Today's Notes 11/26/20

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone,

It's a day many use to say thanks to all thing that were positive in their lives during the year, but 2020 has been on hell of a year so far hasn't it? Personally I'm grateful I have a job that was able to easily switch to having people work remotely, and when this whole Covid-19 thing gets settles I hope my job keeps up the practice as it's proven to get more people onto shifts that they normally wouldn't work (case in point I prefer afternoons but as you all know I've mostly worked evenings forcing a change in the streaming schedule). Also I'm very thankful to everyone who has support my Twitch channel (twitch.tv/fredcasden) this year in different ways, through either subscribing, bits, straight donations, gifted games and so forth. You all make it worth doing!

I will admit I didn't get up till about 1:30 PM today, so yeah, the day is already passed me by for the most part, but we did get in the daily Fitness Boxing session, a nice solid workout that included Beginner Combo #1, Uppercut Combo #1 and Hook Combo #1. Hell at the time I'm writing this I still haven't eaten anything yet! But I will resolve that shortly lol bwahahaha.

Last night's stream was pretty epic, big thanks to Foxy_Melly and Mech3003 for choosing to re-sub to my Twitch Channel using their Twitch Prime subscriptions! And also we had a huge raid from DaemonsW0lf that ended up extending the stream and extra hour which was awesome. Oh in terms of what we did last night, it ended up being a night of variety, featuring Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Paladins &, Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2 Grand Prix. PandaSweet81 also joined in for some of the madness during the Paladins segment, and we were both reminded of just how bad and random people can be in not picking proper team combinations or focusing on the objective at hand.

Tonight we'll be doing a Star Trek Online stream, because of course its Thursday, and I'll probably start way earlier than normal because of it being Thanksgiving, or as I have called it the past few years, Treksgiving. We may end up doing several episodes to try and get my Cardassian in the Klingon Empire closer to catching up to the overall story.

Now if I can be serious for a moment, many of you are unaware of whom I use as an Internet Service Provider, that being Comcast who is rolling out more data caps on customers in 2021 (https://www.xfinity.com/learn/internet-service/data#e7d0f35e-2633-43bb-8248-d820d9ca6b59). Now some markets have already had data caps, and let me tell ya something a cap 1.2 Terabytes is not enough to account for Streamers, not to mention Comcast does not exactly bill its customers at the end of the month, the billing cycles at least for me are towards the middle of the month, meaning it's never an exact time period for these data caps to be calculated. Say for example if I had a big month of data usage in from September 1 to September 30, but my billing cycle is Sept 10 to October 9, and I receive my bill or my account info isn't updated to account for the next bill until October 10, the time frames do not match up. And let's be straight up here folks, Comcast tried to sneak this in for the states they are now putting under data caps by being very sly about things... one they plan on rolling out an Unlimited Data Plan next year as indicated on that page I linked to (indicated by the coming soon image)... but they put the information about the states being added to the Data Cap nonsense in small print, with the hope no one would notice. 

Starting in March 2021, customers not on an unlimited data plan who exceed 1.2 TB in a month will have a one-time courtesy month credit under the plan applied to their accounts, and will be responsible for any data overage changes after that. Blocks of 50 GB will automatically be added to customers' accounts for an additional fee of $10 each plus tax. Charges will not exceed $100 each month, no matter how much data a customer uses. *Includes the states of CT, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, parts of NC, NY, parts of OH, PA, VA, VT, WV, and the District of Columbia.

And on that bombshell, we'll wrap this up here... time for me to go raid the fridge!

Today's Notes 11/25/20

Good afternoon everybody,

It's the eve of Thanksgiving and for some reason that I cannot wrap my head around, millions of people are risking themselves and their own families to travel via airplane for the festival of consuming a large avian creature. Look I somewhat understand it in normal years, but in a normal year Thanksgiving is one of the more dangerous holidays, now compound that with COVID-19 and the fact that its been spreading like wild fire over the last few months.... it doesn't make sense why anyone would want to be in a confined space and risk exposure. Do you seriously trust everyone to follow the rules of keeping their masks on during flights to say nothing of how some news stations around the country have shown footage of packed airports... look, if you are too far away to drive to where you want to go, then it's not worth the risk. But I guess idiots are going to be idiots.

