Introducing Lucy!

Last year, I adopted two kittens named Benzi and Ember.  For a while, I had been thinking about adopting a dog as well.  I had researched several breeds and suggestions from people about how and what kind of dog to get, but of course, everyone has different opinions.

 

Taking care of cats is easy since they require very little maintenance: they use a litter box, you don't need to walk them every day, they are self-grooming.  Taking care of a dog is a large responsiblity and very time-consuming and since I live by myself, I didn't know if I'd have enough time for one.  Ironically, because of Covid and stay-at-home life, I've been home pretty much 24/7, so I figured now was the time to adopt a dog if it were ever going to happen.

In the middle of August, I decided to start looking online at what dogs were available at the local shelters.  I'm not too picky on look honestly, it's more about personality.  I looked online at Pima Animal Care Center's website one day and found a small dog that I thought looked cute, so I wanted to go check it out.

I scheduled an appointment with the shelter and when I got there, they told me that dog was no longer available.  I decided to look and see what dogs they had anyway, since not all of them are listed on the website.  First, I looked at all the big dogs, picking out 3 that I was interested in.  Then I ventured through the small dogs and puppies.  I didn't want a puppy though, because I feel like that would be a lot of work training and for a first-time dog owner, maybe something over a year old would be best.  Most of the small dogs had been claimed, but there was one that I noticed because she didn't say anything and I like quiet dogs. :)

They gave me the rundown of the dogs I showed interest in, but all the big dogs were "special needs" dogs requiring additional attention and training, which was not good for a first-time dog owner.  The small dog they had very little information on since she just arrived as a stray the day earlier.  I decided to meet her and she was very calm and quiet, which is what I was looking for.  And so I put a reservation down on her and planned to pick her up a couple days later!

Her name at the shelter was Faith and when I brought her home, I couldn't decide what to name her right away.  I let her go nameless for a while before I eventually picked out the name Lucy.  I don't know, she just looked like a Lucy to me.

The first night, I was very nervous.  I have two cats, I kept stressing about how they would get along.  I had never owned a dog, I had no idea what I was doing.  I took 3 days off work and wrapped it around the weekend to get a full 5 days off taking care and supervising the new dog.  I also had to take her out on a walk, train her to use the bathroom outside, etc.  Make sure she liked her new food.  Just a lot of new territory for me and after the first two days I started questioning myself, "what have I done?"

After the first couple days separated off in her own room, I slowly started to introduce her to other parts of the house.  I'd keep the cats in her room and basically do an exchange, allowing them to get used to the smells before letting them see each other.  Of course, the biggest strategy to getting pets to get along is FOOD!  Food unites everyone, so I made sure that dinner time was a family thing, getting all pets to eat at the same time was very important.

It's now been 2+ weeks since Lucy has been here and everyone is more comfortable with having her around.  She still occasionally pees in the house, but we're working on that.  And she'll probably need obedience training down the road.  Regardless, I've been taking it one day at a time, learning about her and the cats' reactions to them, and I think we can be one big pet family in a few months or years or whatever it takes. :D

I never thought I'd get a small wire-hair terrier for a dog, but like I said, it's not so much about looks for me but their personality and obedience.  I wanted a couch potato dog, and I got lucky because she fits that role quite well.  And so my pet family is complete!  I won't be adopting anymore pets, I think 2 cats and 1 dog is purrfect for me.  Welcome to the family Lucy!

Sports are back!

Not a whole lot to blog about these days with stay-at-home life, but I'm really excited for sports to be back!

Last week, we got the MLB back and it was really interesting watching games with no fans in the stands.  I like how each stadium is using sounds from "MLB the Show" to add cheering and audience noise to bring back the experience for the players and those watching on TV, but of course it's not the same.  It's gonna be interesting to see what happens to teams that get hit hard with a heavy dose of Covid (like the Miami Marlins for example), but I feel like this entire year needs to be flexible if we're to enjoy and get back to some kind of humanity.

The NBA is starting back up tonight, so that's super exciting!  I've seen highlights from life in the NBA bubble and a few scrimmages.  Again, things just feel different without fans...almost as if the games aren't as "important" when in fact they are.  Either, way I'm just happy to have sports to watch again. I can only watch so much Hulu and Twitch. :D

Speaking of Hulu, I spent the last month watching Dragon Ball Super and it's sooooo good.  I loved the stories and development of characters outside of the usual main Saiyans (Goku and Vegeta) and I couldn't stop watching.  It was hard to just watch 1 episode at a time, I'd usually end up watching 2 or 3 at a time haha.

