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Otherwise known as “reasons to make sure the camera is in the correct mode before you start recording.”

My warped sense of humor decided to upload this as an attempt at my first “shorts” on YouTube

For those of you who don’t click to the actual video, what happened is Beat Saber had finally come up on my randomizer, and having determined that Cast-to-PC plus the webcam was my best option so far I recorded the game using that.

But I also set up my GoPro Fusion to see how well that would pick up the game’s audio (given the whole issue with cast-to-PC not actually including the audio for reasons I have yet to solve). Not to upload as yet another test, but mostly for my own curiosity–to delete if it doesn’t do the job well enough, and to upload as a normal “workout video” if it did.

Only… I didn’t realize until after I’d finished “recording” that the Fusion was in photo mode… so I got 400-some-odd photos in burst mode rather than the 4-minutes-and-change video I was expecting. And this is what the camera’s proprietary editor decided to do with all of those photos. I thought it was funny enough to try uploading as a YouTube short, but of course your mileage may vary, and of course I still haven’t found out how well the Fusion picks up the headset’s audio.

On the plus side, I found out that the tripod I normally use to record my console games was safe enough on the floor in front of my computer… at least while playing Beat Saber. I’ll probably still want to look for a suitable desk tripod or clip for more exploration-type games.

In the meantime, there are also actual exercise videos to be had this week.

Week 24 marks the start of my attempts to do four workouts per week (two per day off) so as to have one video per week per gaming system… not to mention do more exercise in general since some of these games are extremely short. Depending on how things go with other interruptions, such as an upcoming dental appointment, but in any case, we have:

The Soccer Heading game in Wii Fit U

The Four Masters rhythm game (core/legs version) from Ring Fit Adventure

The actual session with Beat Saber (captured via the screen recorder Bandicam) on the Oculus Quest

And finally another attempt at the Stealth/planking board via the Racquet Ball game

Definitely need to work on my form doing planks. Even going for a minute, it just hurts my neck more than I think it should (which is to say, at all), and while the whole “staring at my phone while planking” could be a contributing factor, I vaguely remember having the same problem doing planks on the Wii Fit.

Might see if doing wall planks/push-ups (when I’m not recording) will help build up the strength I need to do these better….

And on to Zombies, Run!

First we have the introduction to the app… technically the same chapter as in the 5K app, but with slightly different dialogue and (as I’m sure you’ve noticed from previous updates) a slightly different graphic. Also the main app involves collecting supplies as the 5K app never did.

I had been commenting on other posts about an issue with my phone going to sleep and effectively killing the app’s ability to update the display… and I had been looking for an easy way to keep the phone awake during an entire session–easier said than done since the most you can delay it by is 10 minutes, the only “disable sleep mode” function unless it’s plugged in and charging (developer options, at that, not even a regular setting), and charging cases in my preferred “folio” style are just not that easy to come by.

But I had since noticed during a Homefront session, entirely by accident (I thought the phone was plugged in but it wasn’t), that the phone’s tendency to kill the app doesn’t seem to affect the main app, just the 5K one. Granted, with Homefront involved there’s no GPS tracking so it could also have been that the app just wasn’t doing enough for there to be a problem. But I am now happy to report that even with GPS tracking involved, the phone going to sleep does not seem to kill the main app. So no need to buy an expensive new phone case just to keep the app running properly

And then there is my progress with Homefront:

Of course I missed a couple of days of working out.

Once was because my mother was having issues with her phone (as it turns out, the battery was shot and needed replacing), and my parents kept me looking up solutions for half an hour when I got home from work instead of getting my phone plugged in to charge right away. The result is that I didn’t get to start my me-time until it was late enough that I needed to go to bed and rest up for the next day of work… and also my phone died before it started charging, which I didn’t realize until the next morning when my parents woke me an hour after my alarm was set to go off.

The other was because the weather was nasty outside, my phone’s battery was low enough that I’d need to charge it while doing Homefront, and I didn’t relish plugging it in (lifetime warranties on surge protectors does not translate to recovered data if the device is completely fried; we unplug all important device during storms no matter what the surge protectors promise.)

Suggested products in use, Amazon Affiliate links included where possible:

• GoPro Fusion 360 degree camera
• Stealth Core Fitness (basic “fly yellow” model)
• Padded compression sleeves
• Wii Fit U plus Fit Meter
• Wii Fit U digital version (there are different price points on Amazon but as much as I’d like to support secondary sellers I haven’t decided how I feel about buying a digital copy from them, though there’s always the option of just buying a Nintendo gift card and buying the game straight from the Nintendo shop)
• Wii Fit Balance Board plus Fit Meter (This is the bundle to get if you go straight for the digital version without owning hardware from the previous incarnations)
• Fit Meter (green) or Fit Meter (black) (the color is solely a matter of personal preference)
• Full Wii Fit U bundle (game, balance board, fit meter)
• Ring Fit Adventure for Nintendo Switch
• Oculus Quest (I have the original, thus the link. I’d done some research on the 2 to decide how it would most likely affect my migraines–weight plus IPD–and decided my best bet was just to stick with what I have.)