Today's Notes 12/9/20

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream, which ended up being a triple-coop stream with FnDanteSavage (twitch.tv/fndantesavage) and PowerThumbz (twitch.tv/powerthumbz) as we along with Iceman7667 had a blast doing manhunt things in The Division 2, the highlight video below only shows a small sample of the things we did as it was a barrel of laughs. This was so much fun we'll do it again on Thursday night, which means Star Trek Online will be moved up to tonight! 

 

So with Star Trek Online on the agenda for tonight, I did notice there was a patch update, which means there are notes to share here. Tuesday patch updates rarely happen with STO, and it's normally for large expansions or a lot of new content, but this seems more in-line of the Winter Event that is taking place, which is a big strange. Anyway, here are the patch notes

Star Trek Online Patch Notes 12/8/20

Winter Event:  

• Q has returned to begin this year’s Winter Event!  
• Compete and participate in Winter Events to earn Winter Prize vouchers that can be used to redeem the all new Fek'Ihri Gok'tad Carrier [T6]! 
• This year’s festivities will be integrated into our recently released Event Interface, as part of your Mission Journal. 
• Daily Progress toward earning your new starship can be obtained by participating in any of the following activities: 
  • Fastest Game on Ice 
  • Klingon Ice Fishing 
  • Tides of Ice 
  • The Fast and the Flurrious 
  • Cones of Conduct 
  • The Kramp’Ihri 
• Go to the Winter Vendor and check out this year’s new items! 
  • Purple Nanopulse Discovery-Era Bat'leth. 
  • Brand New Rainbow Sweaters. 
  • Brand New Grethor-Themed Bridge Officer Training Manuals and Kit Modules. 
  • Q's Chair Consumable Item. 
  • Rescue St. Bernard Pet. 
• For more information, please visit our Winter Event blogs at: https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/11479533-q%27s-winter-wonderland%21 

 General:  

• The minimum FoV players can set has been decreased to 35, from 50. 
• The “Ready Ship” and “Switch Ship” button is now visible while selecting any Ship or Shuttle while in Space.  
• Fixed an issue where the Ba'ul Weapon Bounce Passive was improperly triggering certain effects as though it were not a Passive, such as with Kemocite Laced Weapons.
  

 

Did pop into Animal Crossing New Horizons before I started writing this post, and safe to say Ozzie had a weird as hell line to say to me when I dropped by his house as indicated in the screen shot. Ozzie is a bit weird... just a bit LOL.That said, Biff will be moving off my island, as his personality is way to similar to Antonio's in my opinion.

This morning's Fitness Boxing session was pretty solid, did have a few odd misses that I highly question the validity of. I mean come on, if have a series of motions where everything is perfect, then suddenly a few misses through no fault of my own? It's enough as always to make me go 'Dude really?'. Still it will be interesting to see if I can break the 200,000 punches thrown barrier before my copy of Fitness Boxing 2 arrives. 

Wrapped up listening to Doctor Who: The Fearmonger early this morning, which sees the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred) looking to stop a creature that is stoking the fears of the masses to feed on, which of course causes chaos and mayhem during a time when a politician is running for office on a platform based on some rather.... unique positions. In many ways, The Fearmonger story basically can be used as a parallel to the political rise of Donald Trump, with how he makes so much noise to distract from the real issue at hand, setting up counter-protests to cause violence and such that it makes you wonder if The Fearmonger creature in the story is an actual thing. The funny thing, Fearmongers do exists, we just know them as the talking heads like Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson.

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

Today's Notes 12/8/20

Good afternoon everybody,

You know that feeling when you go to sleep, then wake up a few hours later can't get back to sleep but when you do you end up waking much later than you want? Yeah happened to me lol

Anyway, last night's stream of Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories saw me getting through the 9th and 10th floors of Castle Oblivion which covered Hallow Bastion and the 100 Acre Woods, which of course meant we got to hang out with Winnie The Pooh. Kind of like the fact the 100 Acre Woods floor is basically just mini-games acting as a bit of a reprieve before the final leg of the game... and before we ran into the toughest boss in the game yet, Vexen. Now I'm someone who prefers brute force in his RPGs, so needless to say getting through Vexen was quite difficult, took several tries because he is the first boss that actually BLOCKS things out right. On the positive side when I woke up after I went to sleep last night, I did realize I could go back to completed floors and work on leveling up.... so that's what I did for an hour before going back to bed.... and eventually waking up at 1:30 PM.

