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!

Video Commentary: The Phillies Will Suck In 2021

For this week's video commentary, I give my thoughts on the Philadelphia Phillie's lack of urgency when it comes to this year's off-season. Recorder 12/4/20

Today's Notes 12/4/20

Good afternoon everybody,

Ugh, way way way overslept today... but still first thing I did was Fitness Boxing. Today's session ran 39 minuets and felt good. I've been asked how does it work the legs, well, basically anything that involves ducking, weaving, body punches and stepping forward, backward or side to side is going to involve the lower body. So while it not as intense as say Just Dance when it comes to legs, you certainly will feel the burn on certain combinations of sets to do. 

Twitch Sings as of right now still has 3,146 songs, and I'm really hoping what's left of the Frank Sinatra tunes stays past December 12th, which is of course Sinatra's birthday. You see prior to the announcement that Twitch Sings was closing down I was already making plans to do a Sinatra based stream on the 12th. Hell I was going to put on a suit and everything. Granted there was only like a dozen of songs he's done in the game, so the stream would've been filled out with other similar tunes. So fingers-crossed we'll be able to do that next week!

Last night's stream of Star Trek Online was a lot of fun, big thanks to B0B_B3AR for the raid at the start of the stream, and also Sw33ts_Gaming for resubscribing and giving a gift sub to another viewer! Now we only did three missions, well technically it was just two because one was basically a patrol encounter that counts as a mandatory mission to do for story context, but it was an awesome night. Speaking of story context, did get into a rant last night regarding how technically The Romulan Republic has the most consistent continuity within Star Trek Online because their story arc because their opening missions has not changed since the faction was introduced. Hell the Romulan Republic probably has the most personal stakes in everything involving the Iconian War when you think about it.

I'm not totally sure what we'll be doing tonight, but I do know the plan is start at 9:30 PM EST over on twitch.tv/fredcasden. Folks need to realize something, when I set my schedule a WEEK IN ADVANCE it does not mean I can or will adjust it at the last minuet. Yes we have had streams start earlier because what was schedule to take place prior to 9:30 PM on those days was cancelled out right. It's why I prefer working weekday afternoons as opposed to evenings, because it meant everything was more perfectly compact with nothing interfering with each other.

Anyway, on that bombshell, we'll wrap this up! Have a great day folks! 

Today's Notes 12/3/20

Good morning everybody,

First off Happy Birthday to my mom!

We got today off on a good foot with Fitness Boxing, and today was the 150th consecutive day of getting in that basic workout routine, staying on the Strength and Cardio sets at 35 minuets. Today included some footwork but only in the 3rd set, so everything was pretty steady. Consistency is key and I can safely say I always look forward to doing this first thing. I have to double to check to make sure that Fitness Boxing 2 will carry over my progress from the first game for when I eventually get it.

Fun fact about me, I use to listen a lot to 975 The Fanatic, a FM Sports Talk Radio station in the great Philadelphia area, particularly in the mornings, But ever since they unceremoniously kicked Tra Thomas and Sam Wilson to the curb in favor of Pat Egan, it became a chore to listen to. Now I see they basically have thrown Marc Farzetta out in favor John Kincade who was recently fired from the radio gig he had in Atlanta, I can safely say that that I won't be listening to The Fanatic in the mornings, as it heads back to being the cesspool it was when it was simulcasting Mike & Mike in the Mornings! 

Last night's stream ended up featuring The Division 2, as it's status of being a 'throw to' game continues to result in it staying on my Xbox One S. Big thanks to Iceman7667 for joining in as we roamed around DC taking care of control points and also I finally got to check out The Summit. Without knowing the full context of the first The Division game, I easily assume it's Ubisoft's way of wanting a literal Die Hard skyscraper for players to mess around in since its littered with Christmas decorations. 

Tonight's stream of course will focus on Star Trek Online, as we close in on catching up on all the story content for my Cardassian in the Klingon Empire saga. Thanksgiving day last week certainly resulted in a large chunk of the Discovery era content being taken cared of, so depending on circumstances of when I'm able to start tonight we'll certainly get the rest done. That said, looking at this week's patch notes and I find it funny the Developers are patching something in The 'Best Served Cold' event on the day the event is ending. Never change Cryptic Studios....

STAR TREK ONLINE PATCH NOTES 12/3:  

• Resolved an issue that could sometimes prevent progression during the TFO, “Best Served Cold”, during the final phase.  
• Updated the binding, selling, and value rules on a number of pieces of "starter equipment" so that they all are Bind-on-Pickup, No Value, but may be sold or discarded freely. 
• Decreased the size of the Phase Pistol. 
  

And that will just about do it for today, hope you have a great one and we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Today's Notes 12/2/20

Good afternoon everybody,

Got the day going on the good foot as always with Fitness Boxing, though I did actually had to reset one session because for whatever reason I wasn't quite hitting my marks on weaving... and I can't remember the last time I had that issue. Other than that, everything felt good and solid with every motion I did, and was totally jazzed afterward.

At the time I'm writing this I saw that Pat Patterson passed away, obviously best known for being the first WWF Intercontinental Champion, being a genius when it came to thinking up ways for matches to go or end and coming up with the concept of the Royal Rumble, Patterson was also a stooge for Vince McMahon and I'm not just talking about the role he played on TV in the late 90s and early 2000s. 

