December 27th Entry: Post-Boxing and Christmas Day

GuuzakaTube                                                                                                   2018-12-27

December 27th Entry: Post-Boxing and Christmas Day

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Welcome! Did you have a wonderful, memorable Christmas this year? What about Boxing Day? Did you go out to shop on the first day? Perhaps you shopped online instead? Christmas may be over, but you still have to deal with both online and offline traffic of shopping people. Oh, and then there's the ultimate day -- New Year's Day! 🌠✨🎉😃 4 More days until 2018 is finished forever. 😶 What things will 2019 bring forth? 🤔 Only God knows... For now, let us proceed to discussing the latest uploads on my channel.

Unboxing Anker Powerline II Lightning Cable & BIRUGEAR Hard Shell

The obvious? I unbox a Lightning Cable and Birugear Shell. Boring! 😒 What you want to know is why I purchased those things. For the Lightning Cable, I only had one in my possession. It was also very long, so I wanted something shorter, thus the 30cm Anker Powerline II Lightning Cable fit the bill. For the Birugear Shell, I specifically mentioned that it was for my upcoming 4TB Seagate Backup Plus, so nothing too special about the story behind that. As you can see within the video, the Lightning Cable did its job, and is still performing very well up to now. 

Unboxing Blue Seagate Backup Plus 4TB 

So aside from unboxing a blue 4TB Seagate Backup Plus, what else happens in and off camera? I compared the sizes between the 4TB and 2TB Seagate Backup Plus. If you still haven't seen the video at this point, you should. The differences in thickness are greater than I thought they were! 😂🤣 And as such, the 4TB Seagate is naturally heavier. Not so much the point that it's a brick, but you can feel the difference. Perhaps what you would really like to know, is how well does it fare when transferring files? One day, I transferred 1.14TB of files to see what would happen. The result? It took 14 hours to move all of them! 😲🤯😱😳 I did not expect it to be fast, because after all, it's not the Seagate Backup Plus Fast 4TB. But still, we can all agree that that's pretty damn slow, eh? 🐢Nevertheless, I'm just glad it transferred them reliably, and without issues. At the time I type this blog post, the Seagate Backup Plus Fast 4TB costs $750 CAD! 😲🤯😱 Seagate Backup Plus 5TB X 4 + Ontario Sales tax = $723.15 

So this means that you could have 20TB of storage, plus $26.85 left to spare by going with that route. 😶 Yeah, wow. It pays to do the math, eh? Still, if you're ultra rich and want the speed, then by all means go for it. Even then, you still might change your mind after seeing this. Or will you? 🤨

Casual Instrumental Noise Session - Episode #16

If it wasn't obvious enough from the overt use of red and green in the thumbnail, this episode was dedicated to playing Christmas carols. 😄🎄🎵 Unfortunately, it was not a very rosy experience at all. 😖 I attempted the record the episode three times in total, only to ultimately end up keeping the 1st attempt. 😵 "So what exactly happened?" You must be asking? I did not like how the first attempt had too many cut offs after the first 10 minutes. It made it such a pain to record songs after that. So I then thought, "Hey, why don't I save the stock camera video footage to the internal space? That way, it'll be forced to save the entire video, right?" BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER! 😱 It kept running until nearly 70 minutes past! At that point, I was wondering what in the universe was going on? 🤨Shouldn't it stop and save the video already? How come the phone isn't getting any hotter? Turns out, that after running for 70 minutes, the camera decided that it was going to save just 8 minutes out of that. 8. 💀 No wonder I wasn't prompted about the storage getting full or the phone getting hot: because it wasn't actually recording anything past 8 minutes, despite giving me the impression that it was.  😠😡 INCOMING RANT! 

It was at that point, where I finally vowed to NEVER EVER IN MY LIFE AGAIN USE THE STOCK MICROSOFT CAMERA! IT IS THE CRAPPIEST, GLITCHIEST, MOST TICK-INFESTED CAMERA APPLICATION I HAVE USED IN MY LIFE! OHHHH, BUGROSOFT! WHAT DUNG IS THIS?! WHAT DUNG IS THIS YOU HAVE PUT INTO YOUR PHONES?! WHAT A SLIDIN', STINKIN', RANKIN' APPLICATION! OHHHH, THE FURY AND FIRE! OHHHHH, THE HEAT OF THE DRAGON'S BREATH! OHHHHHH, WHAT DUNG IS THIS?! THE PRESSURE OF THE SERPENT'S CONSTRICTION! THE BITE OF THE GREY OF WOLF! THE STING OF THE BEE! THE SCREAM OF THE COCKATOO! THE MIGHTY PUNCH OF THE HUMAN! THE STOMP OF THE ELEPHANT! OHHHH, BUGROSOFT! WHAT DUNG IS THIS?! 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

