Two More Gyms and One More Titan Conquered

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Pokemon Violet was certainly more the 'how the hell do I get to where I need to go' aspect, but following a plan of doing things in a set order does mean I'm pretty much over powered in a number of different aspects. Meowscarada can basically one shot most things at level 56, since I have her with two dark type moves, one grass type and one fairy type moves. I'm certainly leaning into doing the rest of this game as I did Pokemon Shield and just over level my core team to brute force my way through the elite four. I mean it worked in Shield & Let's Go Eevee... and technically did in Shining Pearl.

We did conquer two Gyms, the ones for Ghost type, which happened to be the one 'duos' style of battling area I've seen in game, plus the Psychic gym. Again Meowscarada basically did all the heavy lifting in both areas. Figuring out how to 'catch up' with Iron Treads, the Quaking Earth Titan, took way too long for me to realize, but we made short work of him.

Noat this point, I have One Gym left, two Team Star Bases and one more Titan to conquer before starting the string of end game battles. But also discovered there are Shrines where if certain things are removed Legendary 'ruin' Pokemon may be freed to possible battle and / or captured. I doubt I'll go that far as most sites are calling the pursuit of the Shrines to be 'post-credits' content.

For the raid we dropped in on PowerThumbz as they were playing Prey over at twitch.tv/powerthumbz!

Stream Clip Links

• Final Hit In The Ghost Gym
• Flower Trick For The Win... Again 
• Victory In The Psychic Gym
• Defeating Iron Treads, the Quaking Earth Titan 
  

Mom first day of Radiation Therapy went well from what she told me, the biggest issues yesterday being with the prearranged Uber and Lyft rides which clearly are not taking into account how quickly she can move. Most of her therapy sessions are in the afternoons, which gives plenty of time to get her ready... but I'm worried about the ones that are schedules for mornings. If anyone would be kind to donate to her GoFundMe, it would be greatly appreciated: https://gofund.me/6adf8354

Started writing the latest WWE commission story request, may end up going with the promo set up route for it, since it's easy to write without me having to track down actual TV segments. Did got a large portion written after the stream.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2  daily workout featured Weaving Combo #1, Body Hook Combo and Beginner Combo #1 for 28 minutes.

What did the clock do when it was hungry? It went back four seconds.

Song of the Day: Big Fun 2017 by Inner City

For tonight's stream, Iceman made me aware that he may not be able to join us, so we may still only with Fall Guys or pair it with Ghostbusters Spirits Unleashed or MultiVersus if I decied no t to play Fallout 76. Regardless Fall Guys will be featured to start things off!

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

 https://gofund.me/6adf8354

The futher you get into Pokemon Violet, the longer it takes to get places!

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Pokemon Violet saw my first objective being trying to get to the next Team Star base which featured Atticus his wave of Poison Pokemon. The raid and battle was no problem, but the open world aspect of Pokemon Violet certainly meant it took awhile to get from point A to point B. Still, the big thing with it was the revelation that Team Star were victims of how bad the Academy handled issues of bullying.  

In terms of the Gym Battles, I went after the Normal Gym next, and the Gym Test being basically beating other trainers for their clues was a lot more straight forward than the obvious 'do someone's job for them' approach the previous gyms did. It was really not much of a challenge... but then again I have my team of Pokemon in the high-40s so at the very least I could brute force my way though most battles.

We ended the night with me trying to figure my way to get to the Ghost Gym, and this  is where the title of today's blog comes in, as I found myself in the ice mountain areas, which feels huge. I kind of feel I was lucky to find a Poke'Center. Yes I know, Picnicking is almost as good as visiting a Poke'Center, but since I'll be featuring Pokemon Violet tonight... I wanted to be in a good spot.

Also the surprise trade has resulted in some wonderful one sided trades in my favor, such as trading a Hoppip and getting an Espeon (an evolved form of Eevee) in return!

For last night's raid we dropped in on AnnieTalksShow as they were playing Overwatch 2 over at twitch.tv/annietalksshow!

Stream Clip Links

• The Fall of Team Navi
• Conquering The Normal Gym! 
• Meowscarada Brings It Down!
  

