Today's Notes 1/11/21

Good afternoon everyone,

Well if you've saw what happened during last night's Overwatch stream you'd may have notice we had a ton of issues as my upload speed with my Internet Service Provider (Comcast / Xfinity) was in the fucking toilet where 70% of frames were lost. I was going to have tech come out, but they called me back and did some changes remotely that seemed to have fixed things. To be on the safe side I have lowered my output through OBS to be 2/3s of what it normally was, which means I'll be streaming at standard definition. Hopefully tonight's stream of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 will be smooth sailing.

But here's the thing... I had no issues playing Overwatch or any online game during all of this! Just my upload speeds have been garbage!

Before Comcast / Xfinity called me back, I did do a morning stream with greatly reduced settings (resulting in a stream at 360P) and the worse video quality I've presented since 2017. We got in a good Fitness Boxing 2 workout, that lasted a solid hour, and before I got breakfast I stepped on a scale, and weighed in at 257 pounds! The weight loss continues! We followed that up with a bit of Animal Crossing New Horizons, Flick was on the island, so got him some butterflies, made the rounds with all my residents and the usual nonsense before closing the morning stream out with Super Mario Bros 35, finishing in the top 5. 

As I'm typing this just go word from work that I do have a shift tonight so we'll get the stream started at 9:30 PM EST over on twitch.tv/fredcasden! So we'll see ya later

Highlights from the week of January 3, 2021

Here are highlights for my Twitch channel (twitch.tv/fredcasden) covering the week of January 3, 2021, which featured Overwatch, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Sam & Max Hit The Road, Fitness Boxing 2, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Super Mario Bros 35, ESPN Major League Baseball, Star Trek Online and Zero Escape 999! 

Today's Notes 1/10/21

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream of Zero Escape 999 saw me going through doors 4, 3 and 2 and it resulted in getting the 'We All Die By A Yellow Submarine' achievement which saw someone killing all the characters. I am wondering who is the killer is though, such as was there a rouge person on the ship we didn't know about... or did someone going nuts. Of course all you need is the bracelets to get off the boat anyway, so who went crazy then? So many questions that I wonder will be answered in the next two Saturdays since I figured I'll need those two days to get the remaining endings. That said I did like all the lore we got with Seven being a cop and his ties with Lotus who's kids were involved in a prior nonary game, which was really cool.

Off-stream, I did a bunch of grinding in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, boosting my level to 70 so I should be over-powered to get through the Buu arc and possibly the early part of anything related to early parts related to Dragon Ball Super. I am wondering if the duplicate versions of character (such as Goku, Vegeta) count towards the 'trainer' part, because it seemed like it does. I know if we take the same person into battle twice I know it works that, but taking normal Vegeta and say... SSGSS Vegeta together, does it work that way? Near as I can tell it may, but I'm not sure.

Today marked 30 days from the start of using Fitness Boxing 2, as well as 30 days of doing the daily workouts. Fitness age is hovering at 23 lately, and way I figure if you get 'Ok' punches, it counts against the Fitness Age in terms of timing things perfectly.... so yeah, timing was clearly off today a bit lol. We did reach new achievements. First was 'Miracle Score' which was to get 52,000 or more points with Advanced Combo #2 on its High Setting, next was Stalwart Stamper Lv. 2 for acquire 30 stamps (which is tied to the daily workout0, and lastly was Perfect Stretcher which was do the pre and post Stretching routines 60 times (or 30 times each). 

Did a bit a Animal Crossing New Horizon's today as well, and I came across a visitor on my island, a Kangaroo that actually had a little kangaroo in their pouch. So does this mean the little one grow up? I doubt it, but it is funny to think about in terms of the in-game characters evolving over time. 

With it being Sunday, tonight's stream will be all about Overwatch as you know, the question will be will it be the big focus be on Quick Play matches or will we be doing Arcade matches? I may be straight out done with Ranked matches because fuck me, people don't want to try to win. Still we'll get started at 7 PM EST.