😴Rant finished.😴

For attempt three, I decided to use ProShot. For some reason, I don't know why the 4K option is greyed out for the Nokia Lumia 1520, despite being a 4K capable device. I tried e-mailing the developer about this, only to get an automated e-mail explaining that he no longer responds to e-mails. Why? Because of the sheer volumes of e-mails and questions he gets. 😒 Lovely... That's why you should have a team in place for answering questions! 😑 I decided to just record at 1920 X 1080, as opposed to the 3840 X 2160 that I would have loved to do. The recording went well, and everything saved. Yay right? When I editing time came, I realized that the audio had too many distortions! 🤦🏾‍♂️ So much so, that I would have been better off recording the video with my iPhone 6s Plus. In fact, I probably would have spared myself this entire dilemma, if I had just used it in the first place. Why didn't I? Long explanation short, the mono channeled MOV files the iPhone produces, come out with distorted audio after they're processed in Windows Movie Maker. But despite that, they're not too bad in videos that aren't focused on the sounds of nature. All in all, you can see why I just went back to keeping the first attempt: to keep the video in 4K and have no audio distortions.

Unboxing BlackBerry Passport in 2018

"Another smartphone from years ago?" Some of you must be thinking. Well, you know what? Not only are they far cheaper, but have headphone jacks, no notches, most had microSD card slots, and the slab phones had a 16:9 aspect ration. Not the stupid 18:9 ratio that many of the 2017 and 2018 smartphones have. So in other words, aside from having weaker processors or no more software support, they have more hardware charms. So that aside, why the BlackBerry Passport? I'll tell you: I'm retiring my BlackBerry Q10 shortly after the 2019 New Year. 🙏🏾⚰🌹🕯😥 That will be a whopping 5 years! And yep, it's still working up to this day. No motherboard failures, no audio jack failure, no charging port failure, none of that nonsense. The smartphone that was my first smartphone. When the video comes, I'll discuss more "memorable" things, but for now, let us divert our attention to the BlackBerry Passport! 😄

Here are the four things that shock me the most about the BlackBerry Passport: 

1. How pleasantly large it is! 🙏🏾👍🏾

2. How bright and beautiful the screen is. 🌞

3. How weird the typing experience is. 👎🏾 Really wish they gave it a fourth row of keys. The missing numpad is truly awkward.

4. The lack of 4K recording on a flagship smartphone with a Snapdragon 801 processor. 😥

All in all, I love the BlackBerry Passport despite its shortcomings. No, I have no plans to buy the BlackBerry KeyTwo. It's awkwardly narrow, and I prefer my BlackBerry devices with BlackBerry 10 on them. When I buy an Android smartphone, it will likely be Samsung, LG, Sony or maybe even Razer.

Smartphone Wars: Triple Bird!

You can already tell right from the thumbnail what happens in this video. But what you don't know is why -- why did I do this in the first place? Well firstly, I wanted to do a gaming video this month. Secondly, I realized that with a 4th smartphone, I could film three of the major operating systems doing something: playing FLAPPY BIRD! 🐦🤪🕊 And so there the idea was born. 😆 Another fun fact: while I was sorting the videos into their playlists, I realized that this one did not fit in with the other gaming videos, so you know what I did? I created a brand new playlist dedicated to this unique category: Multiple Platform Mobile Gaming. Yes, crazy, but it was a "necessity". 🤣😂

Opening Some Wrappings

"Should I upload this to YouTube or not?" That's the question that kept going back and forth, when I had to make a decision about what to do with this video. Ultimately, I decided to upload it, because why not? There is nothing wrong with it, so I just combined what was actually two separate videos into one. What surprise gifts did you get for Christmas? 🎄🎁

What's Next & Other Ramblings

2019 New Year's! 😃✨🎉🎊 No, I won't be filming the fireworks for it, but it's both exciting and nerve-wracking to think about what lies in store for 2019. Hopefully mostly good. 😅 Stay safe out there, and have fun! 😎 This blog entry may either be the last, or second last of 2018, depending on whether or not I do a final entry on the 31st, like what I did last year.

July 27th Entry

GuuzakaTube                                                                                                              07/27/17

July 27th Entry

Most bloggers very likely type directly onto their platform of choice when creating posts. For me, I usually like to type it into a word file and then transfer it onto Blogger. Why? More controls and options. If you've seen how weird last week's entry looks, you'll know why I was forced to type directly onto Blogger for the 1st time. Not sure if it's been fixed, but I can't bother taking risks right now, especially when I realize that people are actually reading this and will be seriously confused and lost with the text mishaps. I guess one advantage of direct typing is the fact that I can immediately hyperlink things and post images more directly. Alright, that's enough of my boring, crazy rambling about these text issues so let us now proceed onto discussing the videos that have been uploaded today!😅 Wait, I can use emojis with this method?! Hmmmm, if these show up after I publish this blog, then it's safe to say that I probably won't go back to typing on a word file first! Woot! 🌠🎆🎇✨🎉🎊🌟

Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Versus Lucid Air: Commentary & Discussion