Anyway, today's Fitness Boxing session was pretty damn good, or at least I felt good afterward. Lot of work on the core with Hook Combo #2, Uppercut Combo #1 and Defensive Combo #2. For the first time in a few weeks I did step on the scale, and my weight dropped from 121.5 kilograms to 119.3 kilograms or from about 267 pounds down to 263 pounds. Part of the reason why I stopped stepping on the scale every few days as per the games instructions was because my weight was either staying steady or fluctuating upwards... and that was kind of depressing. I think I'll continue to do that, only weighing in once every couple of weeks, that way there is room for chance.

 

 Last night's stream of Kingdom Hearts RE Chain of Memories was what it was, actually got my butt handed to be by Cloud and Hades in the Olympus Coliseum, and it wasn't until I fast the Trickmaster at the end of the Wonderland did I understand the 'sleight' system. Because of my lack of enthusiasm for this game, we'll just limit it to Mondays and Tuesdays for the foreseeable future. Besides there are '13 floores' and we've already covered 4, so it kind of breaks things up evenly, and from what I understand 1 floor is basically fully of mini games involving Winnie The Pooh.

Not totally sure what we'll be doing for tonight' stream as of yet, we might make it a variety stream where I just bounce from game to game. We'll see for sure later on over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Today's Notes 11/24/20

Good afternoon everybody,

You know that feeling when something totally unexpected happens? That basically was what happened last night during the start of the Kingdom Hearts RE: Chain of Memories stream, when someone I knew from High School popped in, which certainly was a shocker. Goes to show you never know when surprises may happen.... but that's the whole point of surprises now isn't it?

Speaking of Kingdom Hearts RE: Chain of Memories, I can safely say my tolerance for the game is going to be very limited, based totally on its card-based combat system in a 3D environment. Yes I made it through Traverse Town and Agraba, but having to constantly reset the deck to try and make sure I can do anything is very tedious. I'm betting that if this was in a 2D format it would be more appealing, as it seems like it should be more of a traditional RPG style. Also the blatant reuse of graphics from Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 is pretty damn obvious. Anyway, we'll continue it tonight... and hopefully I can figure out a way to down it's audio cause I did listen back to the clips from last night and it was unusually loud, which is amazing considering how the audio for Kingdom Heart Final Mix was often very quiet in comparison. 

Anyway today we did get the day started with a solid 30 minuet Fitness Boxing session, with Hook Combo #1, Beginner Combo #1 and Triple Combo #1. Did have a couple of punches register as awkward misses, which surprised me... and those who have seen any stream that has featured Fitness Boxing knows my reaction to when I do something and it not registering. I am hoping that with its sequel, that issue gets resolved, but we'll eventually find out about that.

With this Thursday being Thanksgiving, the weekly updates for Star Trek Online have been moved up to today, which means we have some patch notes regarding thing... and another indication that the developers screwed up even further when it came to the release of the T6 Titan... as some folks were able to get it for free using an in-game coupon.  

General:  

• Updated Memorial plaque to include Ben Cross.   
• The T6 Ship Coupon Rewarded in Event Campaigns no longer allows players to claim the Titan Science Destroyer [T6] as it is a new ship.  
  • All players who already used the coupon to claim the Titan Science Destroyer [T6] will continue to have access to the ship 
• Resolved an issue where ships didn't come stock with experimental weapon equipped. 
• Titan-Class Science Destroyer [T6] Updates:  
  • Fleet version is now correctly sorted as a fleet ship in the ship vendor. 
  • The registry number on the left Luna nacelle now appears properly. 
  • The rear phaser nodes now fire from their correct positions. 
  • The mission pod no longer has a gap underneath it when combined with other Luna hull and saucer variants. 
• Updated help text to include new features of loadouts.
  

And on that note, I'll wrap this up to go have some lunch! See ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Today's Notes 11/23/20

Good afternoon everybody...

