Life of Fly Is A Nice Little Experience

Good morning everyone,

It's Friday! Yay!

Last night's stream featured three games, the main feature was Life of Fly... which lasted all of an hour. It's basically a simulator where you fly as a fly from point to point, hearing its thoughts on various topics related to different things. It's a really short game, and if you're looking for games to 100% complete easily, it's the perfect game to grab when it's on sale. Other notes are that is has an awesome musical score and the stories told by the fly in each chapter are rather clever.

And apparently there is a sequel to Life of Fly as well... might have to look into that!

Played some Dead or Alive 5: Last Round on stream, and the last time it was featured was probably back at the start of 2019 when I was doing the story mode of the Steam Version. So doing the story mode on the X-Box version seems like a good idea for something this year. Had a couple of matches against other people that did not go well at all. On the plus side, since I was messing around with Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore last week, some of the stuff I realized that work with Tina in that sure enough still worked in this.

We actually broke out Paladins for the third game, and boy do I remember why I stopped playing it full time once I got into Overwatch. The balancing of some of the characters just doesn't make any damn sense. The things that do bother me more than anything when it comes to Paladins is how, like Smite, it it is designed to screw over players if someone on a team leaves for some reason. On the plus side we were joined by Reaper for several matches.

Big thanks to Sw33ts_Gaming for choosing to re-subscribe to my Twitch channel for the 33rd straight month!

For the raid last night we sent the fun over to sw33ts_gaming who was also playing Paladins over at twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming! And I even joined in on a few matches as well.

Life of Fly Achievements

• The 1st Fly: Finish the story of the first Fly
• The 2nd Fly: Finish the story of the second fly
• The 3rd Fly: Finish the story of the third fly
• The 4th Fly: Finish the story of the forth fly
• The 5th Fly: Finish the story of the 5th fly
• The 6th Fly: Finish the story of the 6th fly
• The 7th Fly: Finish the story of the 7th fly
• The 8th Fly: Finish the story of the 8th fly
• The 9th Fly: Finish the story of the 9th fly
• The 10th Fly: Finish the story of the 10th fly
• The 11th Fly: Finish the story of the 11th fly
• The 12th Fly: Finish the story of the 12th fly

Twitch Clip Links

1. And we're going to crash into the window...
2. That's an Explosive Finish! 
3. Unstoppable!
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured Hip Shape Focus Combo, Sway Back Combo and Straight Combo #2 for 31 minutes and an estimate calorie burn of 472 kcal.

Taxes were filed and the payment of money owed to the IRS was scheduled... fucking bastards. You know, I am fully aware that that many folks, particularly parents who got assistance during the pandemic are going to get hit hard, makes me wonder why steps to protect folks from this nonsense wasn't taken since the same thing basically happened to millions of people last year. 

Meat Loaf and Louie Anderson both passed away. I clearly associate Meat Loaf with a few of his big songs, like Bat out of Hell and I'll Do Anything For Love, but also the Rocky Horror Picture Show. With Anderson, I associate a cartoon that aired on Fox Kids back in the early 90s called Life with Louie... which spawned the 'My Head Looks Like A Tomato' line.

For tonight's stream we will be playing Kingdom Hearts III, as we'll be heading to the world that I believe ties in with the movie Tangled... which I have never seen

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

It Took Me How Long To Reach the Start of Endwalker

Good morning everyone,

Working in market research is always fun when the quotas work against you in terms of reaching goals... but that is life!

Anyway last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV finally saw me reached the start of Endwalker, and by start I mean I completed the first quest of the latest expansion (The Next Ship to Sail) . It's been a long road, from when I started the game back in early October... and its taken 320 + hours to reach this point. Keeping in mind I played through the entire Main Story Questline plus several Featured Side Quests not associated with unlocking new class types, not to mention times I spent dedicated to doing raids and other things.

As far as the ending to the Post-Shadowbringers content is concerned, it certainly is interesting to see that we can basically stop Fandaniel's schemes, but the showdown with Zenos is clearly the driving force for Endwalker, there is no question about that since he is the narrator. There was some nice artwork in the end-credits, plus the battle in Death Unto Dawn was interesting.

Beyond that, I did finally clear out the Gunbreaker quest that has been sitting in my 'to do' list for several weeks, as well as unlocked the Fisher class to start messing around with that. Also came across another level 50 dungeon that I apparently missed first time through.

How much of Endwalker is going to be on stream... probably not much to avoid giving spoilers, but you know I will update progress here in the blog!

For last night's raid, the fun was sent over to Sw33ts_Gaming who was playing Paladins over at twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming! 

Twitch Clip Links

• Excuse You?!
• Death from above!
• We Caught A Fish!

Started work on my taxes and because of a screw-up from 2020 by the New Jersey Department of Labor that gave me an amount they owed me in 2021 as a result of their screw up the previous year, I now have a fat tax bill that I wasn't expecting and that's not counting the $30 filing charge through H&R Block. Would not have been so bad if work resumed for me two weeks ago as it should have instead of last week, because I would not have gone into my savings to get a jump on another bill. I tell ya if it ain't one thing its' another

Now I know what you're going to say, how could I not expect it considering how the tax season last year went with the IRS having to correct millions of tax returns. Simple, all my documentation didn't indicate the carry over from 2020, as it all goes year to date, so everything read 2021 with no reference to the previous year.

