#PastebinMonday 04/17/2023 Becoming a Better Manager Edition

'Sup, doods!

I sit here looking at this bedroom at all of the things that I have already picked up and sorted (and buried a little bit in the closet) and come to the conclusion, yet again, that I need to be a better manager. I need to improve at managing my time, managing my cables, managing my hard drive space--managing my life, really. I will preach thinking critically about why you do everything that you do and how it betters your life until the cows come home, but I will still fall into the same traps as anyone else of consuming entertainment mindlessly and, I guess if you're American, mostly, overeating to relieve boredom. I am going to put a greater focus onto why I do what I do on a day-to-day basis in an attempt to make better use of my time. Hopefully this gives me the time to finish my tutorial scripts and record the gameplay footage I need before the start of the Pokémon Puzzle League tournament.

I also sit here looking at all of the cables draped from above my desk and coming from my gaming rack and questioning the long-term build of my desk. I had originally arranged my desk to put my PC underneath for more desk space, but that restricts my ability to use the adjustable level of the desk. (Also, I may have mouse problems.) I also wanted to have two monitors side by side alongside the CRT I have a 4x2 matrix switcher (4 inputs to two outputs) with cables from my gaming rack on the floor that stretch up to my desk where my CRT TV sits. My desk actually keeps the cables propped up so they don't drag the matrix switcher to the floor from the top of my TV where it can reach the PC. I have logistical challenges ahead of me. I may have to wait until the weekend to physically move things around. I want to put my Kirby's Avalanche run on YouTube first.

Speaking of YouTube: I'm brainstorming an idea to put up a public highly edited presentation of each new speedrun and tell people to watch the full run on an unlisted video that gets submitted to the leaderboard. I don't know how that will do in the algorithm. I can just tell, though, that unedited VODs do not perform well. There is a place in speedrun history for the unedited VOD. The general YouTube audience, however, does not care. After trying to do this for 10 years (10th Twitch anniversary in three weeks!), I have come to learn this. Making better use of my time should give me more time to make the edits I want. So much for getting to that tutorial series, huh?

Back to the theme of this week, I also sit here with less than 100 GB on my 1 TB hard drive and multiple TB of used external storage at the moment. I need to think critically about which programs I am still using and trim the fat if I am going to continue recording videos. You know, I still use Vegas Pro for creating stingers and transitions because DaVinci Resolve continues to frustrate me with its lack of ability to render alpha channels. Vegas Pro is a fairly beefy piece of software to keep on the hard drive for how few occasions I will use it, but reinstaling it with my old license will be problematic. Those are the kinds of decisions that I will give myself some time to make this week.

I do still have some clutter left in my bedroom to clear out. I did get rid of a lot of unnecessary packaging, though. I should probably get to the stuff under my bed, too. Still dealing with a bit of paralysis of choice on how I want to arrange things. Still regretting my queen size bed. It did not have to be that big, but I got talked into it. That furniture store is no longer in business.

Today's (permanent) extra streaming goals:

Goal #1: clean up my immediate environment. The bedroom is a lot roomier than it was on Friday. Cleaning up my PC will be my next objective.
Goal #5: script and record footage for my Puzzle League tutorial series. I have some scripts 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. I will still want to take time during the week to do all of that instead of stream. Whether I will be able to remains to be seen.
Goal #6: clean up my own stream layout. I am brainstorming how I want the final theming to be. I probably want to give people multiple options, maybe allow spending bits to change the look. I don't have anything written down yet. I don't expect to get to this anytime soon.

On Friday, I am going to play another potential LPS minor tournament game and revisit becoming a better Puzzle Fighter. I last did this run in 2016. Let's see how much I remember!

That’s my life story for the week. Later, doods!

--Cards