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

Today's Notes 1/9/21

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 went about 5 hours from the time I started, and there is something about that game that has drawn a littler attention to my Twitch channel as it has been doing above average in terms of viewership for me. Which isn't saying much obviously considering my normal stats on a nightly basis, but still it does show the ever lasting popularity of the Dragon Ball franchise. In terms of progress, we acquired three of the five time eggs last night (only need the ones for Guru and Buu) and reached the 1/2 way point of the main story (which is basically the start of the Buu arc). My current character level is 62, which seems to have me on par or just below par of stuff that might be towards the end of the game, seeing as how the toughest fight I had last night was the one to help Frieza achieve his golden form and a few things involving Android 17 and the 'ahem' correct history of thing.

Had a sorta rough workout with Fitness Boxing 2 today, with some of the combinations involved with the Advance Combo not clicking in my head. There are just sequences for movements that just don't feel natural yet. Plus my hated of step forward-back combos continues.  We did unlock the Lightweight Puncher Lv. 1 achievement which was to reach a total punch count of 40,000 HITS, which does match my total punch total for Fitness Boxing 2 of 40,565.

Tonight we'll be going back to Zero Escape 999, as we'll be going after yet another ending, and going through doors 4, 3 and 2 which are the only ones I haven't gone through in the previous two streams. I have to say it was great seeing Flint_Locke (twitch.tv/flint_locke) playing it last night... just too bad I was working so I couldn't have the audio on, but it seems she got the idea of what I was saying regarding how heavily Zero Escape explains things. As DaemonsWolf (twitch.tv/daemonsw0lf) points out "The poison. The poison for Kuzco, the poison chosen especially to kill Kuzco, Kuzco's poison. That poison?"

Oh it was so awesome to see Twitter finally throw Donald Trump off of it's platform last night and seeing as how he's been banned from Facebook and Instagram, seeing him go on about building his own social media platform was hilarious. And guess what, anyone that goes to a Trump social media platform can instantly be called an insurgent and danger to democracy because as we saw this week, that's what his supporters are.  

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

Today's Notes 1/8/21

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream of Star Trek Online saw the wrapping up of all available 'story content' within the game for Klingon Defense Force aligned characters. Federation aligned characters have some story related patrols. Still the Cold War arc was surprisingly shorter than I remembered it being, so does make me wonder why does it get the voice-overs needed to bring it back in line with the rest of the content.The real question is going to be... what the hell am I doing with STO in the upcoming weeks until new content comes out.

That said I did install the steam version of Star Wars: The Old Republic.... and instantly unlocked 77 achievements. Man I do love it when games recognize what I've done with them on different platforms. Now if only Blizzard will do the same with Overwatch, that would be really neat! I'm not even asking for cross-play! Just cross-progress!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was a solid 30 minute work out that saw a lot of body punches (jabs, straights, hooks, upper cuts), which meant a lot of dropping of the hips and rotating to try and do things correctly. Let me tell ya, when you have to jab-jab-straight-left hook-right body hook-right body-hook-right body hook several times in a row it can be tiring! And then remember you have to do it from the southpaw stance as well, ugh! It's tough business... but at least the combination of punches makes sense.

At the time of this writing I just a video of a group of insurgents harassing Lindsey Graham at Regan International Airport because actually pulled his head out of his ass and did the right thing after enabling Trump for 4+ years. Hard to have sympathy for Graham, but even he saw this coming. Hell he said it 5 years ago "If we nominate Trump we will get destroyed and we will deserve it". Well the chickens have come home to roost.

Tonight we'll be back to Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, and if memory serves me right, the next in-game story content will focus on the Android / Cell Saga, which means things are getting much harder in the game. Still we'll have opportunities to level up, and currently I have Yamcha as my 'mentor' in the game at the moment and... shit I'm screwed aren't I? Oh we'll well get tonight's stream started at about 9:30 PM EST.

With that said we'll see you later tonight over on twitch.tv/fredcasden! 