 

Of course once awake, when I did wake up again, I went right to do Fitness Boxing and in retrospect I probably could've done that instead of level grinding in KHR:COM, but then I'd gone back to sleep lol. Anyway the workout was a good way to get loose and warmed up. I got to remember to balance on the balls of my feet when doing steps as it makes those so much easier to get into sequence with.

Tonight's plans involve playing The Division 2, and maybe teaming up with some buddies for potentially four-player madness. It basically would be just roaming around DC or New York, but it would be a lot of fun if that can happen. Steam will start at about 9:30 PM EST

As of this moment, Twitch Sings still has 3146 songs listed, so the plans for this Saturday's Frank Sinatra & Friends stream looks good to go. Still anything can happen between now and then, so keep those fingers crossed.

I've been giving some thought to doing some Fan Fic writing again, as I do have an idea based on some old promos I saw on YouTube recently. Chances are I'll let these slip on by or pass the ideas along to better writers.

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

Today's Notes 12/7/20

Good afternoon everybody,

We actually got up before 9 AM, so we ended up doing a bonus stream, leading off with Fitness Boxing and we got in a good set. Certainly went all out as always, and even though I had a few questionable misses, but everything felt good. I did go step on the scale today and my weight is around the usual 263-265 pound range (119-120 kilograms). As long as it's not going back up, I'm happy, after all, it was six months ago when I was weight 290! We followed up the Fitness Boxing session with Animal Crossing New Horizons, and I'm seriously wondering what someone was thinking with the pun for the Pond Smelt being 'Whoever Smelt It, Dealt It'... needless to say that was a silly thing to see this morning. We closed out the bonus stream Super Mario Bros 35, finishing with a top 5 finish, and I think I could've finished higher if I didn't jump and spammed using coins to get items... oh well.

Last night's stream of Overwatch certainly was fun and frustrating, because of how cowardly some people are, with how they won't push onto a capture point or move past a choke. It got to the point myself and PandaSweet who joined in for several matches decided to queue up deliberately to place as damage heroes... which lead to an incredibly cool moment of where I got the 'High Noon' achievement, which is getting four eliminations with one use of McCree's 'High Noon' ultimate... okay sure I got killed doing it, but it counts and ended up being a play of the game! 

Tonight's stream will see us going back to Kingdom Heart Re:Chain of Memories, with things picking up as we hit Hallow Bastion, which is the ninth floor of the thirteen within Castle Oblivion. I have thought about the plot of the game since last Tuesday, and the way I figure each floor is basically Sora digging through his memories to recall Namine.... which doesn't make sense, because if I remember what happened in Kingdom Hearts II from 15 years ago, Namine is just a part of Kairi and they merge back together. That is of course the trouble of trying to piece together the plot with the franchise whose plot is filled with so many plot holes.

At the time I'm writing this I finished listening to Doctor Who; The Land of the Dead, which is the fourth of the monthly main range Doctor Who audio drama done by Big Finished, listened to the 3/4ths of it last night before falling asleep. This story sees The Doctor (Peter Davison) and Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) arriving in Alaska, where the Tardis detects an unusual source of energy and the adventure leads to them encountering a strange house, monstrous creatures and simmering tensions involving mysterious circumstances. One of the strangest aspects of this story is the character Monica Lewis (Lucy Campbell) who basically acts as a 'companion by proxy' as she spends the most time working with The Doctor, giving quick witted responses to much of The Doctor's statements. 

And on that bombshell, we'll wrap this up here, we'll see ya later tonight at probably 9:30 PM EST over on twitch.tv/fredcasden! 

