Today's Agenda 10/30/20

Good Afternoon Everyone!

We got today off to a decent start, if a little late with Fitness Boxing with a 46 minute workout session. I did do things a bit out of order as I had breakfast before the exercising... so it was a bit weird.

Last night's Star Trek Online stream went about 3 hours, as we wrapped up the New Ftonier story-arc for my Cardassian Captain in the Klingon Empire, which means next week we'll be doing the first half of the Gamma Quadrent arc, which of course involves the Deep Space Nine crew. On a side note, the ship I'm currently using for this character, the M'Chla-class Pilot Bird-of-Prey, is one of the worst ships in the game, particularly with a cannon build, as keeping the enemy ships in front is very problematic due to how awkward (and at will) the ship engages its afterburners / thrusters on its own. 

With the General Election next week, work for me starts to slow down as it's that time of year where things start getting a little tight with income, but the silver lining of this cloud is that I will have a few more hour avalible to do stream things. Which means tonight's stream will probably start earlier and we'll end up doing... different things as there is a good chance this will be a variety stream tonight over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

Of course with Today being Friday that means this week's commentary video is now up, and it's a review of Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgAT29eISz8

That will wrap up today's notes, see ya later!

Review - Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull

This week, I'm giving my thoughts on 2007's "Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull" published by Her Interactive.

If you are interesting in purchasing this game, use my Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/3oGvThx

 

Today's Agenda 10/29/20

Hi everyone, as usual the day started with Fitness Boxing, which again saw a focus on cardio, and we also had to step on the scale today, and it appears I dropped two-tenths of a kilogram to get back to 120 KG (or 264 lbs). I hopefully will be able to drop below that weight, as I would love to get down to 113 KG (or 250 lbs), so I gotta keep at it. 

Last night's stream of Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull ended up being a six hour stream, partially because I got irritated as all hell regarding a 'puzzle' that was actually more of a mini-game involving 'bowling'. In a game where everything is logic based (or nearly everything, some stuff was quite cryptic), a glorified mini-game that revolves around angles and getting pixel-perfect positioning should not count as a puzzle. Now I did plan for Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull to be split into two streams, so finishing it one night means next week's plans are little... up in the air at the moment. That said, I'm considering making this week's commentary video a review of this particular game.

Tonight's stream of course will be at 9:30 PM EST, and the focus will be on Star Trek Online, there were some patch notes for this week: 

• Resolved an issue that was causing slotted Experimental Traits on Starships to revert back to a previously selected trait when moving between maps. 
• Updated the Mirror Universe Bundle description to list that it also includes the Mirror Hakeev Duty Officer in the Zen Store.  
  • This is a text change only.

 So nothing major, as per the usual since we recently got new content with the House Shattered event. Anyway, the plan will be to do three (maybe four) missions for my Cardassian in the Klingon Empire, then maybe do a Special Task Force Operation as well. I don't plan on this stream lasting more than four hours, at the very least it'll last three.We'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

 

Today's Agenda 10/28/20

Hi folks, got up around 10 AM and had a killer 50+ minute workout session with Fitness Boxing, very heavy cardio workout that probably would've looked comical on Twitch is I streamed it. Anyway, later tonight I'll be playing Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull which is the 17th game in the series. Now while I have played Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill (well the remastered version), a lot of the games in the series (namely two to sixteen) have issues with being captured by OBS. Anyway we'll see you later again at 9:30 PM EST over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

Fitness Boxing Resulys 10/27/20

Well I didn't wake up till 11 AM... got so cold I broke out the blankets and when you're all warm and snug in your bed the last thing you want to do is get up! Still I figured what the hell and did a Fitness Boxing stream today, pretty solid Cardio workout. Tonight's 9:30 PM EST stream over on twitch.tv/fredcasden will be focused on Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild!

 

Fitness Boxing Resulys 10/26/20

Day 112.... and I weighed in in at 120.2 KGs.... then again I had a bit of a binge eating fit this weekend at times... and slept a lot yesterday, so yeah a weight gain was probable. Still today's workout was solid, with it being straight up cardio. Tonight over on twitch.tv/fredcasden we'll be playing Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, that will start at about 9:30 PM EST!

Quick Thoughts: Ghostbusters

For yesterday's watch along, the featured movie was Ghostbusters (1984) starring Bill Murrary, Dan Aykroyd and Sigourney Weaver, with Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis and Annie Potts in key supporting roles. Now what can one say about Ghostbusters that hasn't already been said, it's a classic, it's a movie that lead to a cartoon that many folks my age grew up watching, toys and comics, video games. Sure it was not aimed at kids but we were drawn to it because it was something unique and special... and I'm really hoping the next film, Ghostbusters: Afterlife which was pushed back to 2021 due to Covid-19, will be able to remind the world of that particular fact while continuing to bury the existence of the 2016 abomination.

Of course while re-watching it yesterday,  there were somethings that obvious stood out to me, and one is the constant reminder of just how tall Sigourney Weaver is, particularly in scenes where she's paired off with Rick Moranis and when she first goes to Ghostbusters HQ and looking down at Annie Potts who is sitting behind the reception desk. Whenever I try to think of another film that unintentionally (or intentionally) draws attention to Weaver's height, I fail to think of one, either because she ends up in movies where everyone she is sharing the screen with is around six-feet tall, or there is a lot of 'Tom Cruise style trick photography' being used to make her co-stars seem taller than they really are.

Now while some of the special effects hasn't aged as well as one would expect for a film that is going to be 40 years old in 2024, there was something that certainly looks increasingly dated and that's the sound stage set for Gozer's temple at the end of the film, where one can actually there is no depth to the surrounding New York skyline which is really noticeable on certain lighting effects. Also when the Ghostbusters are stumbling around when the structure is being shaken, it looks a little more silly than intended because the camera is incredibly still, so the illusion is a bit broken.

It's in regard to the continuity / editing of the film... while the pacing of the original Ghostbusters is fine, one does noticed that the montage that takes place following the Sedwick Hotel segment and some of the following scene don't exactly line up the way one expects if one is paying attention. The real noticable case is when Winston is hired, the film cuts to another scene and then back to Janine telling Peter that Peck from the EPA is in his office, which when you look at it one would assume it would've been continuous scene. I get why it's done, but it does make for a bit awkward timing.