Today my mom goes for her first radiation therapy session, and she is a little nervous about it. Everyone has been telling it it'll be fine, and the doctors know what they are doing... but it is a little scary considering everything. Fingers crossed everything goes well.  We are raising funds to help cover the medical expenses, for my information please visit my mom's GoFundMe at https://gofund.me/6adf8354

Finished writing the Callisto Protocol commission request, and I think it turned out okay, but got another commission request for a WWE short story to be based around The OC vs The Judgement Day feud.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Hook Combo #2, Advanced Combo #2 and Left-Right Step Combo for 31 minutes.

How do you find Will Smith in the snow? Just follow the fresh prints!

Song of the Day: I Was Made For Lovin’ You by KISS

As mentioned earlier, we shall continue Pokemon Violet this evening as a way to get back into a groove of featuring a main game on Mondays and Tuesdays. Our initial objective is to make it to the Ghost Gym!

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

Yesterday was a good day

Good afternoon everyone,

Yesterday we had quite a lot of family come by to visit for Christmas, and it was awesome. In one big way it certainly brought a smile to my mom's face with everyone being there, in another it was the first time my cousins got to my brother's kids, and they hit it off famously, which was awesome to see. It really was an incredibly day.

Of course the topic of what's going on with mom came up, with her starting her radiation treatments on Tuesday, so we have that to contend with in the coming days. I think we've prepared at much as possible to make sure she's comfortable, and I'm hoping the treatments will help provide some pain relief for her. If anyone would like to donate to her gofundme in her fight against cancer, you can do so at: https://gofund.me/6adf8354

Last night's stream of Overwatch 2 was... problematic, as my upload speed and latency were all over the place from the time I started too about about 9:30 PM ish. These were similar to what happened on Friday evening, when everything went to crap on my Birthday stream. I basically kept the stream going and extended it till about 1:15 AM, so we still ended up with 3 Hours and 30 minutes of footage for the YouTube Archive. I did DM Xfinity Support and they did admit there some signal concern, and I know for a fact it has nothing to do with the modem or cables, it has to do with their own infrastructure that serves the area.

Anyway, we we got in plenty of matches as Lucio, Junker Queen, Junkrat, Torbjourn and other characters, with one Play of the Game added to the month as Junker Queen. We completed the Season 2 Battle Pass, so now it's just progression to see if we can get all the prestige titles for the season. Big thank you to BangBangBang for being apart of a lot of the matches.

For the raid, we sent all the viewers over to x9abenonymous9x who was playing Resident Evil: The Director's Cut over at twitch.tv/x9abenonymous9x!

Stream Clip Links

• Actually doing something as Echo
• No I'm not 
• That answer that question 
  

Got a good portion of the Callisto Protocol short story commission written yesterday before family came by. I'll probably finish it this afternoon or after the stream.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Double Combo #1, Body Straight Combo and Body Uppercut Combo for 28 minutes.

What do you call HIJKLMNO? H20!

Song of the Day: Too Good At Goodbyes by Sam Smith

For tonight's stream, the plan is to continue Pokemon Violet. I actually forgot where I left off at, so we'll see what direction I want to head in.

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

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone,

Last night's stream of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax didn't have any problems at all, which was great because we dived into the story mode, starting with the recap of Persona 4 Arena. I really enjoyed how the story mode for P4AU switches from character to character to see how the story flows as one narrative instead of replaying the story from different points of view for the entire cast. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed P4A's story mode and the hilarious moments it had, but going from the very beginning of events was a bit tedious. We also did an arcade run with Yukiko, and picked up a couple of trophies.

Now Persona 4 Arena Ultimax will be back on it's designated night of Friday this week, as the variety night will be on New Year's Eve. Which means Overwatch 2 will be the first game we stream in 2023.

Big thank you to Kalenal for the raid following their stream featuring Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal! 

For my own raid, we dropped in on TracyDoll during their stream of Friday the 13th THe Game over at twitch.tv/tracydoll! 

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Trophies

• The P-1 CLIMAX Begins!: You started an episode in Story Mode.
• Good Job!: You achieved a Perfect victory in Arcade or Network Mode!
• Nice Burst!: Failed a Reversal Burst in Arcade or Network Mode.
  