Today's Notes 12/6/20

Good afternoon everybody,

Ah Sunday's.... the start of the week, which of course means tonight over on twitch.tv/fredcasden Overwatch is on tap for the weekly chaos and mayhem that game brings. And considering this is the second week of December, that means we'll probably being seeing the start of the Winter Event as well in the near future. Really excited to see what new skins get added.

Of course, the day already started off with Fitness Boxing, with a 40 minute workout.... ok ok, it was 39 minutes I just rounded up. Really a nice session overall with straights, jabs, hooks and body hooks. My timing was a little bit off at times, but overall felt solid. Hell with the weather getting colder, the feeling of of the body warming up doing what is basically an aerobics set is really noticeable.

Last night's Twitch Sings stream was really awesome, being probably the most watched stream I've had of that game since prior to the announcement the game is shutting down on January 1st. As I've avoided last night, the plan to do a tribute to Frank Sinatra on Saturday really depends on his songs still being in the game come the 12th, and I've certainly done my best to have back up tunes as well in case anything gets removed from Twitch Sings. As of 3:45 PM EST today, there are still 3146 songs left on Twitch Sings, which includes everyone I listed in the previous post. So keep your fingers crossed folks.

Big thanks to DaemonsW0lf (twitch.tv/daemonsw0lf) and BluVelvet (twitch.tv/bluvelvet) for the raids last night, it is always cool when folks choose to direct their audience to my pokey little channel. DaemonsW0lf was doing a live reading of Metro 2033 while BluVelvet was also doing a Twitch Sings stream. They are both awesome, and I hope you check both of them out when they are live!

Finished listening to Doctor Who: Whispers of Terror last night, which is such a fun story that sees The Doctor (Colin Baker) and Peri (Nicola Bryant) arrive in an audio museum as mystery involving murder and a political conspiracy is taking place. One of things I love about Colin Baker's portrayal of the Doctor, particularly in the audio form is just how bombastic his voice is, yes he can be really subtle, but the loudness of The Doctor speaks volumes, even when one considers the coat he wears! 

And on that bombshell that will wrap up today's notes, we'll see you over on Twitch at about 7 PM EST! Have a great rest of your day everyone!.

Best of the Week November 29 to December 5, 2020

Here are the best moments from my Twitch Streams for the week of November 29 to December 5, 2020, which features Overwatch, Fitness Boxing, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Super Mario Bros 35, Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, The Division 2, Star Trek Online, Celebrity Deathmatch, Showdown: Legends of Wrestling and Twitch Sings!

 

Upcoming Stream - December 12: Fred Casden Presents A Birthday Tribute To Frank Sinatra

Back in August, I had the idea of dedicating December 12, 2020 to doing nothing but all of the Frank Sinatra songs on that were on Twitch Sings... then Twitch announced they were shutting down Twitch Sings, and on December 1st, a ton of songs were removed including half of the songs listed. Needless I was disappointed... but with the hope that no more songs are removed from Twitch Sings between now and December 13th, the Frank Sinatra Birthday tribute is what I'm planning to do. To fill things out I'll include songs from Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr, Vera Lynn, Louis Prima, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole and Marilyn Monroe. 

Obviously I'll be performing a lot of solos, but hopefully I'll find duets that night to work with to include others in this celebration of The Chairman of the Board.

Again this will be for Saturday December 12, 2020, starting at 7 PM EST over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

Fingers crossed that all songs listed below are still on Twitch Sings come this Saturday!

Frank Sinatra
Bad, Bad Leroy Brown
Fly Me To The Moon
Fly Me To The Moon (Slow Version)
I Get A Kick Out of You
I've Only Have Eyes For You
I've Got The World On A String
I've Got You Under My Skin
Love's Been Good To Me
Luck Be A Lady
Luck Be A Lady (Live)
My Funny Valentine
My Way
Old Devil Moon
One For My Baby
Summer Wind (Solo)
The Lady Is A Tramp
The Way You Look Tonight
Witchcraft
You Make Me Feel So Young