Wow! For once I've completed a commentary video in a timely manner! I got this one done in 6 weekdays! I feel so proud and relieved that I did not let this one drag on for weeks like the way I did for some of them in the past. *cough* Have Pickup Trucks Gotten Uglier... While putting together a proper commentary can take a little time, there's no reason for it to be drawn out for weeks because of tardiness. If there was a legitimate reason, then sure. Anyways, not going to bore you with my past irritations of not getting these done within my personal deadlines, so let's just talk about the Dodge Charger and Lucid Air.
Why these two? What do they have in common? They're both American Sedans. High performance sedans! These two aren't your friendly, docile Chevrolet Impala or Toyota Avalon or something. Driving with a speedster in one of these things will make you pee your pants, so make sure you bring an extra pair of panties or boxers if you ever get into one of these on the track!🤣 Truthfully, it wasn't the fact that their sports sedans that inspired me to make this, so what could the reason be?! 🤔

Bricktastic: Breaking Those Bricks With Music! 🔊✅😄

There's just no way I could do a silent version, without making a prompt follow-up version with the original soundtrack. Sure, it's not the most interesting game to begin with, but at the same time the sounds do make it so much more interesting to watch. And of course, you cannot forget about my controversial ever-so-interesting commentary! It's a smooth game, with good graphics. You may or may not find the music annoying, so that's something you'll have to decide for yourself when you try this game.

Asphalt 8: Going Too Long Without Playing Makes You Extremely Bad!😭😨😬😱

Both the title and thumbnail of this video tell you everything you need to know about this video: miserable playing! For real though, how could I have played so damn badly?! I know it's been months, but I should't have gotten that bad! Oh yeah, and speaking of the title, I apparently didn't realize that I've spelt "extremely" as "exremely" until now. Wow. And to think the gameplay was the only fail about this video. As painful as it was to get wrecked so much, it was highly amusing when editing time came, and I had to go back and listen to myself hilariously complain about my abysmal driving. Watching the wrecks on the big screen was even funnier. What do you say? Facepalm's worthy or good entertainment? Watch the video and leave a comment on that. 🏁

Twerky Turkey: Tap To Twerk

Yes! Flappy games! Who still plays these types of games? I do. It's another one of those type of videos that I used to upload frequently, but haven't done so for a while. Finally, I've done an upload with a hilarious variant that involves a roasted turkey flapping or "twerking" as they put it! 🙃🦃 In all honesty, it's just a cooked bird flapping its wings, so don't be put off of the idea of playing this game if you were worried that would have actually been turkey shaking its booty to some reggae or hardcore something. It isn't. Or maybe you were hoping that it would be? Would truly be something funny, wouldn't it?

In this screen shot, I was able to capture the people hidden in the background, during the rapid flash frame.

Asphalt 8 With Video Game Soundtracks

Can't believe I went ahead with this crazy(?) idea, but I'm glad I did. What exactly inspired me to do this? Not exactly sure. It was just one of those ideas that comes to you on the whim, so it looks like I decided to go ahead and actually do this. Well, it isn't entirely random to tell the truth. After doing a "failed" session of Asphalt 8 with the video above, I wanted to do another proper session afterwards. I also had video game music on my mind, so I combined the two ideas together to create this project. Recording the clean runs for each race was the worst part, as this was tedious, but I pulled through and got it done. Editing them and adjusting each song's length to fit the races took a few hours, but it went through. It was great listening to all these pieces! Oh, and speaking of them⬇⬇⬇

Spyro 1 - Wizard Peak

Spyro 3 - Year of the Dragon - Icy Peak

Banjo-Tooie – Racin' With Mary

Banjo-Tooie – Hailfire Peaks (Icy Side)

Banjo-Tooie – Hailfire Peaks Chilli Billi & Chilly Willy

Super Mario Sunshine - Sirena Beach

Super Mario 64 - Dire, Dire Docks

Mario Kart 8 - Bone Dry Dunes

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards - Ripple Star

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards - 0² Battle

Pokemon Sun & Moon - Solgaleo & Lunala Battle

Pokemon Sun & Moon - Lusamine Battle

Which one did you like the most? Be sure to tell me in the poll and comments!

Fun fact #1 There was originally supposed to be 10 tracks for this video

Fun fact #2 The Class C race in Iceland Reverse was completed originally as a "replacement" for Iceland Season 8 with the Lamborghinis when I wanted to give up on that track. The determined side of me said "No. You're completing this." And so it was done after all.

Fun Fact #3 Instead of doing 11, I though that I might as well make it 12, so I raced in Nevada with the W Motors Lykan HyperSport as the extra race to finally bring it to 12. So as you can see, these facts all tie in with one another as to how it ended up being 12 instead of 10.

Fun Fact #4 I almost forgot to mention this one! The Tokyo race for the Lunala Battle was originally going to involve the Class D cars, but I decided to go for the Season 8 race with the Class A cars. Why? It pays more credits and the presence of the super cars in a dark environment made it a more fitting track for this theme.

 

What's Next & Other Ramblings

Feels great to finally get more games and commentaries onto the channel. After much time of doing mostly outdoors videos, it was time to pay attention to other categories my channel is supposed to focus on: commentating and gaming. Didn't get to do as much commentaries as I'd like to. I was hoping I could have done at least 3, but at least I did one and finished it timely too. What will be coming next? Not 100% sure, but I did actually type up some ideas that came to mind, so you may possibly see 2-5 videos of something next week. August? I have some things planned for that month. 🤔❓😁 Stay tuned!