I did make it out for a round of golf and I shot decently considering I haven't played since February.  Not saying much because I still shot about a double-bogey per hole, but it was fun (and exhausting) to be out there once again. :)

Okay, well unfortunately that's about all the updates I have for now.  Still working from home, working out from home, playing video games, and Twitching.  Have a good month of August and I hope everyone continues staying safe so that we can get back to a normal life sooner than later!

Welp, here we go again...

This is gonna be a short blog entry because I don't really have a whole lot to update lately due to stay-at-home life.  Arizona had re-opened in early May and for a while we were able to go to gyms and my pool league was meeting once a week.  However, that quickly ended yesterday with another state order to close down gyms and bars again for 30 days.  So back to that life for me...

I have been going to at least once a week and some weeks I spend more days in there than others.  But overall I was starting to get excited about returning to a normal life.  Unfortunately, Arizona is just too crazy right now with too many people going out and about without wearing masks as if Covid is just gone.  *sigh*

Twitchcon was officially cancelled as well, so I have zero travel planned for the rest of the year with over 20 days of vacation still leftover.

For now, I'm back to working out at from home and just playing more video games I guess.  I'm super excited for sports to returning: the NBA and the MLB.  That'll be really exciting!

Anyhoo, I hope everyone out there is staying safe and sane!  I personally have been very lucky not to have been affected by Covid yet nor do I know anyone personally that has been affected.  However, I do know friends of friends who have gotten it and who have not been so lucky, so it's definitely a serious matter that we should acknowledge and be aware of.  Take care and see ya next month for hopefully better news!

ATrain64's PC Build for Streaming on Twitch

The core of my build was constructed in May of 2018, but I have since upgraded it to improve the quality of my stream to the level where you see it today.  If you're just stopping by to see what I've got in my build and how much it costs, you can find everything in the table below.

	Core Build (5/7/18)	Vendor	Cost
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master Hyper RR-212E-20PK-R2 LED CPU Cooler	Amazon	$29.99
Motherboard	ASUS Prime Z370-A LGA 1151 (300 Series)	Newegg	$164.52
Case	RAIDMAX Cobra Z ATX-502WBU Black/Blue ATX Mid Tower	Newegg	$39.99
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 Bit System Builder OEM	Amazon	$101.08
Monitor 2	ViewSonic XG2701 27" 144 Hz 1ms Free Sync Gaming Monitor	Newegg	$319.99
Ethernet Adapter	TP-Link TG-3468 Gigabit Ethernet PCI-Express Network Adapter Card	Amazon	$16.29
DVD-RW	LG Electronics 8X Ultra Slim Portable DVD Writer Drive	Amazon	$27.47
		Total:	$699.33
	From Previous Build
Monitor 3 (12/2/12)	ViewSonic VX2703MH-LED Black 27" 3ms HDMI LED Monitor	Newegg	$239.99
SSD 2 (6/20/16)	SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 250GB SATA III 3-D Solid State Drive	Newegg	$87.69
Mouse (1/17/18)	Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum RGB Tunable Gaming Mouse	Amazon	$54.29
		Total:	$381.97
	Add-Ons / Upgrades
Cam Stand 1 (6/22/18)	Smatree Adjustable Jaws Flex Clamp Mount 13.4"	Amazon	$13.99
USB Card (3/4/19)	Inateck 4 Ports PCI-e to USB 3.0 Expansion Card	Amazon	$16.99
Camera 1 (10/21/19)	Sony Alpha ILCE-6000L Digital Camera with 16-50mm Lens	Amazon	$558.00
Capture Card (10/21/19)	Elgato Cam Link 4K	Amazon	$116.22
Cam Stand 2 (10/26/19)	Smatree Adjustable Jaws Flex Clamp Mount 13.4"	Amazon	$13.99
Processor (10/31/19)	Intel Core i9-9900K 8-Core 5.0 GHz LGA1151 (300 Series)	Amazon	$484.99
M.2 SSD (10/31/19)	Samsung 970 EVO 1TB NVMe M.2 V-NAND Solid State Drive	Amazon	$169.99
Capture Card (11/26/19)	Elgato Game Capture HD60 Pro	Amazon	$159.99
Monitor 1 (12/5/19)	ViewSonic Elite XG270 27" 1080P 1ms 240Hz IPS G-Sync Gaming Monitor	Amazon	$429.99
Monitor Mount (12/11/19)	WALI Extra Tall Single Monitor Desk Mount (M001XL)	Amazon	$37.99
Mic Stand (1/10/20)	RODE PSA1 Swivel Mount Studio Microphone Boom Arm	Amazon	$100.44
Stream Deck (5/4/20)	Elgato Stream Deck with 15 Customizable LCD Keys	Amazon	$153.36
Camera Light (5/5/20)	Lume Cube Panel Adjustable Bi-Color LED Light	LumeCube	$144.00
Headphones (5/10/20)	Sennheiser HD 660 S HiRes Audiophile Open Back Headphones	Amazon	$543.45
Microphone (5/11/20)	Shure SM7B Cardioid Dynamic Microphone	Amazon	$433.71
XLR Mixer (5/12/20)	TC-Helicon GoXLR Mini	zZounds	$270.49
Side Light (6/29/20)	Tranesca Selfie Ring Light	Amazon	$21.69
RGB Light (7/1/20)	GLW LED RGB Flood Light, 30W with Remote Control, 16 Color	Amazon	$18.99
Camera Lens (8/26/20)	Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary Lens	Amazon	$430.21
Power Supply (3/19/21)	EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G5, 80 Plus Gold 850W, Fully Modular	Newegg	$189.77
Memory (4/2/21)	G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 3200 SDRAM	Amazon	$179.99
Camera 2 (4/2/21)	Logitech BRIO Ultra HD Webcam	Amazon	$178.30
Foot Pedal (5/10/21)	OLLGEN USB Foot Pedal Mechanical Switch	Amazon	$29.99
Video Card (3/10/22)	EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB GDDR6X Ultra Gaming FTW3	eBay	$1,339.40
Keyboard (7/2/21)	Logitech G815 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard (Tactile)	Amazon	$195.54
		Total:	$6,231.47
		Grand Total:	$7,312.77

