Productivity is a Mindset

It may be hard to believe, but the act of being productive is all a state of mind. If you have the desire and the drive to be productive, then you will be. Things like weather and timing may play a role in what you are being productive doing but it does not stop you from being productive as a whole. 

Some people stay productive by making lists and locking away all their technology so that they don't get distracted. Others find that having something playing in the background helps them stay productive. However you choose to be productive, it is all in your head on whether you feel like you are being productive or not. 

Sometimes being productive is cleaning the entire house. Sometimes being productive is going shopping and getting all your errands done. Sometimes being productive is starting some new projects like painting furniture. Sometimes being productive is doing all of those things. Other times, being productive is putting your mental health first and just relaxing. 

You may not feel like you are being productive but your brain made the decision on what the priority was and you are being productive in that sense so good job.

Keep it up.

Stay on track.

You got this!

Miscommunications

You would think that after so much time of being alive, that it would be pretty easy to communicate and discuss how you are feeling or what plans you have, but that is clearly never the case. No matter how long you are alive, you will likely never be able to communicate yourself perfectly every time to every person you talk with.

There are going to be plenty of people who interpret your connotations differently. Different people who have different experiences and have come to learn that certain actions mean something different from what you thought you were conveying. Different people who may have said one thing but meant a different. 

It's a shame but it is also the truth. Miscommunications leave behind heartbreak, heartache, hurt feelings, anger, frustration, and a whole lot of wasted time and missed opportunities.

Let me know when we come up with a way to get rid of this.

Thanks.

Prepping Content

Being a content creator is a lot more work than people often think.

Like sure there are some instances of you being able to achieve popularity overnight from a random video gone viral, but that is not always the case. Not to mention, it does not end there when that is the case. You don't just continue to go viral and achieve success from that one video. If you want to continue making something of your name, you must continue to work hard and pump out content. Preferably relevant content, but not always is the content relevant to you that is relevant to others. You often have to put on a facade, you need to embody something you are not. And if you are like me and prefer to try and stay true to your roots and who you are, you can find that climb to be a little bit harder. More of a struggle. Slower on the progress. 

Working for that progress means keeping constantly busy. It means making a schedule and trying your best to stick to it. Making a plan for what gets posted when and where. It can be a lot to do and it can really start to wear you down. That is why I try not to sweat when I miss a day, when I falter a step, when I forget to post something. I don't want this to become a chore for me. I want to continue to have fun and have an escape. Will I still make a plan and try my best to stick to it? Yes. And I will continue to wish I could grow more. But I know that my efforts are enough for me and that I am doing it the way I see fit. 

A Little Bit of Chaos

Just a little reflection on my weekend shenanigans.

Sometimes isolation isn't all it is cracked up to be. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it is nice to be left to get your work done and just do as you wish without worrying about what others are thinking or wish they were doing instead. But there are also the times when you are left by yourself not completely by your own choice but because the others around you do not wish to spend time with you. Sometimes it is hard to tell people you wish they would include you. Sometimes it is hard to tell people you wish you could spend more time with them just goofing off. Sometimes you need somebody else to step in and say let the Chaos Commence!

So that is what we did this weekend, we let the chaos take over. There were still some periods of downtime when we did not bother talking to one another. There were definitely some hiccups of not knowing what to do or what to watch. Not being able to get the camera working properly, the microphone being too quiet. Etc. Etc. That did not stop the Chaos though. The fun times, the laughs, the memories; they happened regardless. And I am grateful for that.

Thank you <3

Is She The Sister You Wish You Had?

I woke up yesterday in a little of a mental frenzy. Been wondering lately why it seems I am always alone now. Why have I failed at being a social butterfly like you were? Did I spend too much time focusing on family? Did I spend too much time trying to take care of you all? Did I spend my time trying to make life easier for you all than it was for me, and fail? 

I know we joked around a lot about you moving in with me when I moved out, we were starting to be inseparable the past few years. Growing closer through similar struggles. But having you move in with me did not make sense. You would be nowhere near your job. You wouldn't have a way to get around while I was at work. You wouldn't be able to soar like you wanted, I know that is no different than staying where you were but at least there you had others to continue to help you in a way that even I would not have been able to provide.

I'm both glad and upset that it was her. I'm glad because it is somebody I know and trust and if it came down to it I know she would not let any harm come to you because she is like a long-lost sister too. But I also know that she has not always been able to care for herself. I know that sometimes she needs help with her own demons. And maybe you can help each other in ways that I can't help either of you. Maybe I am not the right person to have been trying to help her. Maybe I just don't understand any of it.

What I do understand is that it hurts that I no longer get to joke with you. It hurts that I no longer get to bug you and you no longer want to bug me. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe I bugged too much and you didn't want to tell me to stop and that is what drove you away.

Maybe that's what drove everyone away. Maybe it will continue to drive everyone away. Maybe my boyfriend will have to set up all my friend outings from now on like he has already done. Maybe he too will get fed up with me. Maybe he is already fed up with me. Maybe he already regrets it all and will hate me more when I pull him away from what little bit of a support system he has.

Am I the Villain?

Feeling Like A Failure

There has likely been at least one point in your life where you have felt like a failure for one thing or another. You probably have felt like that at more than one point in time to be honest. I know I have. But feeling like a failure does not equate to being a failure. In the end, you can make all the progress in the world and still feel like you are failing at something, it is part of being human.

It is important to remember that you are not your mistakes, that you can live and learn and grow the more you do things in life. 

