#PastebinMonday 01/22/2024 The Stream is Under Construction Edition

'Sup, doods!

I can't say I ever saw someone try to put together a stream layout on stream before. Most people just find/buy a premade configuration or hire someone versed in graphic/layout design to make one, don't they? What's one to do when you don't like the premade configurations or have the budget to have someone else make one? Clearly, the only real option is to make it yourself. What's also clear is why few people go through the trouble of creating their own layout, much less doing it in front of an audience. That said, as I've said several times, “if I'm not streaming, I'm not doing.” It's the thing that got reinforced in me the most during my time off.

If I'm going to get anything done, I need to stream it so... stream it I did... on Twitch... and YouTube... and I tried to go on Rumble, Kick, and Twitter as well, but my restreamer failed on me for reasons I still don't understand. You may or may not find me doing a test stream at some point this week.

Honestly, I'm kinda amazed at how many of you doods showed up. I've had many speedrun routing streams that didn't peak at that many viewers. And after three months away, too? I'm touched. I hope this can motivate me to do more and more.

However, that could become a problem if things continue to break as they did this weekend. My capture card stopped receiving audio no matter how many times I would uninstall and restart my computer. Then, yesterday, my main webcam stopped being recognized by my virtual camera software I use to green-screen my main cam. It's not fun to troubleshoot technical issues on stream, doods. Good news, though: reinstalling VCam fixed the camera problem. I haven't had time to do the uninstall/restart dance on the capture card yet so I have to wait for the other shoe to drop on the bad news. I did buy another capture card just in case. Fingers crossed.

In other news, afternoon naps are here to stay. I'm too full of stress after work to focus on much. This is going to be a problem when I expand back to weekdays. Maybe I'll have enough weight lost by then to not need the extra energy. Oh, who am I kidding?

Today's (permanent) extra streaming goals (actual priority is in constant flux):

Goal #5: make a universal LPS broadcast layout that can be quickly adapted to multiple games. I have not been able to power through this, but it will definitely be done by the time I need it.
Goal #6: 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 everything ready to edit was the big thing I was hoping to get done before the next Tetris Attack tournament, but I really don't know where all the time went.
Goal #7: clean up my own stream layout. Streaming the process is getting it done, albeit maybe a bit slower than I would like. I could make a weekly stream out of adding more themes that can be redeemed with your Sardine Twitch points, if I really wanted to. ...I'm not opposed to the idea.
Goal #8: 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.

There's kind of a schedule this week. It's full of stream construction, though.

Friday, 9pm-1am EST POSSIBLY? I'll announce on Wednesday if I need the time.
Saturday, 3pm-9pm EST
Sunday, 3pm-8pm EST

In case you missed the video schedule I posted before:

(all releases at 7pm EST unless otherwise indicated)
1/22 (TODAY) - A Peachy Improvement (Or: Why I Can't Handle This Game Anymore) [Mario Golf: Advance Tour]
1/25 - I Beat V-Hard Mode 5x Without Stopping (Or: Very Hard? More Like Very Mid) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
1/29 - Kaiba's Sub-5 Lottery (Or: Why This Side Might Be More Random) [Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom]
2/1 - A Proper 100% Speedrun of the Game I Love Most (Or: A Birthday Gift to Me) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
2/5 - The Marathon Sprint for 50K! (Or: You Can Finish This Speedrun with 2Chains) [Pokémon Puzzle League]
2/8 - A Time Barrier Defeated (Or: Why Speedrun Leaderboards Are NOT The End All) [Pokémon Puzzle League]


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

--Cards