Today's Notes 12/30/20

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream of The Division 2, which was focused on the latest manhunt this time going after a dude name Kestrel, and of course playing the Division 2 meant we were teaming with Iceman7667, The FnDanteSavage and PowerThumbz. We certainly had a blast going through everything involved, and certainly there was a lot of hilarity going on. But one moment stands out, because towards the end of the stream, Thumbz was talking about getting a set of gear and why he would want it... and well this happened: https://clips.twitch.tv/TentativeFurrySmoothieBleedPurple

Safe to say the set up was totally perfect, and it is not often when I straight up lose it like that in terms of just laughing out right. But come on! Also, this serves as another reminder over how much of a pain in the ass it is to embed anything from twitch.

Also I forgot to get a screenshot of anything from last night's stream, but oh well, is what it is right?

For today's Fitness Boxing 2 session, blocking combos were added, and I think a big change for this was it goes from right to left (orthodox, flip for southpaw) as opposed to the first game which goes left to right (again orthodox, its flipped for southpaw) which made it feel smoother. That's not saying everything i did was perfect, because of the amount of overall misses (and doing things just okay) my fitness age was up at 24.  Also of note, today was the first session in a while where no lower body stretches was done, since there was no ducking, weaving to step motions to work with, and it felt strange not to do the stretches associated with the lower body. 

Tonight we'll be doing a Star Trek Online stream, and we'll more than likely start fairly early as opposed to 9:30 PM EST, since we'll probably tackle either the entire Lost Dominion or Cold War story arcs. Considering both sets of 5-miission story require some serious retooling, it's a good thing I did a rant on the topic of the developers of STO being complete idiots in terms of level gating or removing content important to the overall story of the game.

In other news Mitch McConnell once again said 'fuck you' to the American people, that's the the shock of no one. But it is funny that he's hurting people who voted him into office, folks from the rural parts of Kentucky that are struggling out right. I do remember one person I interviewed for my day gig said they they are voting for McConnell but they they want him to retire on his own terms. Well that stupid mindset is certainly fucking over people across the country. And don't get me started on Chuck Schumer and his attempt to undercut adult performers on the internet (some of which I happen to know because of other connections). That said it is nice to be looking forward with Trump increasing in the distance of the rear view mirror.

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

Today's Notes 12/29/20

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream of ESPN Major League Baseball (aka ESPN Baseball 2K4), saw my 2004 Phillies going 5-1 in a six game road trip, taking 2 of 3 from the Expos and sweeping the Cardinals. Perhaps my favorite moment from last night was the 12th inning 2-Run home run by David Bell (https://clips.twitch.tv/TiredAdorableHabaneroArgieB8), since that particular game was the first time we went to extra frames. Next time we play ESPN MLB, we'll be on a home stand hosting the Diamondbacks and The Cardinals. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session felt good, even though my timing from the Southpaw stance was off on nearly everything. Which is just funny considering that my better half of every exercise has been the Southpaw stance as opposed to orthodox! We did pass the 26,000 punches thrown count, so progress is being made. Also on a weigh in this morning  I was exactly at 260 lbs, so I'm doing a good job of keeping my weight where I want, with the hope of dropping more poundage. It's a marathon not a sprint after all.

I went to DaemonsW0lf (www.darkwolfcreative.com) with an idea I had for next year's big t-shirt piece, which will feature my bunny mascot as the fourth Doctor from Doctor Who, arriving in a Tardis in the 'lounge', now who he'll see first was actually chosen by DaemonsW0lf, and she selected Samus Aran, Commander Jane Shepard and Tracer, representing Metroid, Mass Effect and Overwatch. When I saw the preliminary sketch, first thing that popped to mind was that our cosplaying time lord Bunny was arriving during ladies night, which considering the overall reputations of Samus, Shepard and Tracer is hell of thing to drop in on. I can't wait to see the finish image! 

For tonight's stream we'll be returning to The Division 2 in another night of co-op madness as the next manhunt will begin, and if you have seen the more recent streams of the Division 2 which have involved Iceman, PowerThumbs and FnDanteSavage you know there will a whole lot of silliness going on.And since I already got word about other things, I know I'll probably start a bit early just to say I was on time!

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

Today's Notes 12/28/20

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch was a lot of fun, big thanks to PandaSweet and Nteasie for joining in on several matches each. Perhaps the big highlight was a moments was an ultimate I did with D.va that lead to a quintuple kill. (which can be seen here: https://clips.twitch.tv/WrongImportantLarkMingLee - Twitch doesn't allow embedding T_T) I believe I had four plays of the game last night as well, this particular D.va play, and ones as Torb, Moira and even McCree. Now the question is when will I start work on this years video which would collect all of the plays of the game I earned over the course of this year because there is a chance I might get a couple more because on Tuesday, the final week of the winter event begins which requires 9 wins to get the Roadhog 'Frosty' skin. So I'm up in the air on that.

This morning, we did a bonus stream, which lead off with Fitness Boxing 2, we went 45 minuets (50+ if one counts the stretching). I actually had a moment where I totally felt and knew I missed a punch. Also had an real awkward moment where I didn't realize what the sequence of punches / movements were leading to another miss. Outside of that, and a badly timed duck, I felt everything was in good form from start to finish. The standing side thigh stretches can go fuck off however (HA!) 

Of course with a bonus stream, it meant we did some Animal Crossing New Horizons, which was mostly going around my island checking in on the residents, as Maggie is moving out. There was an odd moment where Ozzie apparently had a fight with Antonio, which was resolved by me making a delivery from the former to the latter, but man, talk about weird. Again it strikes me as odd that there are little drama moments in Animal Crossing of all things!