December 01, 2016 Uploads

GuuzakaTube                                                                                                                 12.01.16

December 01, 2016 Uploads

Ah, first day of the month and here I present you with the following videos: Unsatisfying Sinclair Video, Flappying Bird: Flapping With The Silly Hen!, Run In Crowd: 2nd Crowd Race! and ChromaSphere: Still An LOL of a Show! The weather is getting colder for those of us in the northern hemisphere, but Christmas and a brand new year draweth nigh. Won't be talking about the latter two right now, so instead let's dive into those recent videos!

Unsatisfying Sinclair Video

So yeah, this is it: the “lost” video that I was talking about from “November 17, 2016 Uploads” If you read it, you'll know exactly why and how I failed to film it. Now when I finally had the chance to get up there again, it rained/wet snowed. Great. Fortunately, it stopped by the time I arrived on the premises, but unfortunately, the area was not vacant! What? Wasn't it a weekend? I was a little confused at first as to what was happening in the area, but when I kept seeing car after car making turns into the area, I knew something was up. Despite the wet, cold, cloudy sky and odd presence of cars at this time, I proceeded to cautiously filming, because you know what? My phone wouldn't stop having a fit two weeks ago when I attempted to film this place, and then a week later, it rained too heavily to film outdoors, and now this time there's unexpected visitors? No way man! I was getting really anxious to film this place and I really did not want to put it off just because of some random event that was taking place. I walked around the school and filmed without trying to look too creepy or invasive, but because of that compromise, this resulted in the video feeling not as “thorough” and investigated as I would like it to be. On top of that, I don't know why the camera shot slightly blurry footage to make things even more insulting! I believe that it may have been the cold air and humidity that messed up the lenses, so maybe if I had wiped it before filming, the video likely would have came out clearer. Despite my overall dissatisfaction with the weather and video, I tossed in a slideshow of pictures from the time I was there two weeks ago to make up for it. They alone, seem better than the video in my opinion. Sinclair Secondary School was nonetheless an interesting place to film, despite the unfavourable conditions that may have occurred.

Run In Crowd: 2nd Crowd Race!

My 2^nd gameplay video of this game. What's changed from last time? Not a ton, aside from the much improved audio quality. Speaking of that, I was impressed to be able to even hear the guitar's bass notes this time around. Very neat! Have I bought any costumes this time? No, just the same original plan: use of commentary and possibly a new high score of 4565! Not sure if that's actually my highest score ever, but I was exceptionally glad to see it, though headphone users probably had to rest in piece after they heard my reaction...... Anyway! Not much more I can really say right now, other than the fact that this is a great, simple, time killer with good graphics and sweet music.

ChromaSphere: Still An LOL of a Show

Alright, so the last video was jokes! Understandable because it was my first time, right? Unfortunately, the 2^nd time around was also facepalm's worthy too! But which of the two videos is more pathetic than the other? I don't know. That depends entirely on your discretion, but this time around, I've at least managed to capture high quality audio of the game's soundtrack, rather than just use solo narrations like the last time. For some people that alone might make them favour this video way more than the other. I attempted to get better medals in world 1, but after quickly discovering how hard that was, I decided to just focus on demonstrating the game, rather than actual professional playing, so I proceeded to world 2. Being harder, you can just imagine the struggles if you haven't seen the video yet! Despite the poor playing, I managed to make some progression and even discovered a trick of getting around some of the sliding doors. It's unfortunate that I did not consider using that trick when I was stuck between the green door and a swinging pole in one of the later levels! Seriously, I would've saved myself so much time and embarrassment if I had just used what I learned earlier, but no. I just had to be so dumb. My commentary was also off here and there. Oh well. Still a fun game. 10/10 would play again. Get the memetic reference? Yeah I'm sure some of you regular internet surfers get the reference!

Flappying Bird: Flapping With The Silly Hen

Still playing me some good ol' Flappy Bird spin-offs. This time, this one is about a hen that flaps through what I believe are garden walls, or perhaps just simply grass walls. Despite the clean graphics and physical keyboard support, this spin-off is honestly not as interesting as the other editions I've played in the past. There are no power-ups, coins or items to unlock things or shop, no additional controls, etc. Still, it does load and play smoothly, so it's not all bad, but certainly not very interesting either. Due to the size of the bird and it's odd rebound height and dropping angle, I can say that this game is quite challenging. Challenging enough to not allow me to beat my high score of 37 in the past. Alright, so let's talk about my poor commentary - actually do we really need to go there? Nah we're good! Actually, wait! There's something very important that I forgot to mention and that's the fact that the video abruptly cut off after recording for around 12 minutes. I believe that it was supposed to terminate after 13 minutes, but oh well. It was close to ending time, so I won't complain too much, but it still would’ve been greatly appreciated if I could've been the one to stop the video on my terms and not the application itself! The commentary will give you a very good clue to which flappy spin-off I'll record next time. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Asphalt 8

Where the flappity flap is it?! Oh – right! I did not record a segment this week. So what's to come for next week? Hard to guarantee anything with 100% certainty, but you can expect the usual. I might consider redoing one of those horrid, off-sync quizzes I took in the past, but we'll see. 