 Stream Clip Links

• Now Is Not The Time...
• Rise's Persona Has Evolved! 
• Dear Cherry Blossoms
  

The inclement weather delayed the start of my mom's radiation therapy on Friday, and was pushed back to Tuesday. We are raising money for her in her fight against cancer, you can donate via her gofundme at: https://gofund.me/6adf8354

Finished the 6th chapter of the Mass Effect series of short story commission yesterday, and those are have been a blast to write, looking forward to when the request for a 7th one comes in. In the mean time, I now have a commission request to write a story based on The Callisto Protocol, which I know nothing about... but I think I can scrape something together if I keep some details vague enough.

While we have finished 60 games this year during my Twitch broadcasts, the total of different games played was 127. This is due to the fact of having quite a more reoccurring games in comparison to last year.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Uppercut Combo #2, Front-Back Step Combo and Defensive Combo #1 for 28 minutes.We also unlocked the last two EX Achievements!

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements

• Martina's Champion: Train with Martina for over 50 hours
• King EX Fighter: Acquire All EX Achievements
  

It's the start of a new week which means it's time to recap last week's featured games which included Overwatch 2, Pokemon Violet, ABZU, Smite, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2, SoulCalibur II HD Online, Fall Guys, Fallout 76, Final Fantasy XIV, DKO Divine Knockout, Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, APBA Baseball for Windows, & Persona 4 Arena Ultimax!

What did the lawyer wear to court? A lawsuit!

Song of the Day: Last Christmas by Wham!

For tonight's stream, Overwatch 2 is planned, start of the stream might be delayed slightly because some family is coming to visit during the afternoon.

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

Well My Birthday started good.. then the winds screwed everything up

 Good afternoon everyone,

Well my 40th Birthday yesterday was a real mixed bag in so many ways. For one my mom's first radiation treatment was cancelled due to the inclement weather. So that's been pushed back to Tuesday. If you would like to donate to help with some of the medical expenses, you can do so at https://gofund.me/6adf8354. In fact we had one donation during yesterday's stream that pushed the total raised so far past the $1,000 mark. Thank you very much!

As for the stream, we started at 1:30 PM, and it's a good thing we did, We started with DKO Divine Knockout, getting several wins as Athena over the course of the first two hours, then after a break to check up on my mom, we played Ghostbusters Spirits Unleashed, and was getting into a good groove until 4:55 PM when the weather started causing havoc, as I experienced a noticeable inability to keep a steady upstream connection. .

We switch the stream over to Just Chatting, doing a couple of games of APBA Baseball, made a Mass Effect squad member tier list, but at 7 PM I ran out of things to do under a Just Chatting format, and with the constant stream resets. Bandwidth tests using TwitchTest showed no 0 quality, which only occurs when there was an major issue. I called Xfinity, and was was told that numerous people were starting to call in reporting the same issue.

So needless to say my Birthday ended up being a real downer. At the very least, the Twitch VOD version of the first 3+ hours is in the archives.

I do want to thank those who kicked in 600 bits during the stream and to scotchboxvr for the raid, following their stream of Evil West over at twitch.tv/scotchboxvr

Getting back what we managed to do in terms of games, we did get a couple of achievements.

Divine Knockout Achievements

• Traveler’s Tall Tale: Achieved 'Traveler’s Tall Tale'
• KO Collection Gold: Achieved 'KO Collection Gold'

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Achievements

• Right back at ya: Break a tether and down the buster who tethered you within 10 seconds

Stream Clip Links

• Triple Knockout... 3 for 1!
• Just being a Teddy Bear 
• The Eagle Has Landed?
  

For the raid, we dropped in over on the official twitch channel for Mystery Science Theater 3000 over at https://www.twitch.tv/mst3k

Because my birthday stream was cut short i went and did some writing on the sixth chapter of the Mass Effect series of short story commission requests.

Also made some more progress on the Overwatch season 2 battle pass, though my latency was all over the pace until things settled down around 12:30 AM. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Defensive Combo #2, Triple Combo #2 and Intermediate Combo #1 for 31 minutes

How can you make seven an even number? Just take away the "s"!

Song of the Day: Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms 

For tonight's stream, the plan is to start the story mode of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. Here's hoping Xfinity gets things sorted so we can have a full stream.

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

Today's my 40th Birthday

Good morning everyone and Happy Birthday to me...