Today's Notes 1/7/21

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night at 3:39 AM, the United States congress finalized what we all knew back in November that Donald Trump lost the election. Yes I actually sat and watch C-Span following last night's stream and what bothers me is how so many people who opposed the election results did so out of blind loyalty to Trump... particularly those who were just elected to the House of Representatives. Let me ask something, if there was election fraud, didn't they benefit from it? You can't just say only one thing was fraudulent on a ballot... so those who benefited from such a circumstance that did not exist in the first place really should have said not a fucking thing. 

That said I do find it real funny that a day after terrorists attack Capital Hill, the FBI is now looking for 'tips' on  those involved... well here's a huge fucking tip it starts with Donald J Trump who basically invited those mutants to DC while giving orders on national  television and social media for them to do what they did! But of course, the head of the FBI is a Trump loyalist. The national guard and capital police should have been mobilized at 6 AM yesterday morning with orders to defend against what was obvious going to happen!

Alright enough about that, last night's stream of ESPN Major League Baseball, saw my 2004 Phillies start a six-game home stand, with the first three games being against the Diamondbacks. We won two of the three games, getting shut out in the second game. Luis Gonzalez proved to be a real pain in the ass to get out as i gave up two home runs to him. For whatever reason I tried to pitch him up and in, and he just crushed everything, which is weird considering his 'hot zone' is middle-in and down-in. Ah well, next time I do an ESPN Major League Baseball stream, the St. Louis Cardinals are rolling into town.

Today's Fitness Boxing session was short and sweet, about half-an-hour when one factors in stretching. Only had one real miss which was on a sway back motion from the orthodox stance. We did have a few exercises that involved the lower body, particularly duck to uppercut movements.

Tonight, being Thursday, means we'll playing Star Trek Online, starting at about 9:30 PM EST and we'll be going through the Cold War story arc (or at least 3 of the 5 missions, depending on time), Continuity wise, it takes place after the Borg Advance and is the series of missions that involves the discovery of the Preservers, which are later wiped out by the Iconians. But because the developers at Cryptic Studios are complete idiots, the Cold War story arc is locked behind the level-65 wall and unless players are aware of its existence, they may not know it's there or its importance to the overall story of Star Trek online.

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

Today's Notes 1/6/21

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night I marked 5 years of streaming on Twitch with a one night play through of Sam & Max hit the road, and man I love that game... as proven by the fact I'm able to quote so much of it, knowing what lines are said when and where during the course of the adventure. Big thanks to everyone who came by to help mark half a decade of being on Twitch!

Had a solid 1/2 Fitness Boxing 2 workout session, there was no lower body focus today, so it was very straight forward. I did earned a couple of new achievement the first being Super Featherweight Puncher Lv. 3 which is to reach a total punch count of 32,500 HITs and also Typhoon Hitter which is ti throw 40,000 perfect punches... which I believe it more for perfect movements including ducks, weaves, steps and blocks. Because my total across 16 Hours 22 minutes (or 26 separate but consecutive daily sessions) of Fitness Boxing 2 I have a total of 37,721 punches thrown. So HITS are more in line with my actual punch count. Also I weight in at 258 LBS recently.... so I got below 260 lbs! My current goal is to get down to 253 lbs, so I'm getting closer.

Tonight's stream will be a return to ESPN Major League Baseball as we'll continue the 2004 season with the Philadelphia Phillies, I think we'll just be doing one three-game series tonight as the stream will start at 9:30 PM EST and heaven knows I'll be distracted by the news during the course of it.

So President Trump got what he want, he got his terrorist supports to attack Washingdon DC on the day where he was going to be certified to be the loser that he is. I'll give credit to gizzard neck Mitch 'The Bitch' McConnell for saying and wanting to do the right thing, but Ted Cruz and that piece of shit no-body from Oklahoma can go hang in a ditch for encouraging what is happening at the time of this writing. Every body who has stormed the capital building should be branded as terrorists and treated as such. But let me get this right, all summer long, for protesters in the street, tear gas and rubber bullets were used who protested the deaths of several American citizens by local law enforcement, but for Trump's supporters who are performing a terrorist act. If you support this in any shape way or form, you are a traitor to this nation.

See ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!