Extreme Ghostbusters; The Ultimate Invasion, would've displayed properly. Oh well.

Anyway, the first game we featured was WWF SmackDown, which was released back in March of 2000 for the PlayStation. Relearning how to play this took some time, as it's fast pace brawler. Sure the matches on normal difficulty would take a few minutes, the biggest issue is figuring out how to stun the opponents to hit the finishers. We did matches with everyone on the roster, mostly singles matches, but also a couple of tag team bouts. Now does it hold up after 20 years... kind of. It is a relic of its time in terms of how it looks, but it's still a fun game.

Next was Marvel Super Heroes, and this was the Japan-region version I picked up last year. Originally released in arcades in October of 1995, the PlayStation got its version in September of 1997. On 'normal' speed, the game is sluggish as hell, but on Turbo its plays really well. We did a few arcade runs, and tried out different characters. My main for this is still Psylocke, as she has a nice variety of moves that fit my frantic play-style. Does it hold up, yes it does, the a.i. may be cheap at times, but it certainly has a nostalgia factor to it.

We spent some time playing Mortal Kombat Mythologies Sub-Zero, originally released for the PlayStation in October of 1997... I swear this game is basically what inspired Bloodborne and similar games for its ass-backwards controls and the need to be perfect on everything you do. Don't get me wrong, it is a good looking back,and the cut-scenes are hilarious with the bad acting... but the controls are what hold it back. The button layout is to mimic that of the Mortal Kombat III, and its so against the grain, there is a reason why this game has the level of infamy that it does. I mean you have a button that you need to press to turn around for crying out loud.

Finally the nigh concluded with Capcom Fighting Evolution... the game that is said to be the reason why Capcom did not make a fighting game until Street Fighter IV.... and I don't see why. Sure there is  very uneven look to the game since the sprites from Street Fighter III, Red Earth, Street FIghter Alpha III and Darkstalkers were all ripped from their games, why the sprites for Street Fighter II were basically brand new. Game play wise its solid, Sakura plays as I expect her to, even if her sprite standing next say Chun Li is a clear indicator that this was not exactly a polished product in terms of its presentation. The a.i. is also pretty wonky, as some times its just standing there waiting to get punched and other times it's a tooth and nail fight to the death.

Following the stream we raided ThisGuyTom who was playing Overwatch over at twitch.tv/thisguytom! 

Twitch Clip Links

• The Boss Man Slam!
• Psi-Thrust For The WIn! 
• I was over confident
• That was effective
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Left-Right Step Combo, Double Combo #2 and Advanced Combo #2 for a duration of 31 minutes and an estimated calorie burn of 554 kcal.

My brother and his family tested negative after recently catching Covid, so that is some very good news.

Question) You're in a car, headed north and you see a red fire engine to your right and a fence to your left. There's a horse in front of you and a helicopter behind you. What do you do?

Answer) Put down your drink and carefully get off the merry go round!

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures, saw me focus on what is the YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse Questline, namely to deal with the third alliance raid, following the two that were seen on Thursday's stream. Needless to say it gets very metaphysical in terms of the plot... and I can safely say I'm glad I got that third raid done because I'm very unwilling to want to deal with it again. I've seen some bullshit AOE attacks in the two months of playing Final Fantasy XIV, but having to worry about attacks coming from behind is just insanity!

For tonight's stream, we may just do another variety night, as we'll get back to the normal routine on Sunday's stream. 

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Thank you for a great birthday!

Good afternoon everyone,

We did a 10 hour long stream yesterday, that start started at 12:30 PM and ran to about 10:45 PM, needless to say it was the longest stream of the year by far.

What did we do? Well it was totally dedicated to Final Fantasy XIV, very little progress was made on the Main Story Quest as I focused mostly on doing raids and trials the entire time.We started with the Eden raids, and I learned that the final four can't be accessed until I advance the Main Story to the end of patch 5.2. I'm not a fan of the 'fall of the ledge' gimmick some of these have, but the music is awesome.

Also learned that there is an entire side story arc that ties Final Fantasy XIV with NieR:Automata... which I wasn't expecting. Granted I was not expecting the Monster Hunter tie-in, but a full cross over that actually makes sense in the realm of both Final Fantasy XIV and NieR:Automata (from what I understand, since I didn't play it yet) is pretty incredible. This story arc basically serves as set up for the three Alliance Raids for the Shadowbringers content. Now I only managed to get through the first two Alliance Raids, which were tough as hell... I'm looking forward to seeing what the third one features.

Now I do have a number of thanks you to express as there were a lot of support for the channel during the stream Thank you to Qyndra for the raid, to FelKimChi for the 200 Birthday Bits, to FnDanteSavage and Mitenscirca for the re-subs, and Xx7drdeath7xx for the 10 gift subs! I greatly appreciate the support as ya'll made it a great day!

We sent the fun over to RoseMaryShorn who was playing playing either Pokemon Brillian Diamond or Shiny Pearl, couldn't really tell! Anyway they can be found over at twitch.tv/rosemaryshorn

Twitch Clip Links 

• The first of many!
• Thank you very much sir! 
• 10 Gift Subs?! Thank You!!!!
• Uncanny Valley 
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Body Uppercut Combo, Uppercut Combo #2 and Body Hook Combo for a duration of 28 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 427 kcal

In term of birthday presents, got a new pair of slippers and a new sleeveless fleece vest to replace the one I've worn for nearly ten years. Thanks mom!

Tried to do some achievement grinding, and managed to bang out another one for Gears of War 4... which I think will be the last one I attempt as it relates to the horde mode, as much as I would like to get all five class types to level 10, it's way too much of a pain in the ass. Did see that the Co-Op vs AI matches work

Gears of War 4 Achievements

1. Know Your Role: Engineer: You used the Engineer's talents to build 10 improved fortifications
2. How's it Going to Work? Teamwork!: Won a Casual Co-op Versus match
3. Custom Made: Won a Match using a non-Starter Character and non-default Weapon Skin
4. Bot Killer: Killed 25 enemies in Co-op Versus matches

Paul Feig got his underwear in a twist when it was announced the travesty that was Ghostbusters 2016 will not be included in an upcoming box-set that will feature Ghostbusters, Ghostbuster II and Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Well lets see why that would be case: one Feig's Ghostbusters was badly written (and guess what he co-wrote it), it had terrible performances from nearly everyone involved, horrible special effects, and oh yeah, Feig and the majority of the leading cast went out of their way to insult the existing Ghostbusters fan base because every one had concerns when the first trailer hit YouTub, and people fucking hated what they saw... which was a mockery of the franchise in the form of a poorly conceived vehicle for Melissa McCarthy

For tonight's stream, I haven't made up my mind fully yet, but we'll be something to something this Christmas Eve!

So we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!