Today's Notes 5/8/21

Good evening everybody,

I did not get up till about 3 PM Today, but I have a good excuse this time, I was up till 5 AM this morning, because after last night's stream I got into another round of going through stuff to see what I could find, what I would keep and what's getting tossed.

So first, last night's stream, we played a little indie game called Virginia. The reason was that earlier in the week long time friend of the channel, ShadowStrkr24 was going to gift me the game, but turns out I already had it. So while I was trying to figure out what to do last night I remembered I said we would play Virginia because he said it was short game beginning to end, and he was right, it took about 2 hours. Virginia is purely a cinematic game, with very limited game play involvement, to the point where all the achievements seem purely accidental to come across. It does has an awesome musical score and is a gorgeous game, though what the hell a lot of the symbolism meant in the game was lost on me. 

Twitch Clip: Can We Get Some Service?

Twitch Clip: What The Hell Is A Buffalo Doing Here?!

Twitch Clip: How The Hell DId You Get In Here?

Twitch Clip: Of Course It's Aliens

Following that, we jumped back to the PlayStation One era with ECW Anarchy Rulz, and boy does this game reflect the turmoil ECW was under in mid-2000, with the massive roster turnover, in fact one of the biggest rivalries in ECW in 2000 was Masato Tanaka versus Mike Awesome, but only Tanaka was in Anarchy Rulz and and Awesome was in Hardcore Revolutin while both men had highlights in each games video intro. Game play wise it is more streamlined than ECW Hardcore Revolution and probably is the most 'realistic' North America made wrestling game in terms of how you can only perform more impactful moves based on the 'health' of your opponent but that results in the matches going on forever. Case in point, as a joke I set a Tornando Death Match for a time limit of 40 minutes, where I was using Tommy Dreamer, my CPU partner was the Sandman and the opponents were CW Anderson and Billy Wiles.... the match ended up going the full 40 minutes. 

Twitch Clip: Dreamer WIns With A Diamond Cutter? 

Twitch Clip: The Only Way A Rhodes Is Gonna Get Over Is If They Wear Polka Dots! 

Twitch Clip: Who Booked This Crap? I Did!

Now as I said at the start last night I went through some more stuff, finding things to throw out, but things that I found were pretty cool, including my near complete set of the Star Trek The Next Generation novels, more computer game manuals, several games from the Windows 95/98 era including Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider II, Triple Play 97 and NBA Live 98. While the Tomb Raider games have seen re-release in modern times, if I could get the later two games to work it would be pretty awesome in regards to featuring classic sports games.

For Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session, the daily was 40 minutes plus we did an addition 30 with Free Exercises. This resulted in a new personal best with punches thrown of 2922 and a new exercise duration time of 1 hour 10 minute 49 sections. Best Friend Achievement for Bernardo saw a big jump to 78 points... so if I'm getting 3 points for the daily workout, I wonder what are the qualifications for each point in Free Exercise mode. 

For tonight's stream we'll be wrapping up ESPN Major League Baseball on the PlaySation 2 with the World Series between my Philadelphia Phillies facing the Boston Red Sox. We'll be playing each game, so there is a good chance we're going to sweep the Red Sox in four games!

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

Today's Notes 5/7/21

Good morning everybody,

Well half of last night's stream went about as expected, as we lead off with Star Trek Online, putting the focus on doing the endeavors for the week which involved completing three Iconian Task Force Operations, two Borg Task Force Operations, eliminated 10 Vaadwaur ground troops (which can only really be done on Kobali) and completing the Assault on Terok Nor Task Force Operation. While this seems very straight forward, one has to factor in the 'waiting' to get into certain TFOs, which meant doing all of that took nearly two hours in and of itself. That said, we did do a little extra in STO, as we split the time in it between both Sorra and Zagreus.

Twitch Clip: Release The Targs.... But They Stay Right There 

Twitch Clip: Sudden Panic!

After the 9 PM break, I decided to try something new with Monster Hunter Rise, loading it into my  Nintendo Switch for the first time, which meant there was a patch update that needed to be downloaded first. My first impressions are that it is a gorgeous game, but clearly has a learning curve in terms of figuring out how to use the command bar, selecting items and pulling off various tasks. Something the game doesn't inform players right away is that you're not just stuck with the giant sword you are given at the start, instead you have access to other weapons straight away. Monster Hunter Rise does give off the impression it's not meant to be played in long sessions. more like it's meant to be played on the style of doing one hunt a day, because if you're giving 50 minutes to do something, a good chunk of that time may be spent exploring and finding other monsters to hunt in addition to the targets assigned. So with that in mind, I'll put Monster Hunter Rise into same catagory as ARMS and Hades, in that it's a game that can be used as a go-to on STO streams or on nights when another game is finished early.

