Tetris Against Each Other (Day 3398 - 3/15/19)

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The vlog starts out with Stephen talking about how he had gotten the camera cage yesterday and put together his set-up for the vlog camera. Stephen says that the quality is really good with that camera set-up. He said that the microphone is a Cardioid microphone, so the audio is good when the camera is facing towards him but not well when the camera is facing elsewhere. Stephen says that the problem is that he often turns the camera towards other people or things while continuing to talk. So, the audio becomes not as good when he films other things.

He said that one solution would be for him to speak closer to the microphone so that the audio is better. Another solution would be to only use the microphone when he has to record audio from behind the camera like when he is at home or outside in windy weather conditions since he needs the windjammer. Otherwise, he would just use the built-in microphone on the front of the vlog camera. Stephen mentions that the audio from the built-in microphone is still better than the microphone audio when he is standing behind the camera. He then says that he could probably take off the windjammer to make the audio a little bit better when he is standing behind the camera.

Stephen then talks about how he has been playing around with the color settings and frame rate. He said that yesterday's vlog was shot in 30 frames/sec and that he would probably stick with 30 frames/sec from now on. Stephen then says that he has a doctor's appointment today about the pain in his neck. He thinks that it might be a swollen lymph node. Stephen said that his mom and Mallory were both concerned about his neck pain and urged him to go to see a doctor. He then drives to the doctor's office. In the car, Stephen says that he is curious about how the Røde microphone sounds in the car since the car doesn't isolate the car noises. He says that he has to roll off the low frequencies when they record vlogs in the car. Stephen said since he rolls off the low frequencies, sometimes the volume of his voice seems lower when they record in the car. Stephen then mentions how there is so much pollen and Mal films the pollen that has gathered on the front windshield.

There is then a brief clip of Stephen sitting on the examination table at the doctor's office. He finishes his doctor's appointment and says that the doctor thinks that it's just a swollen lymph node. Stephen says that he had already suspected that it was a swollen lymph node, but it was good to hear a medical professional's diagnosis on it. He said that he kind of felt like it was a waste of time and money though since the diagnosis just confirmed what Stephen predicted as the reason behind his neck pain. Stephen says that the reason Mal was concerned about his neck pain was because he had another health related issue that he wanted to have checked out by a medical professional and Mal thought that the neck pain might be connected to that health issue. He said that he doesn't want to discuss the details of it because it involves a more private part of his body, but he made another appointment at the end of March to have it checked out. Stephen said that Mal was worried that his health issue could've been a more serious health issue relating to his lymphatic system. He mentions that his neck still feels sore. The doctor told Stephen that as long as he was still able to swallow food and beverages, then he would be fine.

Stephen then talks about how they have a couple things to do in preparation for the Puyo Puyo Tetris stream on Twitch tonight. Mal says that they have 3 things to do to prepare before the stream tonight. While Stephen talks about how they have a few things to do before the stream, Mal jokingly says they have 4 things to do. Stephen then exclaims "Stop adding more things to the list Mallory!" The video then transitions to right before the start of the stream. Stephen says that they finished setting up the stream exactly at the time that the stream was supposed to start. He said that they set it up very differently from the Smash stream. Stephen then films the stream set-up and says that the downside of the microphone being in front is that you can't really hear him. He said that he can't keep the microphone on the camera in the long-term. Stephen then holds the camera further away so he can film himself and the screen of the monitor.

He said that he is using the monitor, so that the game is closer to them. Stephen says that it is easier to play game when the screen is closer to you. He mentions that since they were using a monitor he had to hook up some speakers to it. Stephen says that the speakers are connected to the HD60 Pro which is the PCI-Express card that's in stream box. Then, the Black Magic camera is hooked up to cam link which they haven't used in a while. Stephen said that he thought connecting the Black Magic camera to a cam link would help prevent the blinking screen that happened last time they streamed. However, even though it's was a completely different capture card and hooked up to a completely different monitor the blinking still happened. Stephen said that it only happened once in the last 40 minutes though. He then says that on the TV screen is where they can see stream chat and the alerts. Stephen says that he also made some spaces on the side of the stream layout for their face cams. He said that it is a little bit of an unusual spot for the face came, but he thought it was a nice way to keep their face cams big without obscuring anything on the screen. Stephen then mentions that due to the layout, if he is looking at Mal it looks like he is looking off-screen since they're actually on opposite sides.

Stephen says that he doesn't know how long they are planning to play Puyo Puyo Tetris. He also isn't sure how the results of the competition will be because they have never played Tetris against each other. They then talked about how they did play Puyo Puyo Tetris together when Paul was there because he had a copy of the game. Stephen says that they were too busy trying to survive against Paul in the game to think about how well they did against each other. He said that Paul is really good at the "Puyo Puyo" part of Puyo Puyo Tetris. Stephen the says that they'll see if "Team Hard Drop" remains supreme again.

The video then includes a part of their Puyo Puyo Tetris stream where Stephen was very close to getting a game over playing the Tetris part because his blocks were close to the top. They finished the stream and Stephen said that they sent all the viewers of the stream to go watch Masae's stream. Stephen said the stream went well and people really enjoyed watching it. He also said that they played well against each other. Mal said that the results were very close. She said that it was a good thing that the results were close because it's always frustrating for the person losing by a large margin. Stephen then says that there were a few rounds that he won that shocked him since he wasn't expecting to win. He said that there was also rounds where Mal sent so many garbage blocks, so fast that he didn't even know what she did. Stephen said that he still has a lot to learn about playing the Puyo Puyo part of Puyo Puyo Tetris. He then says that he is going to take down the stream set-up. Stephen mentions that he doesn't have a spare monitor that used HDMI, so he has to use his actual monitor in the gaming stream set-ups in the living room. He said that they will eventually have gaming streams in the office, but he hasn't had time to make a stream set-up for the office.