So since I was doing my taxes this morning, I got a late start on today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout. The exercises for today were beginner Combo #2, Weaving Combo #2 and Straight Combo #1 of 497 kcal.

The using the broken controller to grind out hours in Capcom Arcade Stadium is working, doing 4-5 hour bursts will meant the 100 hour achievement will be knocked our gradually over the course of the next couple of weeks.

For tonight's stream, we shall lead off with more goofing around in Forza Horizon 4 and then continue Gears 5 with Iceman and Striker!

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

Today's Notes 2/6/21

Good afternoon everyone,

Yes I slept in today, since working in the afternoons, has kind of thrown off what I've become use to over the past 10 months. 

Anyway, first, last night's stream of Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix was plagued with some dropped frames issues, and using the Twitch Test Tool, it seems that there are major issues with me using the New York or either West Virginia ingest servers, so I'll run that test again before tonight's stream and try something with a higher score... which probably would be using the Denver ingest server based on scores I saw last night. Another factor may have been my computer doing some automatic maintenance... since I noticed when I was checking this out after the stream, for some reason that started at 5:48 PM EST, when I have such things set for 5 AM EST. 

In terms of what we got done in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix last night we covered everything from part one of The Land of Dragons (Mulan) all the way up to the Disney Castle / Timeless River sections, so basically about 1/4th of the game. The combat mechanics and camera work so much better in KH2FM when compared to KH1FM it's not even funny. I do kind of question the order of Sora's abilities being unlocked, because being able to pull in Health, Item, Magic and Currency Orbs would make things easier against some of the more pain in the ass enemies.

Was practically perfect during today's Fitness Boxing 2 session, with 1376 out of 1384 exercise reps performed being perfect, the remaining 8 saw my timing just being a bit off. Very rare where I had a day where I don't have a single miss. Also because yesterday I was pressed for time, we did get a new in-game achievement, Super Welterweight Puncher Lv. 3, which was to reach a total punch count of 73,500. At the moment, the total punches I've through Fitness Boxing 2 is 75,722 (note: this is not counting ducks, weaves, steps or blocks) 

Because of an a change done by the IRS to see if folks earned less or more than the year prior to provide an income credit on tax returns, I had to re-file my taxes today. Since I made more in 2020 than 2021, I get no credit. Needless to say that was a surprise thing to deal with, first time I've ever seen something like that happen. 

Tonight's stream with see the focus return to Zero Escape Virtue's Last Reward, as I think we'll be dropping back into the conversation with the cockney accented robot, We'll probably get that started around 7 PM since I want to have dinner before then. 

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

Today's Notes 1/20/21 (Updated)

Good afternoon everybody,

Started work on doing my taxes today, and only just now noticed the hit I'm taking this year because of my day gig, there is often times I will be furloughed, so that resulted in a need to cover my own but, using New Jersey's unemployment to cover some weeks. And since some of those weeks were during the early COVID-19 relief through UI, that means whatever I would normally get this year in terms of a Tax Refund has been eaten up by the fact that the state of New Jersey didn't take 10% out to cover its taxes, which is funny considering how I was having 10% for the normal UI. I imagine that a lot of folks are going to be coming to same realization. Still have to wait for my 1099 from Twitch/Amazon.

UPDATE: Got my 1099 from Twitch/Amazon, and finished my taxes. Thankfully I've commissioned enough things to be made for my Twitch channel to balance everything out. So while I may not be getting a damn thing back, I don't owe anything! And that goes for both state and federal!

 

 

Last night's stream was really awesome as it was a triple co-stream with PowerThumbz (twitch.tv/powerthumbz) and FnDanteSavage (twitch.tv/fndantesavage) along with Iceman as we went through the first half of the new manhunt event in The Division 2, which saw us being massacred because Thumbz wanted to take out an elite patrol before we took a control point. It was a hilarious long stretch of time that took way longer than normal, but we got through it. Since we only did 50% of the manhunt last night, we're covered the other half of it on Thursday which means Star Trek Online this week will be moved to Friday... not that I have much to do in STO unless I want to start doing mission catch up streams with all my other characters. Anyway, in addition to the Division 2 stuff with the guys, I also did some Final Fantasy XV Comrades and managed to tackle a few things that I felt I was a bit under powered for and made progress in the first time in a long while. 

Had a solid Fitness Boxing 2 session today, with this being the 40th day since the switch from the original game, resulting in the achievement of Stalwart Stamper Lv. 3 being unlocked, which is done primarily of doing the Daily Exercises to get the corresponding stamp on the calendar. We've also unlocked the achievement called Hurricane Hitter which is to throw 60,000 perfect punches, which is not phrased correctly, it's to have 60,000 perfect motions, because it's counting punches, ducks, blocks and steps, since my actual punch count is 55,114 as of the time I'm writing this. Also did a bit a Animal Crossing New Horizons and Skye was considering leaving the island, and I made sure to say 'no don't go!', trust me Skye, Audie, Agnes, Blanch and Antonio are the ones I'm never letting leave!

Tonight we got ESPN Major League Baseball on tap, and since I know already there is no work for me for tonight (which makes taxes stuff even more pleasant to think about), we'll start early and go through as many games as we can. I know I have one game against the Cardinals to carry over from last week, so if I can get through the next two series as well (which are road games against the Diamondback and Giants) we'll be about where I was expecting to be if I saved my game two weeks ago! 

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