Twitch Clip: Getting A Feel For It

Twitch Clip: I Am Not Good At This

Late last night, I went ahead a wrote a little book review on "Temporary Insanity: The Uncensored Adventures of Baseball's Craziest Player", which was of course Jay Johnstone. I was actually reading it casually over the last week, so figured why not do a little review on it. People are still selling copies of it on eBay, and Johnstone was memorable enough when he passed in late 2020, it got a fair amount of attention. The funny thing about the book, is that it was published in 1985, which was his final year in the Major Leagues where he was used only as a pinch hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers. If I ever track down the other two books Johnstone wrote, I hope one of them gives a little insight into anything that happened in his final year as a big league player.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was a solid 30 minutes, using the same adjusted settings from yesterday. Could've been a perfect session but I got a little two loose when doing straight combos. We're up to 73 out of the 100 points needed for Bernardo's Best Friend achievement, and we'll put a big dent into that over the next three days of course. 

Tonight's stream is one of those to-be-determined streams, as I'm considering doing the story mode of Mortal Kombat 11 or just messing around with some old games in another variety night. We'll see what I come up with when we start things up at about 6:30 PM Eastern Time.

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

Review: "Temporary Insanity: The Uncensored Adventures of Baseball's Craziest Player"

There is a chance that Jay Johnstone (November 20, 1945 to September 26, 2020) had to be insane, a loon, a quack, a nut case... but one thing one could say about him for sure the man was a good baseball player that clearly left his mark with the many teams he played for during a 20 year career that saw him suit up for the California Angels, Oakland A's, Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees, Los Angels Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres. While he wasn't a star player, Johnstone was the definition of a role player, becoming known for being one of the best pinch-hitters of the 70s and early 80s, as well a two-time World Champion with the Yankees and Dodgers. But it his off the field-antics that probably make him one of the most fascinating players of all time.

In 1985, Johnstone (with sports writer Rick Talley) wrote the first of three books detailing many of the pranks, ribs, and shenanigans he got up to,  Now the only one I have in my collection, is Temporary Insanity: The Uncensored Adventures of Baseball's Craziest Player which was published in 1985, and it isn't a straight auto-biography at all. In fact, the tone of the book is set right away with the first forward written by Tommy Lasorda "I can't think of a ball player I'd rather have a in a club house than Jay Johnston, But he wrote a book? What with, a fire extinguisher? Shaving Cream?"

So before we get to the first of Johnstone's anecdotes, we have one of the great managers of all time, telling the reader that Johnstone is a bit unique. In the 12 chapters that follow, Johnstone talks about everything from how Ron Cey was a perfect target for ribbing in the clubhouse while going into great detail about a prank he pulled on him during spring training in 1980, to later talking about how Babe Ruth came back as Fernando Valenzuela, and using the behavior and antics of other players as a way of saying he's not as crazy as he seems. 

"Temporary Insanity" is a real delightful read, because of the amount of detail that Johnstone gives into each story told. Does the book jump around a bit, yes it does, but every chapter is focused on related stories and tales, that in a more traditional autobiography would be spread out and probably wouldn't come across as memory. Case in point, there is an entire chapter dedicated to Johnstone's thoughts on the Managers he played off, it's all grouped together. Yes there are stories about some of them elsewhere in the book, but in that one chapter, Johnstone goes into detail about their personalities and quirks, including a theory how the firing of Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia in 1983 may have probably been what lead to the Cubs losing to the Padres in the National League Championship series in 1984.

Now, would I recommend this book, yes I would, however there is a bit of a problem, as it's a very hard book to find. I'm lucky I found the copy I had in a collection of books my father was going to toss out back in the late 90s, and like many items in my office, it's something I kept around. So if you're going to track it down, your best bet is to go on eBay. If you can find a copy, you will enjoy it, particularly if you're a baseball fan.

Today's Notes 5/6/21

Good morning everybody,

How does one define irony....on Tuesday of last week and of this week I lost power, costing me a few hours of work at my day job.... and I know it caused some eyeballs to roll. Now yesterday afternoon, my job lost power and had a fiber card blown out which meant when power was restored there company server's couldn't be accessed for anyone to work remotely or in person.All I know is that considering back back in February my previous computer freaked out following a power flicker, and I had enough disruptions on one day not to long ago to invest in a uninterrupted power supply unit, I don't want to ever hear about me being over protective of my gear being an issue.

