#PastebinMonday 01/06/2025 2025 Is The Year of Progress Edition

'Sup, doods!

Let me take you through my normal process for creating these updates. On the Sunday before, the night before, one of the last things I do before I prepare for bed is reflect on everything I did in the past week and write down all of my thoughts together. Once I decide what I am going to talk about, I type it all up in a presentable way like this. I have a saved document that I edit every time so I don't have to type every little thing from scratch. After that is done, I open my OBS broadcast software to update the schedule graphic I make every week. When that is ready, I turn on a few graphics to film my video version of this update. I film it all in one take because I would add way more time if I tried to re-record or edit out the silence. The whole process takes about two hours.

I say all this because, as I type this sentence, it is Wednesday, my doods, the start of the new year, and I need a lot of time to reflect on everything I did in the past year and summarize it all.

I declared 2024 the Year of Doing, doods, but I have no reason to believe that I did everything that I set out to do. My tutorial series looms large over me as one of the most important things I could ever do. I can't think of a single thing I did to move that project forward in 2024. That changes in 2025 as I revisit the scripts in the coming weeks. I wanted to be ready to ramp up my streaming schedule in 2024, but I don't have the flexibility I need to expand my content in the direction I want to take it.

There's no point in being completely down on what I failed to accomplish for myself in the past year, doods. No wonder I can't find anyone to hang out with. I should talk more about what I did do in 2024.

I think I managed to stream more in 2024 than I did in 2023. I re-worked the stream look to something more aesthetically pleasing to me and hopefully better for you to look at. I still have a long ways to go. The biggest change I made, however, was the jump to simulcasting on YouTube, Rumble, and Kick. I even tried X/Twitter Live when that wasn't behind a pay wall. I've managed double-digit follows on Rumble and Kick, most of them being bots, unfortunately. I have my eyes on more particular purposes for each stream that I hope to cultivate in the coming year. Don't expect them to be glorified simulcasts forever, doods.

My long-form content has always been inconsistent and rarely consists of more than stream highlights. I wanted to be more active with some sort of videos to let doods know that I am alive and active doing this speedrun thing. In February, I started making Shorts to advertise the live streams. I've been fairly consistently putting out a new highlight every day since then. I wanted to do this for TikTok, too, but TikTok didn't want me there. Customer service was awful, btw.  My Shorts feed should have many of the great things that you doods are missing out on by not watching my shows live.

I've also added multiple ways that you can support what I'm doing while getting some extra value out of it. I have a Patreon page. Currently, the only thing there is a top secret list of future stream ideas, but once the streaming farm starts back up, I can expect to provide some exclusive content to the Patron Sardines. I have a Ko-Fi page, too. You can pay me to play games that I would not otherwise consider playing. You can pay me to learn a new speedrun if you so wish. You can commission just about any stream you like from me on Ko-Fi. And finally, I opened up a Throne wishlist for getting me gadgets that can improve the quality of the stream. The thing that will up the quality the most, at the moment, is a new location. I am currently saving up for a house down payment so money to up the stream quality is a bit tight. If you want to speed up that process, doods, you are welcome to put spare change towards funding better cameras and microphones, among other things.

I'mma be real with you, doods: I'm a bit dead in the water right now. The YouTube numbers are going up a little bit, but the Twitch numbers aren't. They haven't been going up in over five years. No seriously, check my Social Blade. The numbers have only ever been going up due to networking. The problem is I haven't found anyone I would be willing to network with. If I want to just live stream--and I do--I need Twitch to not be dead in the water. That might be an indication that my future is on YouTube. I believe that the changes I am going to make in 2025 will make YouTube more lucrative. This is why my goal list is so important for me to follow up on. I get a feeling that I'll be in a position to make some big changes this year.

A little note on how this week went before I go, doods: I am not 100% right now. I have made a New Year's resolution to make smarter choices with what I eat and drink one change at a time. The change I made this week was to phase out drinking caffeine. I have been babying headaches all weekend and I let that distract me during Saturday's tournament. The less I think about that, the better. The tournament was great. I'm talking about my performance.

Now if you'll excuse me, doods, I still have some headaches to manage. This better not be long term.


Today's (permanent) extra streaming goals:

Goal #2: script and record footage for my Puzzle League tutorial series. I have some scripts left to touch up before feeling comfortable with moving on to recording gameplay. Then I will need to record my talking points and edit it all together. Getting back to this will be easier once the workflow for the monthly tournaments is finalized. I'm hoping to review the scripts for prose rewrite this week.
Goal #3: finalize the tournament layout once and for all in a way that I can adapt for every game we might play. I have two months to get this part organized before the Tetris Attack championship starts up. Otherwise, I will have to postpone something yet again.
Goal #4: clean up my own stream layout. Most of the framework necessary for a semi-proper stream is done now thanks to streaming the process, though I'm not currently motivated to stream any other part of it at the moment. Next major objective is to make alerts. I have stream reaction clips to put in. Emotes, one or two alternate overlay themes, and alternate timer themes would come soon after, though I will put in any timer theme I can use from Pokémon Puzzle League upon request. As soon as I think of things to put in, I will add them to the list.
Goal #5: catch up on video archives that I have yet to upload since I restarted streaming. I may put them on a separate channel.
Goal #6: edit personal best videos in Tetris Attack Easy – V-Hard (post commentary recorded) and Normal (post commentary recorded)—and everything I did in Pokemon Puzzle Week—and that S-Hard PB—and that V-Hard WR—and that Easy – S-Hard WR—and that TA Easy PB. Standalone archival videos are already attached to my speedrun profile. I'm hoping to make eye-catching productions from each speedrun. I'm considering it to be my personal test to be a YouTuber. I am failing miserably right now.
Goal #7: release the Puzzle League tutorial series YouTube shorts once a day until they're all done. I really do think I need to time the release of the series with a ramping up of my streaming schedule so that I can take advantage of whatever there is to gain from releasing the shorts.

This week's schedule:

I'm too distracted by AGDQ2025 to put on anything. Misty Open qualifying next Tuesday!


That’s my life story for the week. Until next time, everyone, be decent to each other. Later, doods!

--Cards