The bonus stream closed out with a quick run of Super Mario Bros 35, and I finished in 3rd place because of a badly timed jump. Can't finish in first all the time, but I'll take a top three finish when I can get it don't you know!. 

Tonight's stream will be focused on ESPN Major League Baseball (aka ESPN Baseball 2K4), as we'll be continuing the 2004 season with the Philadelphia Phillies, as I believe we'll be on the road. Since I already know certain things are off the table for tonight, we'll probably start early so we can complete six games (or two series). 

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

Today's Notes 12/27/20

Good afternoon everybody,

A new week begins as the year comes to an end and boy I think we are all hoping for 2021 to get here as soon as possible so we can put a lot of things behind us.

Last night's stream featuring Zero Escape: The Nonary Games was a lot of fun on my first play through of it, getting the awesome Ax ending where my joking nickname for Clover being 'cleaver' because she totally gave off the psycho vibe when I saw DaemonsW0lf playing this game was proven to be true. Just looking at the sentence back and yup, confirmed I type how I speak as in 'not well'. Anyway it was a pretty straight forward affair, as again, seeing the game recently streamed on DaemonsW0lf's channel meant I had a good idea of how to handle certain puzzles so to get through to the Ax ending it took six hours. I'm thinking to pursue the other endings, we'll play this game straight out again until we get the true ending... so almost a guarantee Saturday nights will seem like re-runs, but hey it's a great replacement for Twitch Sings to kick off the new year.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session saw the addition of Front-Back step movements and boy was I dreading those, as my timing with them was horrible. On top of that, I accidentally advanced the screens ahead, meaning I couldn't see exactly what punches were badly timed from either the orthodox and southpaw stances. We did pass 24,000 in terms of total punch count today for FB2, so we'll take what we can get for daily note purposes. 

Over in Animal Crossing New Horizons, Maggie will be moving off of my island, now I can safely say the only ones I know for sure that I'm never letting leave are Antonio, Agnes, Blanche, Audie and Skye, as their personalities seem to gel very well. I'm still kicking myself for letting Sherb replace Cube, even if they have the same quirks, Cube was awesome. Also picked up the Island Togetherness stamp which was a result of chatting with all the residents on my island on 50 different days. So progress made.

Tonight being Sunday means of course Overwatch is on the agenda, and of course we'll be playing the PC version, even though I have the ability to play it on Xbox One and Switch. Blizzard really dropped the ball in terms of not developing cross play, or at the very least allowing cross-progress tracking. Oh well, hopefully that gets resolved with Overwatch 2, which we should learn more about in about a month or so if what I'm seeing is correct.

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

Highlights for the Week of December 20, 2020

Here are highlights from twitch.tv/fredcasden for the week of December 20, 2020. This week's games included Overwatch, Fitness Boxing 2, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Super Mario Bros 35, The Shivah, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, ESPN Baseball 2K4, Twitch Sings, Star Trek Online, The 39 Steps and Zero Escape: The Nonary Games! 

Today's Notes 12/26/20

Good afternoon everybody,

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, as now we prepare to end 2020, a year most of us will want to forget! 

Last night's stream was a little different, as we played The 39 Steps. Yes there is a sort of a video game adaptation of the classic book, which is basically a visual novel with some light game play stuff here and there, in terms of finding objects and interacting with a few sequences, but it really is just the story. It made for a nice Christmas night stream, as it prepared me for tonight's stream. 

You see tonight we are starting up a huge visual novel series, Zero Escape: The Nonary Games, which as DaemonsW0lf puts is just anime saw, as it sees a bunch of people put together in a deadly game. While a lot of it is voice acted, a lot of it is not. And it does have puzzles and different sequences that provide a variety of game play elements, so it will as if we are returning to the Phoenix Wright games from a year ago. Except this time I'm not going to try and blitz my way through them, because unlike the Phoenix Wright games, the Zero Escape games have multiple endings that needs to reached before the true ending is revealed.  

Which of course means, no Twitch Sings tonight as out final Twitch Sings stream ever will be on Thursday Night, December 31st... we'll be singing out the new year, which means Star Trek Online is either moving up to Wednesday or back to Friday for this week. Not completely sure which as of yet.

I have decided to stop loading up the original Fitness Boxing, and to focus mainly on Fitness Boxing 2, mostly the workouts in Fitness Boxing 2 are actually exceeding what I was doing in the first game on a daily basis. Today's session did feature the No Mercy set, which never stops being amusing with how mean Lin can get. Anyway, from the Orthodox stance I had some mistimed Jabs, Left Uppercuts and Right hooks, while from the Southpaw stance only right ducks were a little off. I do wish the developers used a different shade of yellow for uppercuts because on combo sequences it's hard to see the indicator because the rhythm bar is also yellow... or maybe they should've used a different color for the rhythm bar, like purple or something.

Did do some Overwatch things as well, and man it was amusing to see how people don't know how to counter Moira on Nintendo Switch side of the coin. The fact that I can I hide behind the payload and just move from left to right, peaking out to attack with no one from the other team coming to counter me just blew my mind. I wasn't using her fade ability, I was literally moving from side to side. I do wish the Switch version of Overwatch had some replay recording dynamics for plays of the game like the PC and Xbox One versions do. Oh well.

And on that bombshell we'll wrap things up here, see ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Video Commentary: My Annoyance Regarding Star Trek Online's Level Gated Content

If you've played Star Trek Online prior to the start of the addition of Star Trek Discovery content, you remember when Spectres, Lost Dominion and Cold War were apart of the journey your character goes on, which lays ground work for things you later experience.... but you can't plat those missions unless your character is level 65... and so I go on a rant about that for this week's commentary.