Last night's stream of Tom Clancy's The Division was pretty damn productive, as a lot of collectables was found and major areas of the map was cleared out. Big thanks to Iceman7667 for joining in as it made things a lot easier, particularly in areas where I would be a sitting duck. We did have our fair share of interesting moments, such as running into the Bullet King which shredded us pretty damn quick, along with finding NPCs floating in the air. Also unlocked several achievements which I'll list below.

1. Skill Kill: Finish off 50 enemies using Skills.
2. Natural Talent: Be attributed with a kill while having a Talent active.
3. Raid the Arsenal: Kill 1 enemy with each of the 6 Gun classes.

Twitch Clip: Achievement: Raid the Arsenal

Twitch Clip: Why are they level 17? It's the Bullet King!

Twitch Clip: They are floating!

Twitch Clip: More Like Panic Flailing

Now, I live east of Philadelphia, PA.... right across the Delaware River, how the hell does the United States Postal Service send a package that was sitting in their Distribution Center to fucking Florida? And what I'm waiting on is a copy of the Fifth Element for the original PlayStation, which actually should've been in my hands a week ago.

Made a slight change to my Fitness Boxing 2 session this morning to make it a little harder, so instead of a pattern of the sets being short-long-long-short, it was long-long-long. So still 30 minutes, but because it was three long sets it meant I probably got a more intense workout... at least in theory. Estimated calorie burn difference was about the same as yesterday.

Kalenal (twitch.tv/kalenal)  pointed out I really need to add items for folks to redeem using Twitch Channel Points, and so I added two things, one was to have me perform a song, and the other is for me to play a game of a viewer's choice on an upcoming stream. Needless to say the later one is a big ticket item and will require a lot of points.

For tonight's stream we will lead off with Star Trek Online and I'm not sure as of yet what we'll be pairing with it for the second half of the stream. At the moment the leading candidates are Hades & ARMS, but I could just go and select something else at random.

And on that nore we'lls ee you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Today's Notes 5/5/21

Good morning everybody,

Lost power twice yesterday, one at a little 2:30 PM and the second at about 4:15-4:20 PM, which was related to the original power outage. That's two weeks in a row on a Tuesday this has happened, makes me wonder what is going on with PSE&G.

Last night's stream featured MLB The Show 21 on the Xbox Series S console, and we did a little bit of everything last night, an online match against another player which I lost, a couple of Road to the Show games, one March to October Segment, some home run derbies, Retro Mode... even tried the franchise mode. And man, the franchise mode is way to in-depth for a console game, because what's involved with managing the team would work better on PC games. Did managed to unlock some achievements which were the following:

1. Pitch Collector: During any plate appearance, see ten or more pitches (Excludes local multiplayer and practice).
2. All About Hustle: Collect four hits or more within a game with a single player (Excludes local multiplayer, practice). 
3. Free Ticket To 1st: Draw a walk with the first batter of an inning (Excludes local multiplayer, franchise and practice).
   

All three of these were done through retro mode which has that old score arcade style of gameplay!

Twitch Clip: First Major League Hit

Twitch Clip: I got caught in a run down....

Twitch Clip: I told him not to swing

Now last night's stream wasn't without incident, as the Xbox Series S mysteriously shut down randomly with the light on the controller flashing, and I wasn't able to determine the reason why. Maybe it over heated but  it has clear space for all three vents, and the thing is, the console hasn't seen heavy use, in fact it was quite a few days since it was last in use. This is why I haven't gotten read of the Xbox One S.

After the stream I finally started messing around with Mortal Kombat 11, and gameplay wise, it's fine, but boy did they micro-transactioned the hell out of it in terms of the Krypt, which makes chasing some achievements damn near impossible to do. Still with it now installed, it means we'll be streaming the story mode at some point in the near future. Also unlocked a handful of achievements for it last night as well.

1. Thank You For Being A Fan: Reach The Kredits
2. Klassic: Komplete a Novice, Warrior, or Champion Klassic Tower once
3. Enough Already: Hit the Gong in the Krypt

Today's Fitness Boxing session was about 30 minutes, nothing to intense other than me still not feeling comfortable performing right weaves from the orthodox stance. Didn't have any misses, but the timing of some of my punches that were just 'okay' could've been better.