Well woke up late (again) but I decided to do a bonus stream of Fitness Boxing, Animal Crossing New Horizons and Super Mario Bros 35. The Fitness Boxing session was a solid Strength and Cardio routine, certainly felt good, hell I got into such a good groove that when I did the traditional 16 ounce water chug all that H2O went down smooth.

That said, some troll did pop into my stream saying if I 'danced to a song' that is apparently featured in either Just Dance 2020 or 21, they'd give me 500 bits. Let me state the following, no matter how large or small a channel, trying to entice a streamer into doing something they don't want to do is going to get you timed out, if the streamer is on their game. Calling them derogatory names is going to get you instantly banned and reported. So if anyone wants to know the twitch name of the troll I had to deal with, it's byhecml_yt. 

I have noticed that if you get into the habit of giving items to residents in Animal Crossing New Horizons, it makes it easier to want to track each one down every day... that said, it is more often than not tough to remember what items they gave me, which sometimes results in me giving them an item they gave to me, and there is a line of dialog within the game making them wonder if its the item they gave me before and then shrugging it off. Best advice, the second a resident give you and item that you don't want give it to another resident.

Had a nice run of Super Mario 35, finished in 3rd place only because I ran out of time... still being in the top 3 is always nice when it happens.

Last night's Overwatch stream was full of fun and chaos, including some great unintentionally funny moments. Big thanks as always to Kalenal and PandaSweet for joining in the mayhem that is Sunday Night Overwatch.

Tonight's stream will see the return of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 ReMix, with the 2nd game in the collection, Kingdom Hearts RE Chain of Memories. It was originally released on the Game Boy Advance, and then later saw a remake for the PlayStation 3 I believe. I've never played either version before so there is going to be a learning curve for sure!

And that covers all of today's notes, we'll catch ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

Today's Note 11/22/20

Good afternoon everybody...

Woke up super late today, but this is more understandable as I ended up trying to figure out what would it take to get my old Playstation 3, and what it does is when it powers up, the green light turns yellow then red. With what I read there might be a hardware failure within the consoles motherboard. ... The most common reason for Montherboard errors in Consoles is caused by overheating. And if I remember right, I ran the PS3 real damn hard back in 2012-2014. So probably I will end up either looking to get it fixed or finding one on the secondary market at some point. 

Did do a Fitness Boxing session, solid workout, nothing too out of the ordinary. but we're getting closer to fully unlocking all the customization options for the trainers while also being physically active!

Last night's stream started with Twitch Sings, and we did a nice mix of solos and duets, actually finished doing all my favorite songs on expert, and I started to try and do songs I've never heard of... and yeah that didn't go well. particularly when I was reminded at how much 90s R&B sucks!  

On the plus side, we test out, live on stream hooking up my old Playstation 2 Slim, and my biggest concern with it is how warm it gets considering there is next to no ventilation on the PS2-S. The positive side it works, looks and sounded decent, not sure how to switch it from being 16:9 visual output to 4:3 but hell, it was cool. All my memory cards still had saves and amazingly enough I still have nearly every game I have a save file for, with the exception of Street Fighter Anniversary Collection and Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution. That said, we were successful in running a PS1 game on the PS2 through my Elgato Capture Card, and so that means we'll be able expand things out a bit more than I thought.

So the PS1 game we ran last night for bit was Darkstalkers: The Knight Warriors, and fuck me, I can't remember the last time I played a fighting game that didn't allow for use of the analog sticks, but trying to remember how to play it was an experience. I'm also reminded  of how small and uncomfortable the PS2 controllers feel for a fighting game when you're limited to trying with doing down-forwards, down-backs with a D-Pad.

On the other hand, the PS2 game we tested out was Marvel Vs Capcom 2... and good lord how many hours did I sink into that game back in the day, just the scores on the leaderboard are silly as hell. But since the memory card still had my save, it means I have all the characters unlocked. And since I could use the analog stick with it, that means remembering how to play and do supers and stuff cam pretty natually. As usual Sakura ends up being my main because Sakura is BAE (she is my main in Street Fighter Alpha 2 and 3 as well). 

