Quick Thoughts; The Blues Brothers

Last week we didn't do a watch along over in my discord channel, but I believe we made up for it in a big way this week with The Blues Brothers starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. Released in 1980, it is without debate the greatest movie based on characters created for Saturday Night Live, and probably the greatest musical comedy of all time. Yes that's right, The Blues Brothers is a musical, with entire sequences of characters breaking out into song and dance routines. Anyway, the version we watched this we was the extended cut which added in a lot of scenes and details to make the narrative of the plot move a lot smoother, and explaining various details that were not a part of the original theatrical cut, which also meant a number of the music performances were longer as well.

One of the first thoughts that came to mind this week was, is there a better driver in a work of fiction than Elwood Blues? Think about it, in the world of the Movies and TV shows, Elwood is pretty much untouchable with his skills as a driver with a 1974 Dodge Monaco Sedan that was modified for police use and that's it. Probably the closest would be Nicholas Cage's character of Randall Raines in Gone in 60 Seconds with what was done with a 1967 Ford Shelby GT500. For those who will bring up any of the characters in the Fast and Furious Franchise, lets also point out the cars they mostly used were heavily modified within the context of that universe.

Movie forward, in regards to Carrie Fisher's character 'The Mystery Woman'... where and how does she get every weapon she intended to use to take out Joliet Jake? Think about it, she uses a rocket launcher, a flamethrower, an assault riffle and takes down part of a city block with demolition charges! Hell how did she set that up!Also of note, I still love the fact that the name of the salon 'The Mystery Woman' is at when she is reading up on how to use the flamethrower is called 'Curl Up & Dye'.... sometimes the simplest puns are the best.

One of the extra scenes in the Extended cut involves Curtis telling the Band that Jake and Elwood intentions and motivations for getting the band back together and donating the money from the Palace Hotel gig to cover the taxes of the Orphanage... and while it gives even more context to the Band continuing to play as Jake and Elwood make their escape, it does raise a question. What if instead of saying 'We're On A Mission From God', Jake and Elwood explained to the band as they were recruiting them their intentions.Yes some of the set ups for things like Aretha Franklin' 'Think' out, but I think if that is moved up to be earlier than it was with Elwood saying 'We're On A Mission From God', she'll still go forward into song and then follow that with Jake explaining the situation, it would take some of the awkwardness of Matt Guitar Murphy just walking out on her with Blue Lou Marini following shortly after. Plus It would put a moral dilemma on Mr. Fabulous Alan Rubin's character in the fancy restaurant that he doesn't want to leave his job. Hell if anything, all these circumstances involving the Nazis, the cops and the Good Ol Boys can still work as is

Anyway, that's my quick thoughts here on The Blues Brothers.... maybe next week we'll watch Blues Brothers 2000?

Today's Notes 11/14/20

Good Morning Everybody...

Holy shit it is morning as I'm actually writing this, well when you are expecting something through the United States Postal Service to arrive, one gets very eager and wakes up early... then they check the tracking and see that the USPS says it's going to arrive later than they expected. You know up until Donald J. Trump's fucking around with the Postal Service to try and steal the 2020 election, I've never seen anything tracked through the USPS being listed as 'arriving late'.

Speaking of that orange face clown, does one realize how fucking warped he has made people who call themselves Republicans? Take Tommy Tuberville for example, who went on the record and said in World War II, America was fighting against socialism which is about as wrong as wrong can get. America was fighting against FASCISM! But I guess when you aligned yourself with Trump, being anti-fascist is a bad thing to these fucking idiots. And don't get me started on that buffoon Marjorie Taylor Greene who went on Twitter to cry about CrossFit gyms being closed when in fact they are OPEN. 

Anyway, last night we did another Mass Effect stream, and as we get closer to the end of Twitch Sings, getting into the groove of dedicating more than two nights a week to a big game is really coming together. Of course during last night's stream we managed to knock out even more of the side-quests including the Bringing Down The Sky DLC, which depending on your background / career selections for Shepard when creating them, adds a bit to their story and history with the Batarians. Also since I haven't gone to Feros and Noveria yet, I already have acquired the first set of Spectre weapons (which unlocks when unlocking the 'Rich' achievement) which means things are gonna get quite easier when dealing with enemies that rush towards me. 

Today's Fitness Boxing Session was a strength and cardio session at the max recommended time length of 35 minuets. Felt good finishing it, and damn I've been doing this for 131 consecutive days. You know originally the plan was to do Just Dance daily, but the lack of a good sight line to my main monitor prevented that. Probably a complete break down and reorganizing of my computer and consoles is in order to make that possible.

 

Tonight's stream over on twitch.tv/fredcasden will start with Twitch Sings, and we may do some other things too depending on how my mood strikes me.

Yukes Working On AEW's Video Game Could Be A Disaster

This week a lot of people expressed excitement over the announcement of AEW working out a deal with Yukes to developer their video game.... but that could be a disaster in my opinion. 

 

 

Today's Notes 11/13/20

Good Afternoon Everyone...