In the rest of this blog entry, I will go over the core components of my build and important pieces that really boost the quality of my computer and Twitch stream.

CPU: Intel Core i9-9900K 8-Core 5.0 GHz

This was the best CPU available at time of purchase.  When it comes to streaming, multitasking is very common with the several apps you'll be running in the background in addition to some CPU-demanding games.  I chose the highest CPU since it's the last resource I ever want to be constrained on for what I use the computer for.

SSD: Samsung 970 EVO 1TB NVMe M.2 V-NAND Solid State Drive

Most won't see a noticeable benefit from NVMe drives over standard SATA SSDs, as the gain is mostly seen with multi-threaded operations that most Windows 10 applications don't currently utilize.  However, SSDs are significantly faster than traditional spinning HDDs, so I would never recommend anyone putting an HDD in their computer unless they are on a very tight budget.  Bottom-line, get at least a 500GB SSD for OS and games.

GPU: EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB GDDR6X Ultra Gaming FTW3

When it comes to streaming on Twitch, I can't recommend anything less than the RTX 20 series cards from NVIDIA.  If you are going to use OBS or Streamlabs OBS, you will want to take advantage of the newest NVENC hardware encoder that comes with these cards.  If you follow the bitrate and encoding guidelines from Twitch, you'll learn that these cards produce similar quality to that of "Medium" with the x264 encoder via CPU.  The GPU cost to encode is minimal and saves valuable CPU usage to the point where you can get away with pairing it with a lesser i7 CPU and still produce great stream quality. I know they're expensive, but if you're gonna play on it almost every day, it's worth it. Also, I love EVGA products!

Capture Card: Elgato Game Capture HD60 Pro
I went with the HD60 Pro because arguably it provides better response time than the HD60 S.  I also like the internal PCI-E mini connection.  I plug my PS4/Switch console directly into the card via the HDMI input and then I output it to my gaming monitor via a SLOBS source projector.