Sammy Davis Jr
I've Gotta Be Me 

Bing Crosby
White Christmas

Dean Martin
Baby, It's Cold Outside
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
On The Street Where You Live
Return To Me
Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On
Since I Met You Baby
Sway (Quien Sera)
True Love

Ella Fitzgerald
All The Things You Are
Blue Moon
Blue Skies
Cheek To Cheek
Cry Me A River
How High The Moon
I Love Paris
Let's Do It (Fall In Love)
Love For Sale
Misty
My Funny Valentine
Puttin' On The Ritz
Stormy Weather
Too Darn Hot

Louis Prima
Just A Gigolo / I Ain't Got Nobody

Marilyn Monroe
Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

Nat King Cole
(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons
When I Fall In Love
Autumn Leaves

Vera Lynn
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square

Today's Notes 12/5/20

Good afternoon everybody,

As the sun sets I get around to writing today's notes, where does the day go when you wake up in the middle of afternoon LOL. Anyway, got the Fitness Boxing session done first today, it was a good workout with actually the sets included building up on one another as opposed to feeling like they were randomly selected by the game.... granted the sets in the sessions are always randomly selected by the game, but to have today's order actually felt like it each one was added to motions that were done before it if that makes sense. It probably doesn't.

 

Made sure to drop on my Island of Ocean View, and it's always nice to see what my residents are up to at different times of day. Granted there is always that odd circumstance of one not being anywhere to be found that just puzzles the hell out of me. So if you're wondering why the screenshot from Animal Crossing New Horizons is at the top, that's why. Besides what Audie said was really cool.

Re-listened to Doctor Who: Phantasmagoria, which was the second Doctor Who Main Range story rleeased by Big Finish Production way back in 1999, with Peter Davison and Mark Strickson reprising their roles as The Doctor and Turlough respectively. The story is that the Tardis lands in London in the late 1700s where patrons of a local gaming house have been going missing, It's a fun adventure to listen too, with all the subtle details and clues of what's going on gradually being revealed, with a nice subplot involving a mysterious highwayman adding to the intrigue with a forward-thinking twist that is both very obvious and yet still surprising at the same time.

Last night's stream over on twitch.tv/fredcasden was focused on two games from the PlayStation 2 era, the first being Celebrity Deathmatch, which of course was based on the show of the same name that aired on TV. For as good as it looks in terms of representing the source material, it certainly comes across as button masher. Some of the finishers are really creative and hold up nicely (such as Mr T's A-Team Van Drop) while others look like they were basically out of Mortal Kombat (such as Busta Rhymes' Kung Fury Chops). Perhaps the best finisher is Jerry Spinger's Final Thoughts which uses some of the set pieces from his talk show to give it the proper atmosphere. Best part is since my old memory cards still work, I had my save file so we were able to do matches as every character in the game.CD does have an Episodes mode, which is basically 6 blocks of 3 matches, so we might take a night to go through it in order to count this game on the Gaming Tour

The second game was ShowDown Legends of Wrestling, and I can safely say, remember how to play this was a lot more interesting and fun than dealing with the controls for WWE 2K20. We only did 5 matches, but because of how the game is laid out, the matches ended up being longer than almost anything seen in more recently standard 1 on 1 matches within the WWE 2K series. Jimmy Hart's fingerprints are all over the music with his knack of doing obvious covers that are tweaked just enough to avoid trouble. Still it was a lot of fun to revisit this game on a random Friday night. While there isn't a story or career mode, there is a Challenge mode of sorts, to replay specific matches, similar to what the WWE 2K series has done the past few years with the Four Horsewomen, Daniel Bryan and Attitude Era modes... so maybe if I go through that we can count SD:LOW on the gaming tour as well.

With it being Saturday, we'll be doing Twitch Sings tonight as we continue to march closer to the day the music dies....or when the game shuts down on January 1, 2021. The current count for songs still in the game is at 3146, so nothing has been removed following the initial purge at the start of the week. Since I've done some off stream duets this week, I won't have many to start with tonight. We'll get the ball rolling at about 7 PM EST over on twitch.tv/fredcasden! 

And that will wrap up today's note, have a great evening!