Last night's Star Trek Online stream actually went only three hours, mainly because the two missions 'Doomed to Repeat' and 'Quark's Lucky Seven' are very.... very dialog heavy. If you let everything play out, they each take an hour to do. Add onto this the fact I had to retrain my Cardassian Captain again because of yet more changes made by the developers as indicated in the patch notes I included in yesterdays post, and we did two task force operations as well... it made for a full stream.

The positive side of this is that we passed the fun along to DaemonsW0lf (twitch.tv/daemonsw0lf) who you know has done about 99% of the artwork seen on my channel and merchandise. She was playing a fascinating visual novel puzzle game called "Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors" which seems like it falls right in my wheelhouse because remember last December I went through all three games of the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy. 

Today's Fitness Boxing session was pretty solid, as I stuck with Strength & Cardio at 35 minuets once again. I continue to hate left-right step movements but hey kept all score above 90 which is good!

  

I'm not totally sure what will be on tonight's stream agenda over on twitch.tv/fredcasden  it could be a night of variety just bouncing from game to game. Could try a bunch of NES / SNES games through my Switch just to see how well I do with them. Who knows!

Anyway, we'll see ya later regardless, hope you have a great day!

Today's Notes 11/12/20

Good Afternoon Everyone....

Turns out this is gonna be a tough week as work as slowed down to barely a crawl, and I can't tell if certain people involved with setting assignments are 'playing favorites'... they say it's not a thing, but c'mon, when I see 'production chart' and see people are getting work that have a much lower production rate than me, I have to suspect something is up.

Anyway, last night I wasn't really sure on what to stream so we just continued Mass Effect, knocking out more side-quests and things, in particular the Dr. Heart quest for Garrus and  the Family Armor quest for Wrex, basically ensuring their loyalty of sorts to Shepard. It's not so much an issue with Garrus but for Wrex it's a big deal considering the impossible decision that comes up on Virmire later in the game. 

As anyone whose followed the brief Animal Crossing New Horizons notes I've posted on Twitter knows, Cube became one of my favorites, but by accident I learned of a featured where if someone is visiting your island and if you don't have room for them they can ask to trade spots with one of your residents... and well I lost Cube. Which makes me wonder can residents eventually move back to the island? Cause sucka gots to know.

Today's Fitness Boxing session was a Strength and Cardio set, at the 'recommended' time length of 35 minutes. Pretty solid for the most part, and once again, moving back and forth and trying to stay in rhythm has led to less pain from my left knee. 

   

 Tonight's stream over on twitch.tv/fredcasden is going to be Star Trek Online, as we continue the journey of my Cardassian in the Klingon Empire, we'll be tackling 3 episodes for sure, maybe even 4 since it's the second half of the Gamma Quadrant story arc. The Best Served Cold event also starts up this week and there are a bunch of patch notes which I'll post below.

Event:  

• Best Served Cold Event:   
  • Best Served Cold is a Featured Task Force Operation New to Star Trek Online! 
    • Earn Daily Progress toward a new grand prize reward by working together with four other Alliance Captains to accomplish battle objectives and ultimately force Aakar from the region. 
  • Participating in this Event will give all players the opportunity to win the Nanopulse Targ Combat Pet 
  • This TFO can be accessed via the new Event UI, accessible within your Mission Journal by pressing on the “Events” Tab. 
• Rewards:  
  • Accruing a total of 14 days’ worth of Daily Progress will allow you to  claim all of these rewards: 
    • Nanopulse Targ (Combat Pet) 
    • 25,000 Dilithium Ore (once only). 
    • 3x Featured TFO Reward Boxes (once only). 
      • This box gives your choice of an Enhanced Universal Tech Upgrade or a Captain Specialization Point Box. 
  • Bonus Rewards: 
    • After claiming the Grand Prize, you will unlock the option of earning additional Dilithium Ore each day, beginning at 8,000 Dilithium Ore for the first day’s completion, and increasing for subsequent days. 
  • Zen Buyout Option:  
    • For Captains interested in instantly completing the Best Served Cold Event, we will be offering the option to purchase the remaining progress of this event at a scaling amount of Zen, as with other recent events. 
  • A Second Chance:  
    • Progress after the Event has ended will remain in an all new Second Chance interface, allowing the option to buyout rewards long after the Event has expired.  

For more information, please visit the “It Is Very Cold...in Space” blog at: https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/11480683-it-is-very-cold...in-space 

General:  

• The Loadout system has undergone several improvements:  
  • Space Traits are now included in loadouts. 
  • Ship Visuals settings now included in loadouts.  
  • Active Reputation Traits have been separated into Active Reputation Ground Traits and Active Reputation Space Traits. 
    • If Captains have unlocked the fifth trait slot, this will be unlocked for both categories.  
• Improved Auto Hail system to offer next available missions more efficiently.  
• Resolved an issue in the episode, “Khitomer Discord”, that was preventing credit from being given when rescuing all 15 civilians.  
• The title earned by reaching Tier 5 in the Iconian Resistance Reputation has been changed from "Iconian Resistance Elite" to "Iconian Resistance Veteran" so that it is different from the one earned by completing this Reputation's 3-piece ground set. 

 

Systems:  

• The Mirror Escort Carrier [T6] now uses the same scaling methods as other T6 ships: 
  • It can now be upgraded to T6X. 
  • Captains below level 40 will lose access to one or two console slots while leveling up. 
    • For those Captains, all currently slotted consoles will continue to function, and can additionally be unequipped from their current slot 
• All Ground Combat Pets last 5 minutes (down from a max of 10 minutes). 
• All Ground Combat Pets will remain alive and active for their full duration regardless of combat status, unless they are defeated by enemies. 
• Elachi Turret and Drone Devices found on the Lobi Store no longer share a cooldown with Ground Combat Pets. 
• Bio-Engineered Furiadon may no longer be summoned in regions marked as "Vacuum" areas. 
• Holographic Combat Drone (Exocomp) may no longer be summoned while Cloaked.
  

And with that hope you all have a great day!

Today's Notes 11/11/20

Good Afternoon Everybody...

Last night's stream of Mass Effect probably bored the hell out of most people expecting me to do a lot more of the big plot planets... but all we did was went to pick up Liara, and then focused on side-questing around the galaxy. I've played this game enough times on PC to know the best approach is to take the long way around before getting to Feros or Noveria, because you'll be properly leveled up to have most if not all of Shepard and the gang's abilities maxed out. Since this is a clean start on the Xbox 360 version, I pretty much want every advantage I can get... particularly since I'm manually putting in the upgrade points for Shepard.. That said, some may have been surprised at how I basically nixed the idea of having Shepard romance Liara.... well lets just say I'm still bitter about Liara's 'Thane is basically dead already' line from Mass Effect 3 after romancing her in the first game and then Thane in the second. So I'm thinking we'll be going Shepard / Kaiden this go round with a twist when it comes to who lives and who dies on Virmire.

This morning's Fitness Boxing session was alright, solid 45 minuet workout, kept it on cardio and actually ended up with a solid sweat going, either because its very muggy or the heater kicked in and I didn't noticed. Either way, I felt no pain in my left knee which was good.

 There was another Windows 10 update, and I wonder what it broke this time in terms of various settings that takes way too long to program. I get it, it's for security precautions and to put out new features, but does it really need to reset my preferred set up every single time?

So remember how this week I was supposed to have Jury Duty on Monday (11/9) then on Saturday I find out it was pushed back to Thursday (11/12) which meant I had to scramble to make sure my job knew which days I would have and would not be available (due to transportation to and from the local court house) ? I went over to https://www.njd.uscourts.gov this morning and logged into the e-Juror page to see my current status which reads: "Your jury service for this term has ended. You are no longer required to report as previously instructed and need not check for any further instructions. We thank you for serving as a juror in the United States District Court." And here's the best part, it also says "The database was last updated on 09-Nov-20 04.25.11 PM".... Now take a wild guess at how ticked off I am after seeing that...

On a side note, what the fuck is up with various Trump Die Hards around the country, are they delusional or just plain underdeveloped mentally? 

I'm not totally sure what we're doing with tonight's stream will be, but we'll be doing something over on twitch.tv/fredcasden that's for sure! 

Have a great day!

Today's Notes 11/10/20

 Good afternoon everybody...

You ever have the feeling of when you got to bed you don't exactly fall asleep right away, and thus you lay in bed for a couple of hours only to then fall asleep... thus ruining whatever you had plan for the morning? Yeah that happened to me last night... and so I didn't formally wake up until 11:30 AM. So for today's Fitness Boxing session I switched it to Cardio only, solid workout, not as intense as a Strength and Cardio routine, but hey it get the day started.

Last night, we went through the Southpaw Regional Wrestling and Empire of Tomorrow DLC for WWE 2K20... and let me again stress the point that the in-match objectives are just idiotic and actually ruin the charm of these alternative universes. This is why I'm really reluctant of wanting to do the Four Horsewomen content on stream, because that is nothing but matches with certain objectives to be done because they are 'recreations of actual events'.... and while this gimmick was cute back with the Legends of WrestleMania game which was all about re-creating matches, this has really played itself out and should be not be including in the next installment in the WWE 2K series. Something that became painfully obvious was how the developers basically ended up not caring about the final product as most of the character models in the Empire of Tomorrow package were extremely generic looking.  

Tonight's stream more likely will be a continuation of Mass Effect which we started up this past Saturday, probably bopping around the galaxy and side-questions... maybe pick up Liara as well. We'll see for certain.The stream will start at 9:30 PM EST, if I can start earlier due to lack of work (which ironically I hope is not the case) I will.

In other news, my 'The Gang Saves Democracy" t-shirt arrived today, and say what you want about Amazon, but they are pretty damn accurate when it comes to saying an item will arrive on a certain day... as long as it's not your Prime Delivery Day, then it'll get pushed back to the next day (or so it seems based on some of my recent orders).

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