Gaming Monitor: ViewSonic Elite XG270 27" 1080P 1ms 240Hz IPS G-Sync Gaming Monitor

When it comes to gaming monitors, the decision right now is between 1440p x 165Hz or 1080p x 240Hz.  This is a personal preference, but I elected for the frames over the visual quality to improve gaming and response for competitive battle royale games like Fortnite.  I currently own 3 monitors, which is extremely helpful for multitasking, but at least two monitors are necessary for effective streaming (1 to game on, 1 to read chat and notifications).  As for brand, I am very loyal to ViewSonic monitors.  I've owned several over the past couple decades and have never had a single problem with any of them.

Camera: Sony Alpha ILCE-6000L Digital Camera with Sigma 16mm f/1.4 Lens

I first started with a Logitech C920, arguably the best webcam for streaming on Twitch when it comes to cost and quality.  I then learned about digital cameras operating as webcams and they are on their own level in terms of camera quality.  I chose the Sony a6000 because it's the same camera used by a couple popular streamers I like to watch, plus I love its mirrorless picture.  The Sigma lens is not necessary, but it will increase the sharpness of the picture even more so.  You'll need the "Elgato Cam Link 4K" and an AC power source adapter in order to get it working with your computer as a webcam.

Lighting: Lume Cube Panel Adjustable Bi-Color LED Light

This lighting kit was on display at Twitchcon 2019 and it's a beast in terms of producing light.  I currently run mine at just 15% brightness, which speaks how powerful it is.  Lighting can be more important than the camera itself in terms of producing a good picture, so you need to invest in a good light.  For some environments, multiple lights are preferred as well as a dark background, depending on what kind of image you are trying to produce.

Microphone: Shure SM7B Cardioid Dynamic Microphone

The first microphone I used was a Blue Yeti, which for its price is a very good microphone for streamers.  I recently upgraded to an XLR microphone because I was curious and I could hear the higher audio quality on other streams.  I decided to go with a Shure SM7B based on popularity and reviews.  Make sure you have a good mic stand to go with this microphone so that you can have it close to your mouth when you speak.  I highly recommend the "RODE PSA1 Swivel Mount Studio Microphone Boom Arm".  It's more expensive than average but it's extremely sturdy.

XLR Mixer: TC-Helicon GoXLR Mini

A mixer for the XLR microphone is not necessary, but it's really nice to have.  The GoXLR Mini comes with a compressor, gate, and equalizer to really fine-tune the quality of your voice.  It has a USB output so that you can plug your XLR cable directly into the mixer and then the mixer does the rest.  I will say that the software for the GoXLR is not great, but hopefully the bugs will disappear and functionality will improve over time.

Headphones: Sennheiser HD 660 S HiRes Audiophile Open Back Headphones

My first pair of headphones were the Sennheiser HD 280 Pro closed back headphones that I owned for almost a decade.  They were very good headphones, but they were starting to feel worn out and outdated, so I went for an upgrade.  I decided to stick with Sennheiser because I am loyal to their brand, having owned a set for so long with complete satisfaction.  I am very impressed with the HD 660 S.  The spatial sound is impressive and open back headphones really immerse you into the audio environment of the game you're playing.  This set is also much lighter than my previous set and ultimately more comfortable.

Stream Deck: Elgato Stream Deck with 15 Customizable LCD Keys

A stream deck is completely optional for streamers, but once you have one, you'll love it and never go back to life without one.  It's extremely useful and can perform actions that you cannot do easily within OBS or Streamlabs OBS.  You can change scenes easily, disable/enable sources quickly, and even add multi-actions to generate special scenes unique to only those who possess a stream deck.  15 keys is a must-have minimum.  6 is too few and I feel like 32 would get harder to manage and take up valuable desk space if you don't have much to begin with.

ATrain's Build:

That pretty much covers the important components that contribute to my stream and its quality.  The rest is pretty straightforward.  16GB of RAM is the sweet spot in terms of memory.  The additional USB card in my computer is helpful since I have 9 USB connections.  A foot pedal is helpful to act as a push-to-talk button and save valuable keystrokes when gaming.  Make sure you have a nice gaming chair and it's designed ergonomically, critical for your long-term health when you'll be playing for several hours in the same spot.  My computer might be expensive, but it's so nice to play on and if you're gonna spend as much time on this thing everyday, you might as well put nice things in it.

Hope you enjoy the stream!  Feel free to say hi to me at https://www.twitch.tv/atrain64 and thanks for watching!