Still Alive

I just realized I haven't posted anything since the New Years post. I'm not even sure why since January has been fairly quiet for me. I think it's just I've been enjoying the first real slow-down I've had in a long time by being lazy.

And I've been doing a lot of writing. I'm not sure why, but I've written over 50 pages worth of content, and one has been a spontaneous project I just...started randomly. Good news with that one is I have pretty much zero attachment to it. I just started it as an exercise with fantasy elements I pull out of my ass, so my focus is still trying to get the project I ACTUALLY want to finish done. Someday.

I have been working on video, however, as I've posted two episodes of Before the Storm (in all it's  transitional animation glitches and rubber newspaper glory) as well as continued to upload Pillars of Eternity. I still have about 30 episodes to go, so that will keep me running for a bit. Other than that, my other current projects are going through the Divinity 2 OS footage (which I am going to hold in reserve until we either get far along in it or completely finish it). I need to process Divinity footage as it takes up a lot of space. It's slow work though as I need to splice in audio provided by Mesk as I had a few issues on my end with my mic (mostly self-inflicted as I didn't check the things I was supposed to). Resident Evil 7 is my other priority project since I'm halfway through it and a lot of people seem to be actually interested in it/have been waiting for it...

Heh.

I need to find a good few chunks of time for Diablo 3 this week as there's an event that will be done by the end of the month. Apparently it's something I HAVE to experience, so I may do that with Mesk and HKS on Wednesday this week.

I also cleared some ancient Gauntlet footage off my drives, which I'm unsure if/when I'll be releasing.

Other than the above, been continuing with the Starsworn D&D campaign. Also revived the 4th Edition campaigns I've been playing with Nick and Shauna, only on a less frequent schedule. I'm glad they've continued regardless. It's been like...a 4 or 5 year series of campaigns. I really need to get around to the highlights videos for these. I'm also planning on making a master document for our Starsworn chat logs since it's now a massive document and impossible to find things in decent time. Hopefully this will be useful to the others, or at least a foundation for something better that they can devise.

Whelp.

Another reason not to travel to the United States by plane in the near future.

More "security" measures.

Driving all the way. It's fine. I'll visit Montana. TOTALLY cool with it. I'll count drive-thru coffee stands and cowboy churches the whole way to entertain myself. Take that TSA.

...

...

That or take a trip across Canada for the first time in my life. Never seen the East Coast and it's been YEARS since I've been out to Van City.


So we recorded more Divinity over the past few days. Also got through more Sonic somehow and I ACTUALLY found where I gave up on the game. I can't believe I made it that far without rage quitting. I know I never made it that far on Shadow's portion, and I'm pretty sure I finished Silver, but I never actually finished the game. Ever. I might actually end up trying to finish it during Extra Life this year before I move on to better games.

Then Mesk and HKS keep asking when I'll be doing Sonic Boom and Sonic Mania.

As I am currently unemployed, I've been focusing on getting other things done including getting through the massive backlog of recordings. As I think I stated in the previous post, I have finished Pillars of Eternity completely and am just in the process of uploading the last half of the series on YouTube. I also started processing Divinity OS2 and Resident Evil 7 as I need to get through those. My other priorities will be Dishonored 2 and Sonic 2006.

EDIT: I messed up the Divinity OS2 recordings. My voice is absent from 2 sessions and the third is awful quality 'cause somehow Fraps decided that my headset mic was a good option to use. This is why you ALWAYS check your settings and why when I forget I get super salty. I'm a little more than mad at the moment.

Did I Have a Weekend?

What actually happened this weekend? Lordy, it's a black hole of vagueness. I remember Friday afternoon I finished all the important stuff at work so I helped build some of our LEGO Simpson's house at work (70% of it has been sitting in a box for like 3 years). I think Friday night I stayed home, worked on Evil Within and just hung around home. Saturday I remember joining a games night with Shauna and I confirmed how terrible of a singer I am by playing Rockband for the first time. Yesterday took Locke to the dog park for a bit and I worked more on Evil Within. Meant to finish editing that game last night, but I got home around 9 and literally don't remember anything other than falling asleep on the couch and being vaguely pissed at Locke when I didn't let him go upstairs and he bit me in the face.

So it's Monday again and I'm still tired. I've got ALL the dodgeball tonight too so I won't be home until 10 or so. I really really really want to finish Evil Within. I tried so hard over the weekend. I have about an hour of editing left. I finished the first part (of three parts) of Chapter 15 and 14 is ready to go. Putting a little extra effort into my final Oddities video, so hopefully that will be enjoyed.

Resident Evil 7 is really high on my priority list for next series. It's fairly easy to edit, but I have to come up with a way to make our voices a little clearer. That one was tough to record sans headphones and playing on the TV. Normally when I record console games now I play directly in OBS vs routing it to an external display. The mic position is difficult too since it's located on the table in front of Shauna's couch, which we play on. Normally I actually record a separate audio track with our mic audio. The mic usually picks up game audio, but if I sync it right, it lines up with game recording and you can't tell the difference. If I don't line it up right (like when Evil Within's game audio desyncs) then you get a weird echo and sometimes I can't fix it due to what's being said at the time (it's hard to break up sentences we're speaking). We normally use Fraps to record PC games, but for the console you need something like OBS or PTBI to assist in running. For whatever reason, I can't get PTBI to work for me (which would be great cause then I could Fraps it), so I use OBS whose files don't tend to play well with Vegas (i.e. it chain-crashes Vegas and sometimes corrupts the entire project to the point where it will refuse to open). So I have to record everything with OBS, which means integrated, balanced sound and I THOUGHT I had it balanced well, but it seems like the game audio was still a bit on the loud side. Also I'm an idiot and the resolution got screwed up. Thankfully I can fix that easily.

I've always had issues making my voice loud enough in the majority of my LPs. I've never lived in a household alone, so I need to be mindful of how loud I'm being. I also get quieter when I'm tired. The mix sits about a foot away from me on my desk and I have the mic boost up to 100%, so that helps, but I still encounter issues when the game audio is too loud (sometimes it's fine until I hit a particularly loud fight or music sequence). This is something I have yet to perfect, and keep trying to fix.