Today's Notes 4/2/21

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream was the shortest one we had in a while that did not involve starting at 9:30 PM EST... part of it, well a huge part of it is because Star Trek Online doesn't have the content where one could just lose themselves in the game and just have a good time. Hell just to prove a point when chatting with a viewer who plays the console version of STO when they indicate that PVP (player versus player) is very much an active thing on the console version, we tried to get into a PVP match last night to show what I've said, that on the PC version of Star Trek Online, PVP is dead. Waited for 5 minutes in every queue and got nothing.

So the stream ended at about 10 PM, which was fine, someone wants me to write a fan fic forum featuring Kelly Kelly and Randy Orton set somewhere in 2007/2008... and since they are going to pay me for it, I took some time to start work on it. It'll pop up in the usual place once it's done.

Speaking of fan fiction, Drace Domino (author of Rise of the Battlebitch) posted on twitter that there was actually a My Little Pony / Transformers crossover comic mini-series... and yeah I went out of my way to track that down because, when you think of things that Hasbro own and realize there have been very view crossovers between their own properties... and then realize this crossover involves the Gen 5 Mane 6 ponies dealing with the likes of Optimus Prime, Soundwave and Arcee.... yeah that sounds awesome. 

While I was at it, I went and put down the order for the Life Is Strange comic collection set and RWBY the Manga Volume 2 because what can I say, I like what I like

Which brings me to the Mass Effect Legendary Cache collection BioWare is selling, and I went back and forth about putting an order in for it, then I realized since I'm getting the digital version of the game because I have the Series S console, and could easily get the physical copy when it's price drops down the road... which in terms meant justifying putting in the order for Cache collection. Now what bugged a lot of folks was the fact the Cache collection didn't have the game with it. but when you think about it, more people buy the digital versions of games than the physical copies these days, plus it's a celebration of the Mass Effect trilogy. If the game was included the Cache collection probably would've been $225-250 after shipping charges were included to make sure people received it day one of the Legendary Edition's release date.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session did involved a a few misses happening, all of which involving blocking motions , because it all relates to how I'm standing in regards to the Switch while trying to keep a good view on my main monitor. That said, it was a solid 30 minute work out and the way I figure just doing normal long sets tomorrow and Sunday would mean for Monday's bonus stream we'll have a new trainer to feature.

Not totally sure what will be on the agenda for tonight, debating doing something either using the PS3, Switch of Series S. I could easily switch between the three consoles but that would be over kill for one night.

Anyway we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Today's Notes 4/1/21

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream of ESPN Major League Baseball was rather interesting, and mostly involved high scoring games as we finally reached the half-way point of the 2004 season. We had two extra inning games, the first lasting 15 innings and it was that game that made me go 'Alright, from this point on, we play the first two games of each series and simulated the third in a three game series (or the last two games of a four game series). We had some great moments throughout the stream, including back to back inside the park home runs... while coming up short on hitting out of the park home runs. Yeah we can give up home runs but hitting them, yeah that's a problem.

Knocked out some more things off stream last night for Forza Horizon 4, and just so far loading into that daily is a challenge because every time I finish one thing two more pop up. Also did some War Table things in Dragon Age Inquisition while also advancing some side-character plots for Cole, having him become more human. Yes I should have done it on stream, but... considering most of Sera's initial romance build took place off stream, it is what it is. Also locked in the Champion specialization as well.

Put in my pre-order for Life Is Strange True Colors Ultimate Edition which will included the remasters of the Life Is Strange and Life Is Strange Before The Storm, so basically a three-for-one shot there. I'm really glad I was able to discover the franchise in its first year over on Steam as it's become one of my favorite story driven games, where the choices certainly play into the end results.

I am nearly finished  removing line breaks from the majority of the fan fiction that I wrote and co-wrote along side Kristi from 2004-2018, still got about 350 to go, but at least now I'll be able to go through and try edit them to be a little less reliant on verbal exclamations.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was really damn good I feel, as we didn't have a single miss, which is very rare. That said... as nearly perfect as was, the fitness age score still came up as 20, so I guess it will only go down that far and I'm guessing it's based on my age combined with how well I perform the exercise sets. Again, it's funny when one back tracks and sees that I was getting fitness age scores of 18-19 with the original Fitness Boxing game.

The plan for tonight is more Star Trek Online things, bouncing between the four characters we have in place and hoping any special task force missions we're apart of go smoothly. Considering what happened last week I don't have my hopes up for that.

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

Today's Notes 3/31/21

 Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream of Dragon Age Inquisition saw a big focus on side-questing with a trip to a dungeon to find some runes and parts to deal with Higher being of some sort, taking down a 5th dragon, wrapping up stuff in the Exalted Plains and finally some actually story progression with entering the Fade and seeing what really happened with the Inquisitor and The Divine in the game's intro. We also locked in the relationship with Sera, unless there is something else that will happened to throw a monkey wrench into those works. 

This week's Extreme Ghostbusters episode Home Is Where The Horror Is shares a few similarities with the Real Ghostbusters episode Mrs Rogers Neighborhood, in that the house which is haunted is actually a trap, the creature the old lady in both episodes transforms into have some similar traits and the house ends up destroyed. That said this does have one of my favorite lines 'Are you Batman? No I'm His Cousin, Ghostbuster Man!'. There are also a number of pop culture references through out the episode such as Monty Hall, The Twilight Zone, etc.

Put my pre-order in for Mass Effect Legendary Edition for the Xbox, and that will probably be the first Xbox Series Generation game we end up streaming on Twitch in May... unless I choose to play Forza Horizon 4 on stream one night before then. I do wonder what will be the first game that will be Xbox Series console era game that will not have a previous generation release. 