November 25, 2016 Uploads

GuuzakaTube                                                                                                               11.25.16

November 25, 2016 Uploads

Wow. I uploaded 4 videos to YouTube today, and I can't believe how unbelievably fast they hit the servers! Seriously, for four videos that totalled 65 minutes combined, I don't know how they hit became published in less than two hours! Crazy, but good! As I've noticed, it may very well be the fact that this batch doesn't include an outdoors video, which tends to bog down the speed for fairly obvious reasons. Anyway! Let's get on with the following: Testing Three Microphones, Flappy 2048: Flapping Into The Future!, Asphalt 8: RUF, RUF! Can You Hear Me Clearer Now?, and Retro Runners: Running Retro Style!

Testing Three Microphones

I said it in “Amazon Unboxing: Seagate Portable Storage & Blue Snowball Microphone” so now here is the entry for the test video. How did these microphones fare? Well, with the exception of the built-in microphone, Parrot and Blue Snowball did pretty damn well, and even though the built-in microphone was noticeably the worst of these three, the audio is still half-decent when turned up high enough and wearing headphones. Now, I mentioned that both the BlackBerry's microphone through the use of the Parrot application, and Blue's Snowball fared very well, so does this mean that the Snowball was a waste of $69 CAD? Certainly not! As clear as Parrot was, the Snowball still wins this contest for three reasons: one, the audio quality is better. Two, the microphone itself has more controls and is more flexible. Three, it did not distort the audio or make my voice skip! This alone can be a serious make it or break it point, especially when you consider how annoying or ridiculous it can sound! Thankfully, it did not happen too often, but it did happen about 3 times or so. As bad as the on-board audio is compared to these two, at least it does not suffer from this audio distorting or skipping issue thankfully. Blue Snowball> Parrot> On-board. Microphones aside, I must also mention that editing this video was so painful and laborious! Producing it wasn't too bad, but even though it was only just under 30 minutes, but yet it took closer to two hours to finish!!! Why?! Because there were so many trips, slips, goof-ups and butchered tongues in this video. This resulted in steep, time consuming editing. Even then, the segment with the English words was unfortunately extremely awkward… Draught is indeed pronounced as “draft” and colonel is indeed “kernel”, but I've been too oblivious for too long to realize that. Oh well. My English pronunciation just isn't as good as it should be for a so called native speaker, but it's not cringing awful either. Don't laugh at me. If you laugh at me, I'll laugh right back and make you turn red, then blue and finally back into the dust you once were! Ok, I had to quickly come back to this section to mention something important: leaving the parrot application running in the background, outside of it's frame to attempt to record audio will result in complete silence, or off-sync audio for commentary videos. Been there, done that, WON'T do it ever again!!!!

Flappy 2048: Flapping Into The Future!

Yes! The first game I tested with my Blue Microphone just had to be a flappy spin-off, because why not? So what makes Flappy 2048 so “different” is that you play as a winged cube with a number that keeps multiplying by two, every time you fly into the matching cube, with the matching number in the pole. The problem? The numbers become exponentially big after a while, so reading them can become more challenging, adding to the fact that the poles will start to move once you reach a certain number! To play this game, it helps to be mathematically aware of multiples of two, and to have a fast pair of eyeballs! If you don't have either of these, then you'll have an extremely hard time with this game! Oh, and you also need to be capable of telling colours apart, because sometimes different numbers can have nearly identical colours, which can cause you to fly towards them if you don't read and flap to the correct cube fast enough! Yeah, yeah, I know most people will probably think I'm being silly or weird for mentioning such things, or think that I'm overcomplicating the sound of this game, but just try it for yourself and you'll see why I had to mention this.

Asphalt 8: RUF, RUF! Can You Hear Me Clearer Now?

For real though, can you hear my voice and the sound effects clearly and crisply this time? The answer to the question above should be yes to anyone with at least average hearing capabilities, but as mentioned in the description, it's best to turn up your volume or wear headphones to enjoy maximum quality. If you've never seen it yet, the idea of this video harkens back to the older video “Asphalt 8: Ruf, ruf! Can You Hear Me Now?” Only now, both the frame rates and audio quality have been improved! Yes, I've been only boasting about audio a lot, but I can't believe I forgot to mention the fact that the frame rates used to be TERRIBLE, until I figured out that it was the save location doing it, and NOT the processor! Oh, those days! Experimentation and progression can only get you so far, but sometimes you need to actually invest in things, in order to truly go further. Now for the session's gameplay. Quite a bit of focus on the RUF RT 12 S, since the title does mention RUF, but I also tried the Lykan in China for some big earnings and the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento before choosing the RUF in London. All segments went smoothly, though London did take a couple of attempts before getting a clean run in each race. I wish I could have successfully executed more barrel rolls in Barcelona, but as least I didn't wreck from attempting it. I believe I also mentioned how I wanted to do more tricks in China's Great Wall as well.

Retro Runners: Running Retro Style!