This afternoon my mom begins radiation therapy in her fight against lung caner. I want to begin the day by saying thank you to everyone who has been so supportive. It really has kept my head straight, and I've passed along anything said in the chats regarding my mom to her. If anyone would like to donate to her GoFundMe, visit: https://gofund.me/6adf8354

Last night's stream featured Final Fantasy XIV, as I continuing my quest of doing all the side quests, finding some things that link sub-stories together, such as the troll who eventually learns how to speak and the moogles from the Twelvewoods meeting their sky island living cousins. It was a pretty chill and relaxing stream on all fronts. We also did once Alliance Raid, and I remembered instantly how much I hate the ones associated with the NieR franchise.

Stream Clip Links

• Just your typical finish to a raid
• Aye... of course... 
• It meowed?!
  

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal who was also playing Final Fantasy XIV, with a big focus on doing the Rival Wings PVE content over at twitch.tv/kalenal!

The string of Mass Effect short story commissions continues as the client has moved the series into the Mass Effect 2 era of the story. Finished writing the fifth episode a bit before 4 AM

With Jalen Hurts out of for this week's game against the Cowboys, my two Fantasy Football teams are in danger of losing, well one for sure will certainly lose. The other has a slim chance at winning, but it's Kenneth Walker III is questionable.

I did remember to pop into Pokemon Violet to see the Birthday message at the Pokemon center it was cute for what it was. Also a new Pokemon Scarlet/Violet distribution is running through December 25th, enter HAPPYH0L1DAYS in game to get 50 Ice Tera Shards!. Big thanks to Kalenal for informing me about this. 

Big thank you to the FnDanteSavage for the Xbox gift card! Used that to pick up Anthem and The Council.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Biceps Shape Focus Combo, Difficulty Challenge Combo #3 and Difficulty Challenge Combo #1 for 34 minutes. Today is the 900th consecutive day I've worked out since I got the original Fitness Boxing in the middle of 2020. My weight is currently 245 lbs.

Recorded a Tier List video of ranking 80s Cartoons which will be viewable on my YouTube channel on Monday.

What do you call a belt made out of watches? A waist of time.

Song of the Day: Snow (Hey Oh) by Red Hot Chili Peppers

For my birthday stream I'll start as early as possible, but this does mean I'll be taking breaks to check on my mom once she returns from the hospital. But in terms of what we'll play, it's going to be a variety day of different stuff.

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

Just your typical Wednesday

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream started off with Fall Guys, and we were joined for several Duo shows by FelKimChi. We managed to get to round 3 or round 4 a few times, but we had some wonky luck. As a solo, I only made one appearance in the final round. Also had some really bad attempts in Stomping Grounds. I swear (a lot) that the hit boxes on the Rhinos in that mode change week to week!

After the mid-stream break, we switched over to Fallout 76, and was joined by Iceman in order to help him with some of quests in his trip through the Brotherhood of Steel story arc, with the missions 'Missing Persons' and 'Out of the Blue', the first of which he helped me with... and the later being one I did solo. Was super glad I was able to help him out because the Assaultron Sheep-squatch in 'Out of the Blue' was a real bullet sponge.

Stream Clip Links

• Kobe!
• Lost My Tail But Got It Back 
• Using The Ammo I Normally Don't Use
• Really? The Dog Gets Me? 
  

For last night's raid we dropped in on SweetLindir who was playing Rogue Company over at twitch.tv/SweetLindir!  

Update on my mom, she is scheduled to start radiation treatments on Friday... that's one hell of a birthday present for me. Big thank you to everyone who has been supportive and to those who have donated to her GoFundMe, considering her insurance, its helping covered a fair amount. For more information, please visit: https://gofund.me/6adf8354

I put together the 2022 Gaming Tour Video yesterday, highlight all 60 games we finished on stream. The video can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/0n_MHTIXQeg

Finished work on the fourth straight Mass Effect short story commission. Unlike the recent string of the WWE related ones, these have been fun to write back to back.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Difficulty Challenge Combo #2, Straight Combo #2 and Block Combo for 31 minutes. By my rough math, we should wrap up Martina's Champion EX achievement on either Sunday or Monday.

Why was the snowman looking through a bag of carrots? He was picking his nose. 

Song of the Day: ‘Never Forget You’ by Zara Larsson, MNEK

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Final Fantasy XIV as we'll continue on the Side Quests plus maybe do some daily Roulettes.

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