Tonight of course we'll be playing Overwatch, I already have the new Symmetra Skin so hopefully if anyone needs wins we'll be able to get them the victories needed to get the new skin. Tomorrow we'll be returning to Kingdom Hearts with Chains of Memories, to continue that saga

Best of the Week 11/15-21/2020

Here are the best moments from my twitch channel from over the week of November 15 to 21, 2020, which featured Overwatch, Fitness Boxing, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Super Mario Bros 35, Mass Effect, The Division 2, Star Trek Online, Twitch Sings, Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors and Marvel Vs Capcom 2! Be sure to come over to twitch.tv/fredcasden for daily streams! 

Quick Thoughts: Blues Brothers 2000

For this week's watch along over in my Discord, the featured film was Blues Brothers 2000. Makes sense since the original Blues Brothers film was featured last week.

So right toff the bat, here is a big question, as Elwood doesn't learn about Jake's death until a day after he gets out of prison and is waiting to be picked up.Now we know all the member of the band got out before Elwood did, but the question is, when would have Jake be released and when did he he did within the continuity of the Blues Brothers universe? If we go by date of John Belushi's death of March 5, 1982.... then that means no one told Elwood that Jake died until 1998... which is like a total dick move.

Okay, now I will admit I'm someone who does not have an issue with the character of Buster Blues... however, I am very much aware of how the studio (in this case Universal) pretty much forced the character into existence along with a number of other 'creative' notes that basically neutered what John Landis and Dan Aykroyd were hoping to accomplish with the sequel. Universal's meddling of things basically is what leads to the Joe Morton being in the film instead of Jim Belushi, because the studio, who didn't want to do the film to begin with and insisted on various details, wanted the film out in theaters in early 1998. Belushi ended up being unavailable because he was committed to a show on ABC (and this was before the show According to Jim). Within the context of Blues Brothers lore, Jim Belushi was already portraying the character known as 'Zee' in concert with the Blues Brothers band along side Aykroyd and John Goodman as Might Mack, in particular with the opening of the House of Blues clubs around the United States in the mid-90s, and the Belushi was also apart of the Blues Brothers Half Time show at the Super Bowl in 1996. So with Belushi being unavailable and a studio, the part of 'Zee' was re-written to create a tribute to the legendary Cab Calloway who played Curtis in the first film, with the character being called Cabel 'Cab' Chamberlain. The obvious parallel and Belushi connection is certainly seen in the Revival Tent / John The Revalator sequence will Cab is 'transformed' and the character performs the same backflip sequence Jake does in the first film when he has his realization at the Triple Rock Church.

Some people, probably most notably the idiot known as The Nostalgia Critic, aka Doug Walker, takes issue with the number of musical numbers in Blues Brothers 2000, and to a point that is kind of understandable. But when you look at in the context of how old many of performers were in Blues Brothers 2000 and how many have since passed away, the film becomes more an awesome time capsule and showcase of some of the greatest music performers of all time. Just take a look at the Louisana Gators Boys line up that includes BB King, Issac Hayes, Koko Taylor, Steve Winwood, Clarence Clemons, Bo Diddley and others, then realize throughout the rest of the movie there is Eddie Floyd, Junior Wells, Aretha Franklin, Sam Moore, James Brown, Wilson Pickett and Lonnie Brooks and you realize... Blues Brothers 2000 is rather special and I'm serious when I say, the collection of musical talent featured in it will never be equaled.

That said, I do take one small issue with the Soundtrack to the film... in particularly with some versions of songs performed by the Blues Brothers band not being on it, particularly the version of Green Onion heard after the Bluesmobile runs out of gas. Live recording of Green Onions appear on the Made In America and The Blues Brothers & Friends Live album, but I would love hear the full version of it the band recorded for this movie. Not to mention the band's version of Last Night was also pretty good.... Now don't get me wrong, the sound track album is great, but we probably could've done without John Popper's Harmonica Musings and Let There Be Drums by the Carl LaFong Trio... but that's just my opinion.