It's refreshing to record something different, so that's why I went with this over Run In Crowd when I was contemplating on choosing both, or one or the other. Because I didn't end up doing it that day, you can expect to see a video on it hopefully next week, but anyway! This entry is about Retro Runners, so let's discuss it, but before we do, I need to mention the issue with how I forgot that those things are called hurdles! Actually, did I have to bring that up? Like anybody cared or noticed anyway, so let's just not bother with that! With Retro Runners, you must run through various tracks in various levels, jump or dodge obstacles and stay hydrated! Sounds fun? You bet it is! You even get to earn points to unlock various characters, all of which look like retro, colourful polygons! The graphics, frame rates and gameplay were very smooth too, so this made the gaming experience with this app even better. In this segment, I only played with Turbo Jones and Alex Windrunner, so if ever decide to do another episode in the future, I will buy some girls and boys unlock some more characters. Oh, and one more thing: this game is available on Android and iOS as well, but I'm not too sure about Windows 10 Mobile.

Ending

So now that I have my hands on a “studio quality” professional, Blue microphone, I hope to do a lot more controversial (kidding! Partially….?) commentary videos and gaming videos in the future, alongside the usual outdoor videos. Let's just hope the Snowball has a long lifespan! 

October 26, 2016 Uploads

ATA1201058                                                                                                                              10.26.16

October 26, 2016 Uploads

Alright, so for this entry, I'm going to be talking about the videos that are currently being uploaded to the YouTube servers as I write this: Asphalt 8: No Sun Bathers While Races Take Place!, Parrot Tower: Feathers to Heaven!, Flappy Wings: Poo And Grab Coins!, Who knocked off Jesus' Head?!?!, D'Hilier Park: Failed to Catch Trolls On Camera and Clown 2016 News Commentary. That's a lot to talk about, but before I get right into this, I should probably address the issues about my phone turning off and Screen Recorder failing to capture everything over extended periods.

Why Do You Complain Rage About Your Phone Shutting Off So Much?

Much of the time when the phone shuts off, it's due to the battery being at a low percentage, but the problem is that it's not even near zero when it does this, so I can only assume that it's obviously an old battery that can no longer hold it's charge properly, or accurately read the correct percentage. The battery has been abused heavily through extensive tasks for two years and ten months now, so to fix this issue, I should either A: stop gaming with it when it approaches a certain percentage. B: keep the phone charged or C: Just throw it out and use a newer battery. For now, I'll just keep a better eye on it and either swap it or charge it when I feel there is a risk for it shutting off. Now unfortunately, there are times when the battery isn't even the problem! As you heard me rage about in Asphalt 8: No Sun Bathers While Races Take Place!, the problem was triggered by simply firmly pressing the volume rocker... What? Normally a hard bounce or knock is what causes the device to sometimes shut off, but this case was something else... What can be done about this? I could send it in for repair if I wanted to, but the problem doesn't happen often enough to make it a serious issue. 98% of the time, a really hard knock or jamming is what causes this. This device is a BlackBerry 10 phone, Q10, Software Release: 10.3.1.1865, OS Version: 10.3.1.2708, and is almost three years old. I'm putting this information out there for any potential viewers that can offer more information and determine whether it's a software issue, age or all of the above.

Screen Recorder

I've never really delved into it, but the screen recorder that I like to use to record Android games and commentary videos goes by the generic name Screen Recorder. It is an application from Toysoft Development Incorporated. It is on Version 3.4.0.1 and doesn't have any new updates available at the moment I checked (about now as I write this). So, if you've read my other entries, the reason I use it is because it does an excellent job at capturing both the video and sound for Android applications in HD, without the need for an external separate microphone. But the nagging problem is the fact that the audio occasional jumps, skips and distorts, and then there's also the issue where I can be recording for say 20 minutes, only to find that only 9 minutes of video ended up being recorded. Why? I don't know... What I do know is that if I let the screen dim out or lock, then it messes up the recording for somewhat obvious reasons, but what could be the other reasons as to why it often cuts off earlier than it should? Does it need an update? Does the phone's OS build have anything to do with it? Possibly, but who knows for sure. The other application that I use for moments where I feel that I can't be bothered taking a risk is called Headless ScreenCorder, from Burning Platform. What's cool about this recorder is that you can have it run in the background without opening it, hence the “headless” part of the name. All you need to do is give it the proper permissions and it will do the job with a double tap for volume up or down, depending on your configuration. What makes this application great for native coded applications, is that it allows the sounds to be heard while you're recording, unlike Screen Recorder, but unfortunately, it does not actually record the sound you hear, or even your voice for the matter! This is why an external microphone is needed, and ideally a really good one too, in order to get a video with sounds on native applications. Now yes, you can get sound by downgrading to 360p, but ATA1201058 is a channel of HD videos, not videos that look like they're from the 1990s. So as you can tell, both applications have their strengths and weaknesses, so I'll use one or the other depending on what I'm doing. I usually prefer ScreenCorder just because it's more stable, and safely captures longer videos, just as long as I don't let the screen lock or have some other event take place to terminate it. Ideally, my dream screen recorder would be an application that reliably records both Android and native BlackBerry 10 applications, in full HD with BOTH the application's audio/music and external audio (such as my voice), without the need to use an external microphone! Maybe it exists somewhere over the rainbow or in the woods, so I'll just have to search for it, or better yet, contact the developers. Wait, why haven't I done that yet? Toysoft is an active development team that still builds and maintains their apps, so why haven't I contacted them about my issues with Screen Recorder, instead of constantly being a drama queen about it? Burning Platform is also active, so I have no reason not to shoot them an e-mail in case I have an issue with Headless ScreenCorder.