Last night's stream of Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories saw two more floors being tackled, Atlantica which represented The Little Mermaid, and Neverland which represented Peter Pan. In terms of the boss fights in each, I had more trouble with Ursula than I did with Captain Hook because Hook was a straight up fight while Ursula involved a lot more strategy. That said, I found Neverland to be the overall harder of the two floors because the little basic Heartless can sink into the floor making setting up combos a lot more haphazard. That said, Atlantica being set before Neverland makes so much because you're Under The Sea in one and then in a Boat in the next. If the Monstro floor was set after Halloween Town, it would've made for three straight areas involving things with an Ocean setting.

People are still going on about Pat Sajak 'snapping' at a contestant who questioned the validity of a puzzle they solved on an episode of Wheel of Fortune which just baffles my mind, because he didn't snap at anyone. When you think about it, if Sajak did snap at a contestant, do you honestly think they would've have left it in the version aired on TV? No they wouldn't they would've shot a re-do and kept what happened around for a blooper reel.

Twitch Sings Song Count Update, 3146 songs remain, so no change from yesterday. Again I shall continue to update this daily, since I still plan to do at least 4 more Twitch Sings streams between now and January 1st.

Not completely sure what we'll be streaming tonight, we could do some random PS1/PS2 games, maybe The Division 2 or mess around with things on The Switch. Kind of up in the air, but we'll figured something out! 

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

Today's Notes 12/1/20

 Good afternoon everybody,

Yup, guess who got a late start to their day again... but I kind of have a reason for that, because after last night's stream I can an invite from AnnieTalksShow (twitch.tv/annietalksshow) to join in Twitch Sings party , and so I loaded it up and did a solid rendition of Honky Tonk Woman... sadly the Twitch Sings Party featured bugged out, and thus I went on to do some Overwatch, knocking out a few wins in Arcade mode to start working my way towards this week's free Loot Boxes. 

Also for those curious, since Twitch Sings is starting to remove songs, the current total is down to 3146, 302 of those are on my favorites list. I'll update this every day until Twitch Sings shuts down.

Today's Fitness Boxing Session was pretty good overall, a nice brisk workout, with no foot work. I'm starting to wonder if my natural boxing stance which sees me balance more on the back of my feet as opposed to the front is a hindrance or not. Watching highlights of Tyson-Jones, it does seem like I've been doing things wrong, or at least not the same way those two legends do when it comes to staying in a natural rhythm to make every motion seem consistent. It's food for thought.

Switching back to last night's stream, what I figured out last week with Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, as setting three cards in a sleight and going to down really made the battles much more entertaining to deal with, as it seems like a pure case of brawl through everything. Did run into a major problem when dealing with Oogie Boogie on the Halloween Town floor, which represents The Nightmare Before Christmas, as the battle was more of a half-assed remake of the battle associated with him in the first Kingdom Hearts game where you were on a lower platform and you need good RNG to be able to reach him on the platform he was on. That said, if these boss encounters that are basically remakes from the first continues to hold true, I don't recall there being any other major 'gimmicks' to deal with going forward.

Which of course leads us to tonight's stream which will be more of Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, and there is a solid chance we may start earlier than 9:30 PM EST. According to notes of game I found, it seems like I'll be running into more original boss fights against members of Organization XIII in the second half of the game following each floor I complete.... and the floore we're starting with will be Atlantica which represents The Little Mermaid. And Speaking of Organization XIII, someone at SquareEnix clearly based Larxene on Harley Quinn.

Anyway that wraps up today's note, we'll see ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Today's Notes 11/30/20

Good afternoon everybody,

Actually was up at 9:30 AM, but last night I remembered I had a bunch of Doctor Who audio plays that I got from Big Finish and went through the effort of downloading all the ones I purchased up till the end of 2013. It's been a while since I listen to them, so it's going to be a lot of fun as the folks at Big Finish really went all out in creating plays that totally captured the spirit of the classic Doctor Who series.

We did do a bonus stream today, kicking off with Fitness Boxing, and had a solid 33 minute workout, as the focus on strength and cardio continues.Did have one missed punch that was totally due to the left handed joy con becoming de-synced from the Switch. Other than that everything was pretty damn solid from start to finish.But since this was a bonus stream we added to it with some Animal Crossing New Horizons, and visited the island of another player, and it amazes me what people have managed to do with the in-game tools. Granted I like my little tree covered island the way it is, but seeing the creativity others have put it still is awesome.The bonus stream was capped off with a top 5 finish in Super Mario 35... I probably could've finished higher, but I made a boneheaded mistake in world 1-4, but hey I did say i wanted to finish in the top 5 so I can't complain too much.

During this bonus stream we got a big raid from GGVexy (twitch.tv/ggvexy) who streams out of Australlia, meaning it was 4 AM local time when she ended her stream. So big thanks to Vexy for bringing her viewers on over. Since I'm on the East Coast of the United States, normally it would be me raiding her, so it was cool to have the tables flipped.

Last night's Overwatch stream was pretty meh, had a long losing streak of matches, so I was lucky to end on a win. Tonight we'll be resuming Kingdom Heart Re:Chain of Memories, and depending on work, we'll start the stream at 9:30 PM EST for sure, if I can start earlier, we probably will, but that's iffy at this point.

 And on that bombshell we'll see ya later! Have a great day folks!