Speaking of Forza Horizon 4, here's hoping what I read about when the in-game seasons change is true in that they reset every Thursday, because getting around in the Winter in the game is a pain in the rear when it comes to finding barns and going off road.

Today Fitness Boxing 2 session was kept short because work up a tad bit late, so we cut the stretching out and went straight into a brisk 20+ minute session to keep the streak going. Didn't have a single miss today, had a few punches not quite in sync but they 'connected' enough to get credit for them.

Tonight's stream will yet another Wednesday night of ESPN Baseball on the PlayStation 2, as well be facing the Montreal Expose and Baltimore Orioles. The Expos series is a four game set, so chances we'll be lucky to get two games in against Baltimore.

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

Today's Notes 3/30/21

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Dragon Age Inquisition saw the wrap up of things in the Westward Approach and then out attention was turned towards the Exalted Plains where we covered everything we could until we had to head back to Skyhold to open up two expanded areas for that zone. We did tackled the dragon in the Emerald Graves, so we now have defeated four dragons, and there are six more needed to get the related achievement. We also unlocked the Stargazer, People Person and Invincible achievements.

We'll be continuing Dragon Age Inquisition tonight at about 6 PM EST, with a focus on some things related to what we were covering last night first before jumping back into the Exalted Plains. 

Now Sony's trend of being any consumer popped up in a big way this week with the announcement they are closing the digital store fronts for the PS3, PSP and PS-Vita with no backwards comparability options for those systems for the PS5. Now to my knowledge new games were still being made for the Vita, so it's very weird as to why Sony would close it's store-front. The PS3 and PSP I can understand because those are older systems... but this this just reeks of Sony wanting to force people into buying a PS4 or PS5. And people wonder why I went with the Xbox One and Series for my more modern main-stream console releases.

And before you point it out, yes I do Consider the Nintendo Switch to be more of a niche system in comparison.

Speaking of which, Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Session was pretty solid, very few misses and lasted about a half hour. If I'm planning things out correctly, I'll need to do 19 more exercise sets to finish up using Hiro as the trainer.

My back up Uninterrupted Power Supply should arrive later today, because fuck knows last Friday having three brief power flickers had me worried to my wits end. I went with the CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD PFC Sinewave UPS System because of it's reviews and was listed as the best one on the market on every list I could find. 

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

Today's Notes 3/29/21

Good afternoon everybody,

Comcast continues to perform up to the standards I am currently paying for, as the string of nights with no issues continues.That said, knowing that Comcast owns NBC and Peacock, while also knowing they spent $1 Billion Dollars to get exclusive rights to the WWE Network raises an eyebrow when they are going out of their way to edit out content that doesn't meet their standards... which is stupid when once you consider half the stuff that already exists withing the Comcast owned libraries of movies and TV shows. Well just one more reason for me to cut off the cable service.

Last night's stream of Overwatch was mostly Mayhem matches, and big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of things. We certainly ran into some people making odd match up decision choices through out the night in relation on who to focus on. Did pick up a play of the game as Moira early on, so that's always a good thing to have a scene stealing moment!

Played more Forza Horizon 4 off-stream last night as well, getting all the qualifiers out of the way, now I wonder how often do the seasons change with the game, if it's once a week, once a day or what. If it's once a week, we might just pair it up with Star Trek Online which has been a struggle with filling out Thursdays as of late.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was streamed, and I set new personal bests in terms of estimated calories burned and time spent working out. We also knocked out the Hiro's Buddy achievement, and we need to do about 22 more exercise sets using him to get his last character specific achievement. That said, I did struggle with a few motions leading to a higher than normal fitness age score which is also ugly to see, but there is no consistency to gauge what leads to scores being terrible.

Tonight we'll be back to Dragon Age Inquisition, resuming things in the Westward Approach. I did go out of my way to tackle some loose ends in the Emerald Graves off stream, but I know there is a dragon there that we'll save for doing on stream.

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

Today's Notes 3/28/21

Good afternoon everybody,

Bit of a late post, because while I woke up at about 1 PM EST I didn't roll out of bed till like 1:30 PM EST... because well, it's Sunday. 

Last night's stream of Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma had quite a few hilariously gory moments, as no punches were being pulled when it came to how characters died on particular paths. Mira certainly became a stand out character with how she literally went beyond all logic to touch Eric's heart but well... digging into his chest for his heart because she doesn't understand emotes. Then there is the Incinerator where depending on the outcome which happens, some very direct things happen. I will say this, I certainly don't care for Eric as he comes across as having far too many issues to tolerate. That said, I'm starting to see how this game ties into 999 and VLR with a number of references and foreshadowing.

Played some more Forza Horizon 4 last night, and it's amazing how easily it is to gain influence and stuff as I'm trying to do things in the order they appear but it seems like the game is designed to rush people along!

I do find it odd that the Navy is taking so long to finish routine maintenance of Vice President's residence located on the ground of the Naval Observatory. Yes I know that from time to time the Navy will ask for the Vice President to delay moving into the residence to conduct repairs and such, but it's going on three months at this point, and the US Navy is not completely incompetent (mostly, but not completely) 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Session was another long set plus a couple of bonus exercises. Amazingly, not much in the way of ducking, weaving, blocking... it was straight up punches only workout. Which means tomorrow's workout is probably going to be a killer. Still I felt I was in a good groove today, and since I've been adding some bonus exercises to when I do longer sessions it all works out right?

Tonight we will be playing Overwatch, with the usual nonsense of things, with the odds being fairly good that I'll mostly play either Tank or Support, depending on what game-modes are available. 

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

Best of the Week 3/21/21

 

Here are highlights from my twitch channel (http://twitch.tv/fredcasden) for the week of March 21, 2021, which featured Overwatch, Dragon Age Inquisition, Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm and Music, ESPN Major League Baseball, Star Trek Online, Super Mario 3D World and Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma!