Today's Notes 12/22/20

Good afternoon everybody,

I can safely say I didn't get to bed to about 5 AM because I went to work on putting together this year's music video featuring all 48 games finished this year. During the course of which I realized I forgot to list Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, so instead of 49 games, the total stays at 48 as we'll drop Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days since again it was more of a movie. I actually made two versions, one of which I'll show on New Years Eve since it using the audio track from my self-duet of 19th Nervous Breakdown, while the YouTube version using the Colonel Bogey March from YouTube's audio library... so both are different lengths but basically the same.

Last night we sat down and finally played The Shivah, and imagine my surprise to see not one but two direct references to the Blackwell Legacy series, with Roseangela Blackwell sending and e-mail to Rabbi Zelig and we see her in the bar towards the ends of the game, talking to someone who isn't there... which firmly places The Shivah after the events of The Blackwell Legacy, which also tells me Roseangel and Joey were investigating the death of Ethan Goldberg. You know I might make this game the topic of this weeks commentary on Friday... but oh besides all the Blackwell stuff, The Shivah is a good little game, it does have multiple endings so there some replay value. Because my family on my father's side is Jewish, it safe to say I got most of the Rabbi jokes... even if I am more of goy than anything else these days.

Today's Fitness Boxing session was solid, kept it at regular settings so I didn't go through a No Mercy mode during today's routine. Did struggle a little with my timing for Left Uppercuts and Right Ducks from the orthodox stance and also with right hooks from the southpaw stance, but hey, it's a good thing I see those execution sections to get an idea of where my weaknesses are to try and do better next time!.

We also played some Super Smash Bros. Ultimate last night, and actually won three online matches as Min Min from the ARMS game. Which considering that was a game made to show off motion controls for the Nintendo Switch, makes me thing I should try to track down a copy of that game to try it. Now that I think about it I think most of my Online Wins in Smash.... which is a total of 25, involve Min Min lol. 

Tonight we'll probably start way before 9:30 PM with ESPN Baseball 2K4 and probably do two three-game series of our Philadelphia Phillies 2004 campaign. I will try not to brutalize the AI too much, but if I do I'll increase the difficulty to keep myself in check.

And on that note, that wraps everything up! See ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

Today's Notes 12/20/20

Good afternoon everybody,

So last night after the stream I loaded up Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and tried out the Sephiroth Challenge, to not only unlock the villain from the most overrated video game of all time (Final Fantasy VII), but to see just how rusty I am at that game. Not that I was any good as Smash to begin with, but I think on a normal setting I could handle most things the A.I. could throw at me,  which is why I beat the challenge on Normal difficulty and yes I did it as Cloud. I can safely say the Sephiroth's stage takes way to damn long to transition through and thus the only way to really appreciate it in a match is to se the time length to its longest possible setting and hope for a match that takes longer than 90 seconds.

As I look back to one year ago with the split between me and Dare to Stream and I can safely say, that while my Twitch viewership totals may be down in comparison, I was able to meet and interact with far more people. The funny thing is, I've seen invites to join other 'stream teams' and they all have that same bullshit rule of only host and / or raid within the team which does nothing more than prop up the leadership's channels. Hell lets say the big channel of a team draws in say 20 viewers at the very start, but because they are starting right about when other members of the team are ending, they know because of the rules they are setting they are getting a boost in their start totals of say 2 or 3 viewers from a raid plus any lurkers still on the smaller channel's page who opted out of the raid.. It makes the leadership's stats look good in comparison. As I said, my viewership totals may be down in comparison to a year ago, but at least I not feeding into a machine to prop up someone else.

Now with that off my hairy chest (ha ha), last night's Twitch Sings stream was a lot of fun, with it being one of the final ones I'll be able to do. Perhaps the real highlight of it wast the duet of Gaston I did when I went beyond ham and straight on to bacon with my performance. In comparison to others I can safely say I'm not very animated so just cutting loose like that was a lot of fun. Of course we did a bunch of duets and solos last night... hell thought we may have lost one because Twitch Sings started to act really goofy.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was fairly solid from start to finish, even though I feel and the game actually pointed out that I struggled a lot with Right Hooks and Left Weaves from the Southpaw stance, which was a bit odd, considering I've been pretty damn consistent with Southpaw Right Hooks all week, since they normally thrown in the form of a jab-straight-jab-right hook combo, and today's combos were a little more different. Ah well, tomorrow is a new today.

Today being Sunday means that we'll be playing Overwatch this evening, I already have the Junkrat greenish elf skin unlocked from getting nine wins off stream since Tuesday. Still we'll see if we can help other folks get the skin if they don't already have it.

Also I've already finished (or beaten) 47 games this years, and since I want to start working on some end of the year video projects, I want to add one more game to the list to have an even 48. The game that will take that spot is called The Shivah, which was developed and published by the same folks behind The Blackwell series. Technically The Shiva sorta of takes place in the same universe as some characters came from it, so this is kind of like a prequel. I'll be playing this Monday night/

And with that said, we'll see ya later tonight over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

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