Talk About Your Recent Uploads Already!

Alright, so that has been far longer than I anticipated – WOW! Can't believe I ended up with such a long wall of text, but let me just get one final thing out of the way: BlackBerry 10 phones aren't garbage. I don't want anyone thinking that they are based on the way I've been talking, so let me just say that if you were thinking of buying a BlackBerry 10 device in 2016: do it. Do not let my drama and rants about certain subjects turn you off from these fabulous work horses. Buy new, replace batteries when needed, and practice general proper device maintenance and you'll be fine. The BlackBerry Passport Silver Edition is a solid choice for physical QWERTY users, while I'd recommend the BlackBerry Z30 for slab users. Now on with the videos!!!

Asphalt 8: No Sun Bathers While Races Take Place!

This title is based on my radical assumptions as to why there are no people on the beaches of Asphalt 8's Barcelone track – Perverts! Ok, so in all seriousness, it's actually because they'd get run over, since these cars can enter the beaches to do things that would be oh, so illegal! The results of this? Lots of blood and gore that would send this game's rated T to rated M or R!!! So perverts and beach nonsense aside, half of these segments for this episode takes place in French Guiana. Why this place? Because I wanted to do a Class C run, and found the French Guiana course for the Lotus Exige S in season 6 to be a great warm up. After that, I decided to do the reversed portion yet again with the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento And Ferrari Berlinetta. Did I finally play like a boss? No, I went down the wrong path at one of the parts, but that aside, it was a little better than last time I think. China is where things got interesting: during my 2^nd lap while going up the road to the big ramps area, I knocked out a big red bus! How?! That would have normally resulted in a serious wreck, but for some reason, my Lykan Hypersport thrashed it! I found it to be crazy, but also relieving that I didn't get a wreck. Wow, just wow. A clean run and brash KO!

Parrot Tower: Feathers to Heaven!

In this cute themed game, or as the Japanese would say, “Kawaii” you must build the highest tower possible, without making it collapse. Because they are parrots, you must be aware that they will sometimes fly by pretty fast before you plop them down. I guess I can say that a little hand-eye coordination helps here. A very simple game, but if you like cute themed games, parrots, and if you're bored, then this game will be a great choice for you to try. It's also worth noting that the wild form cockatiels, probably became glitchy after tampering with the resolution too frequently. Of course, being the oblivious hurr durr I can be at times, I didn't take note of it until I watched the video again and saw that the wild form cockatiels were fine in the beginning. Oh well. Didn't affect the gameplay in any negative way, and in fact caused me to criticize the cockatiels for hiding something potentially very inappropriate!

Flappy Wings: Poo And Grab Coins!

Oh, ho, ho, hoooooooooo! Another flappy spin-off from me! This time, I played Flappy Wings, which I'd honestly consider the closet, highest quality spin-off of Flappy Bird that is original enough to make it worth it to download, but at the same time, so close that it feels just like the original title from Gears. In Flappy Wings, yo do the same thing that you do in the other titles: flap, dodge the bars, avoid falling and collect coins or whatever goodies the spin-off has in place. In Flappy Wings, you also get to use your coins to purchase accessories for your bird to further customize it. Neat. If it wasn't obvious from the commentary and even edits, this is one of my favourite Flappy games. I like the looks of the bird better, graphics, gameplay, shop, the fact that it tweets and many other attributes about it over the other relatively ugly bird. That's not to say that I don't like the original, but we all have our preferences and reasons, so I can say that Flappy Wings is better in my opinion, but there's also another that's pretty damn good: Flappy ????????? nope, that's not the title, so what is it?! I'll play it in the near future. Look out for it, and in the meantime, keep flapping – um, something, ah never mind!

Who knocked off Jesus' Head?!?!