 

Tonight we'll be focused on the Division, as I'll first be starting with finding collectables in the area of the map Iceman and I covered last week, before moving on to deal with missions in the next 'designated area'. Iceman may probably join in on the fun as well, so it could get pretty silly. 

 

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

 

 

Today's Notes 5/4/21

Good morning everybody, 

Last night's stream of Nancy Drew Dossier: Resorting to Danger, was surprisingly a lot of fun, with it being a lot more straight forward in terms of its puzzles and mini-games than Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights Cameras Curses, which we played last year. The facial mini-games were probably the most interesting as it required a lot of realizing of what layers should go where to create the various patterns, and I did enjoy the combining of letters and molecule colors puzzles, as that involved more outside the box thinking. There was just one small portion of the game, a dialog sequence about 1/2 way through that gave me trouble because I didn't realize what a clue was indicating right before hand. 

Twitch Clip: Facial Treatment Things

Twitch Clip: Come Here You Flea Bitten Varmint!

Also disappointed to find out that the teased third game in the series, Nancy Drew Dossier: Ship of Shadows was never released... because it looked pretty interesting.

Went through more stuff last night, added a bunch of things to the 'to be shredded pile', and placed a bunch of loose photos into photo albums. Yes its 2021 and I still have photo albums! Granted a lot of these pictures were probably duplicates, but hey, they are all safe and secure where they blond.

Update on the Washer and Dryer fiasco from last week, the washer needs a new motor, and the dryer needs out right replacing. When it rains it pours 

There was a nice little Nintendo Switch games sale happening earlier, and catching a few top titles at 50% off seems like a good idea.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was okay, granted at 35 minutes I got pretty loose and built up a good sweat, but my timing was off when doing left jabs, resulting in me blowing several combos in a row. Certainly feels weird when I miss that many. Still today was literally half of yesterday's total workout, so it works out considering I start work 20 minutes after writing this.

Not completely sure what we're doing tonight, yes it's May the Fourth and I do have Star Wars games, but I really don't feel like messing around with them. The leading candidate for tonight is MLB the Show 21, probably mess around with some online games and home run derbies.

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

Today's Notes 5/3/21

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream of Overwatch was a lot of fun, with a mix of Mayhem, Mystery Heroes, Quick Play Classic and Role Queue matches. Picked up three plays of the game as Tracer, D.va and Reinhardt, with the Tracer one happening in a mystery heroes match, so I'm rather pleased with that.Also spent a lot of time playing as Mei last night, mostly because of the new skin she has which has her dressed as a MMA championship fighter, probably the biggest thing noticeable about it is that she's not depicted wearing her glasses and there are certain blemishes noticeable on her face. Big thanks to PandaSweet for joining in on the fun!

Twitch Clip: Thank You For Flying Rein Airways

Twitch Clip: I'm Still Alive!!!!

I went through more stuff last night, finding things that need to be shredded, and came to the realization that I'm going to need probably two short comic book boxes (because they are easier to move than a long box) as well as some protective sleeves for vinyl records that I have. Also as soon as a meat freezer and couch are out of the way I can move a bookcase that is the left of my table to the right, move a side table back to place my PC tower on it and move a filing cabinet in front of that side table for my left lamp and secondary fan.

Officially Added three games to the collection this morning, Star Trek for the PlayStation 3 which is set before Star Trek: Into Darkness. The copy I acquired is still factory sealed, and since I've played the Steam version, we'll probably put this one on a shelf and not crack it open. The other two games are both for the PlayStation 2: Star Trek Shattered Universe and Star Trek Encounters. The copy of Shattered Universe is interesting because apparently the seller got it at some point from a Blockbuster retailer.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was indeed streamed, as we had a good long set, with the daily exercise time clocking in at 47 minutes with an additional 22 minutes done with free exercises to make sure I burned 1000 calories with the overall session. You know I like to put in the extra when I know I can go longer than just the 30 minute limit of Tuesdays to Fridays. Also, a viewer, Torvic came in questioning why I was not paying attention to the chat... gee is it because this was an exercise stream and thus from where I stand for it I can't read the chat box to response, plus my focus in on doing the exercises? See it's people like that I just want to smack upside the head and ask 'what is your major malfunction'.

Twitch Clip: 1-2-3-4-5-6!

Tonight stream should be a one night run of Nancy Drew Dossier: Resorting to Danger, it's a point and click hidden item game and if it's anything like Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights Camera Curses which we played last year I'm going to suspect there are quite a few puzzles in it to! We'll more than likely start a bit early for it if possible.

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