#PastebinMonday 01/20/2025 Figuring Out My Schedule Edition

Figuring Out My Schedule Edition

'Sup, doods!

I need to figure out my schedule—not just for when I stream, but when I handle other stream things and when I write my tutorial scripts. I had planned to use my Saturdays to re-write my tutorial scripts because my motivation to work on them during the week was killed by my day job. I am using my lunch breaks to ponder re-writes, but the laptop I bought to help with that is too woefully slow to be that useful. I think I have found a better solution for that. Anywell, I have found that running tournaments is too emotionally draining to do much of anything else afterwards. Besides, I have to plan the tournament videos to go out shortly afterwards to keep that YouTube channel steady. My tournament Saturdays are fairly booked and have me in a way different mindset not fit for writing.

Speaking of the tournament, doods, that last tournament was one of the smoothest experiences I have ever had. I always worry about my play whenever I am running everything else at the same time, but my play in this past tournament was among the best I have ever done. Pretty much everything I planned to do came together. I was probably executing at a 95% level. After FFR Pro was eliminated in the first round, I felt some pressure to perform release as the rest of the field fell into place. I wish I could tell you that commentating for nearly 3 hours and playing the rest of the way was the key, but I usually need to warm up first. This is always my biggest worry. But hey, I guess it makes the tournaments more compelling, don't they?

As far as my stream schedule goes, doods, I am torn between two greatly conflicting ways of progression. On one hand, I had an idea that if I was not going to spend time during the week writing, I should spend that time on stream to grow the audience. On the other hand, I have a lot of back-end things I could be improving instead to up the quality of the stream. This all depends on whether or not I can be motivated to write more often throughout the week. This week will be an important test run for that. Right now, I could ramp up to four or five days a week again and slow all of my progress on everything else, but specific people have told me that they are looking forward to the tutorial series.  Let me know in the X replies what you doods would rather me do.

In other news, in an effort to make smarter choices, doods, I said on stream this week that I quit caffeine a while back. I found caffeinated sodas when I was about 8 and have been addicted to the stuff ever since. I am about a week and a half “sober” from this roughly 30 years of caffeine dependence. My head has not yet thanked me for this decision. I need to stop the flow of aspirin soon before I get dependent on that, too, but things in my head are generally hurting too much to focus on anything. I can't even get an urge to play Balatro right now, even though I'm REALLY close to fully unlocking everything. I'm that messed up in the head at the moment.

Now if you'll excuse me, doods, the tournament videos are piling up and I don't know how to make room for what B-roll I will inevitably need to record. I've got external hard drives to shove everything onto and shove I probably will until I clean up everything. Perhaps that's what I should have been doing from the start.


Today's (permanent) extra streaming goals:

Goal #1 (formerly 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 hope to finish through them all this month, but I'm realizing that I may not have the time.
Goal #2 (formerly 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. I have come to realize that if I am going to make my target date, I need to put this above everything else because I don't have as much time or motivation during the week as I thought I would.
Goal #3 (formerly 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 #4 (formerly 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 #5 (formerly 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 #6 (formerly 3): finalize the tournament layout once and for all in a way that I can adapt for every game we might play. Until someone volunteers to help broadcast the matches in my stead, this is not actually a top priority. I feel like making this happen will encourage others to help out, not the other way around. There has been virtually no interest so far.


This week's schedule:

Wednesday @8pm-9:30pm ET – Wild Cards Wednesday – Lt. Surge Open Qualifying
Friday @8pm-11pm ET – Friday Night Salt Mines – Probably Making Things HARDer on Myself Edition


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

--Cards