For real though, who did it?! Nobody knows yet, but as I suggested in the video, that church should seriously consider setting up surveillance cameras and lights that light up whenever a passerby walks past the area. I've seen plenty of houses that have motion sensitive lights, so that could probably be the more feasible, affordable option of the two, if the budget is an issue. As funny as the video title sounds, it's really a very sad, pathetic issue that has taken place several times at the Sainte Anne des Pins Catholic church in downtown Sudbury, but this time when it happened, the head was nowhere to be found. They didn't want to leave an empty hole in the statue, so they decided to put on an ugly, terracotta temporary head to fill the void. The problem, as we've seen, is that the contrast is too ridiculous and the fact that it's just ugly! It's so hilarious, that it turned into an internet joke that has spawned lots of memes and hilarious captions! As a results of all the internet noise, the head was soon removed and then a so called anonymous woman decided return the head on a Friday night, and told the church that the person who took it, was suffering from personal problems. Hmmmmm, interesting? Very questionable... I'm going to be honest and say that the way the media was hiding the person, and the fact that Lajeunesse was asked not to divulge anything further about the situation or her identity at this time, has me to believe that it was very likely the woman herself that took it. Now, I'm not saying that it was definitely her, as I do not have enough details to sufficiently judge her, but from what I gathered, I have a right to think that it's quite likely her. That aside, Lajeunesse himself was so glad to have it returned, that he said he almost cried. Very emotional and touching indeed. In an effort to raise money for security measures, “we will be calling for funds from parishioners,” Lajeunesse said. About time! I was talking about the same thing on my video, so I'm glad to hear that they're actually doing it. The only way to stop this recurring problem is to set up security cameras and warning signs. Now, before I conclude this entry for “Who knocked off Jesus' Head?!?!” I'd also like to just say that religion has NOT made the world a worse place. I've read those ridiculous comments from that article, so I'd like to remind people once again, that it's people's decision to do bad is what caused the world to become such a savage place. So before you criticize religious people as being problematic, take a good look in the mirror and realize what you're actually doing. Done.

D'Hilier Park: Failed to Catch Trolls On Camera

Ok, before I actually discuss the details of this trip, let me just first say that I'm not impressed by the less than stellar quality of action mode on video recording mode. Honestly, I probably would been better off just doing regular 1080p or even 760p@30fps. Now that I've mentioned this, I think I'll actually do a comparison next time to see which high frame rates mode fares better: 760p@30fps or 1080p with action mode set. For the trip at D'Hilier, I would've been better off sticking with the original plan of entering the place from Nettle Court, but the temptation of entering it sooner lead me to using an entrance from another road. The results? I eventually found my way out to Nettles, U-turned and filmed again, once I got to the intersection past the first bridge from the McQuay. Speaking of bridges, it was the 2^nd bridge crossing that inspired me to give this video the title it has, but unfortunately, I did not film myself crossing the bridge, nor did I even bother to film the trolls in the distance, which you can say would lead to a less than stellar video, but at least it saved me the possible embarrassment of getting trolled and screaming! I did spin around to get a very quick glimpse to show what happened behind me, and as you can probably hear, there were some voices discussing the scare. Wow! Talk about classical trolls under a bridge! This scare reminded me of the 2016 Clown dilemma currently taking place, which lead me to creating the following video later that evening: Clown 2016 News Commentary. But before I get to that one, I'll conclude by saying that this was nice trip, but be careful when exploring forests or going over bridges at this time of the year, especially since 2016 in particular has a Clown problem in the U.S, Canada and other countries. Clowns aside (pun intended), there are obviously other dangers that are more likely to take place, so just practice basic safety and common sense.

Clown 2016 News Commentary

Yes, there's been so many clown sightings in North America, particularly the United States and Canada, so after being reminded of that during an event in D'Hilier Park, I decided that I definitely wanted to do a commentary video on this. Oddly enough, I'm must declare that I'm not 100% sure if those trolls were dressed as clowns or not, but I'll admit that I didn't want to get too close. Oh, clowns! This video is just basically me talking and rambling about clowns and reading over some recent headlines that have taken place. As most of us are aware, these aren't good. In fact, a good number of them are rather sad, cruel, wicked, annoying and just plain unnecessary. The only news article I read from that video that didn't fall under those negative categories was where I commented on Ronald Mcdonald keeping a low profile, which I guess is sad for him, but fortunately reminds people that there are still good clowns around. With it being that time of the year where the weather is getting colder, and the dark, dumb Halloween season is in place, it's no wonder so many people with nothing better to do, have decided to become clowns and go around frightening people to harmful levels and even killing them. Sounds funny for a show, but not reality. Got that? What is funny on screen, isn't always funny in reality, but unfortunately, some people don't get that. Well, actually, some know, but still want to do crazy things anyway just because they can. Of the 6 videos I talked about here, this one certainly has the longest screen time, though the other one about the Jesus statue comes pretty close at 18 minutes. Commentary videos can get very intense and lengthy sometimes, which is why it's paramount to have a reliable recorder when doing them from your phone. Speaking of intense, this video has been also rated as 16+ due to the mature subject matter and commentary on a sexual article. Was this really necessary? Yeah, I think it's fair to give people a little warning, but some would criticize and say that it's overkill, but who cares. Now at the end of the commentary video, I stated that I didn't really like this video; it's true. I didn't. In fact, I was thinking as to whether or not I really wanted to seriously upload this, but why? What bothered me so much about it? I stated that it wasn't the subject of clowns, so what? Well, I don't know. I guess it's a complicated mix of emotions I can't really explain right now.

Too long?

According to the word counter, this entry is pushing 3000 words, making it the longest blog entry I've ever done to date, so I guess I should wrap it up soon. There's just been so much I wanted to talk about that I haven't really mentioned before, so I felt that it was time to just talk about those things, and spill my thoughts all over this entry. Finished.