#PastebinMonday 05/26/2025 When it Rains, It Pours Edition

When it Rains, It Pours Edition

‘Sup, doods!

I am trying to keep my spirits up right now. There have been so many changes to my life over the past week that have me looking forward to what’s next. I also get a week off from my day job to digest them all. I am ready for some rest and relaxation in my brand new home.

And yet…

When it rains, it pours…

All over the floor of my dedicated new office.

Twice.

Dood, I set up everything in the office how I wanted it to be able to broadcast the Tetris Attack Lakitu Open (a miracle that it even happened for reasons I’ll get into later). Then I went to sleep. Then our area got a really heavy rain storm. Then I woke up to a gigantic puddle of water covering my floor. I was frantic to grab old towels and old blankets to soak up all of the water. It took a few hours, but I got rid of enough water to be able to do some kind of live stream.

The next night. THE NEXT NIGHT. I was hit with ANOTHER storm that went on for a really long time. And WHAT DO YOU KNOW? MORE FLOODING! I had to resort to a shop vac to get all of the water out. I swear I’ve been shelling out a lot of extra shekels on the back end of this house purchase. It sure beats renting again, though.

My floor is still wet, doods. My back yard is almost entirely standing water. There are earthworms floating in the back. As I started writing this update, more rain was forecast for this morning. RNG Gods help me.

As for the Lakitu Open, performing well in the tournament was the furthest thing from my mind. For starters, I could only install the Internet in the back of the house. My PC and my office are in the front of the house. There are too many walls between the PC and the router to get a strong enough signal to upload a broadcast of the tournament and my own gameplay at the same time. So I run my 50ft Ethernet cable from the back of the house to the front–around various kitchen equipment–around the walls and away from the reach of the family cats–all held up with electrical tape. Holy moly, does it look jank. And it barely reaches the PC. I have purchased a fix for all of that. My webcam also looked jank because the only light source built into the room would be right above my head behind me no matter which wall I anchor my desk to. I shut off that light and used lamps & flashlights just so you could see anything. I purchased a fix for that, too.

As if that wasn’t crazy enough, doods, my PC has been constantly rebooting ever since the move. I could be minding my own business watching a video or working on a document and my screens would suddenly go dark and lose signal. Then the PC would attempt to boot again… only to reset itself soon after. It took all of my patience and good fortune just to update enough things and properly reboot to stabilize the computer enough to stream. A few reboots later, I realize that my BIOS hasn’t been updated in over a year so I update that to rule it out as a possibility of being the culprit.

Then the PC reboots again at 4% into the update process.

And stops booting. Nope, no amount of turning it off and on again is changing anything. But wait, I’ve got a thumb drive to flash the BIOS… annnnnd it’s not taking it. Welp.

So, as I finish writing this update, I am without a desktop to access and edit video. I resorted to a Chromebook to be able to write this update. With today being a federal holiday, none of my local repair places are even open, not even Geek Squad. I’ll be making some calls tomorrow.

“When it rains, it pours,” indeed. Dood, you don’t even know the half of it…

Today's (permanent) extra streaming goals:

Goal #1: record footage for my Puzzle League tutorial series. The scripts are done! I am now challenging myself to find time amidst my tournament duties to work on recording the gameplay. I would then need voice-over on top of that. I plan to start this once I am fully settled in the new place and have some time away from work.
Goal #2: 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. Moving has pushed this date further and further back.
Goal #3: 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. As soon as I think of things to put in, I will add them to the list. I added a list in a dedicated channel in my Discord server. If you have any time to kill and want to contribute, check it out.
Goal #4: 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: 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—and another Easy – V-Hard PB (twice). 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 was failing miserably even before I had to move.
Goal #6: finalize the tournament layout once and for all in a way that I can adapt for every game we might play. I have a volunteer to help broadcast the matches in my stead, but I need to get settled before I engage in too many projects.

This week's schedule:

Friday @7pm-9pm ET – TA2026 Bumpty Open Qualifying (I SHOULD be up and running by then. I hope.)

Now if you'll excuse me, doods, I need to dry up and mother nature isn’t helping me do that. Until next time, everyone, be decent to each other. Later, doods!

--Cards