But also, not everything is in your control. Not everything is your fault. Sometimes life just happens and you need to just keep moving on. You can not control if the store is out of stock of an item. You can not control if there is an accident and traffic is at a standstill. You can not control if people do not want to talk to you and do not want to include you in their activities. What you can control is how you react to these situations. Whether you freak out and panic and cry and scream or if you stay cool and collected and level-headed and look on the bright side.

Today is a new day. Just keep swimming.

Hard Conversations

Some conversations are just really hard to have. They can be difficult because of the sensitivity of the conversation, they can be problematic because they can hurt relationships/friendships, and they can be almost cringey because of their awkward nature. But conversations are good, they need to be had. And if it is going to cause problems, if it is going to let you get on with things regardless of if it is good or bad.

What hard conversations have you had?

Did you ever have to sit down and be scolded for bad grades?

Was "the talk" with your parents hard?

Did you have to have a sit down about going to college and how it was going to be paid for?

What about when you wanted to move out?

Did you introduce your significant other to your family before you were engaged?

What did you do when you leant somebody something and they never gave it back?

Did you have a heart-to-heart with friends because you really felt betrayed by their actions?

Losing Family

Please do not fret, it is not my own family that has been lost, not at the moment anyway.

One of my coworkers lost a family member recently and we decided as a unit to go and support them by attending the viewing. Now, granted, the family member that they lost has lived a long and wonderful life; but, that does not negate the fact that it is still a sorrowful and mournful time for them. Losing somebody, at any stage of life, is still hard.

With a lot of love and compassion from those around them it can be easier to bare. 

All of this is just simply to say, you should never take something for granted and should never assume that you know how somebody feels or what they are going through. 

Remember to embrace every bit of your life and hug those in it for that extra second if it doesn't seem like they are ready to pull away. Add a little bit extra love and compassion into the lives of everyone you meet and you may just be able to help them keep going on with their day in a happier mood.

Waking Up Late

How many alarms do you set for yourself when you know you have to be up at a certain time?

How many times do you snooze those alarms wishing for more sleep?

Generally speaking, I only have 2 alarms and I only snooze the first one; although it's not really snoozing it, rather it's just turning it off and letting the second alarm wake me up in another hour.

But for whatever reason, that second alarm did not wake me up today. I don't remember it going off at all. Instead, I woke up at 7:09. a full hour after it should've gotten me up. 20 minutes later than I would normally leave to get to work. 

It is a good thing that I do not take long to get ready. It is a good thing that I meal prep in advance and did not need to get anything ready for lunch. It is a good thing that I leave so early to begin with and had just enough time to get to work even with traffic, and walk through the doors as my shift was starting.

I hate being late for things. Does not matter what thing, I hate being late to ALL things. It gives me anxiety. I start to panic that I won't make it in time and that I will get in trouble. 

Playing Catch-Up

Having to play catch-up on things is not fun. I do not care who you are, nobody likes falling behind the curve.

I have struggled with sticking to things a couple of times in my life. My senior year in college for instance, now granted it was as Covid was starting to really skyrocket and we went into a global pandemic, but any excuse is just that, an excuse. I had too much on my plate, I thought I was doing well trying to manage it all, working 4 jobs, being a full time student, trying to have a social life, planning for a career after graduation; it eventually caught up with me. My schedule started interfering with others and causing a disgruntled group that just fought against every choice I made. They started to dread being home in my apartment. I started to have sleepless nights. I started to slack off on assignments and get extensions because my professors knew I was good at my work. But it just kept slipping me up, I started to struggle more and more and withdraw within myself as my world crumbled around me. And then having to go home and be isolated with my family and try to keep up with everything because the World got shut down but mine did not, it just was overall not a fun time.

I think that is probably the worst time I slipped up and fell behind and had to play catch-up. I did it though. I caught up, I graduated, I held my jobs for a while until I decided to find my career.

Now, I am here. At my career. In my apartment. Still slipping up occasionally. It happens. You have a bad day, you have a bad week, maybe you even have a bad month. But you need to think of every new day as an opportunity to do better. You need to find a way to learn from your mistakes. Maybe you need to not play catch up and just pick up as if no time had passed. It would probably be less stressful that way.

Global IT Problems - Crowdstrike

Yet another moment in history that you will eventually be able to say "I remember when..."

Updates are usually something that goes unnoticed by the common population, your computer even makes sure to schedule it during your usual downtime. Technology is constantly evolving and therefore there are commonly updates that need to roll out for just about everything. Your PC is constantly updating all your applications. Windows is constantly adding new features. Games are usually switching out their maps or their player skins. Now there may be some downtime depending on what and how much is being updated, this is the give and take of advancements. Updates are usually something that goes unnoticed by the common population, on most days anyway.

In the wee hours for those of us in the Americas, an update was rolled out by a cyber security company, one that up until my most recent job, I had never heard of before. The issue is, something in between all the lines of coding, got missed and is causing havoc on a lot of very important computer systems across the globe. Within the syntax of the most recent CrowdStrike software update, something is not sitting well with the users who have Microsoft applications on their systems. Because of this, we are having issues at a lot of major banks, airports, hospitals, city departments like court systems or police and fire, grocery stores, retail stores, and even some personal computers. Those who are on systems such as Mac and iOS are still operational but could you imagine if those systems had been impacted as well? 

Thankfully, this seems to sincerely be an issue of just somebody missing a line in coding and not a ransomware that somebody put out into the world. Regardless, it is going to take a little while to push out the new update and manually go through all the computers that are stuck on the blue screen of death.

Therefore this is going to end up being our second moment in time this month that people will never live down.

Moments in Time

There are a lot of moments in time that people are never going to forget on a Global scale. 

1835 - US President Jackson Attempted Assassination

1864 - US President Lincoln Attempted Assassination

1865 - US President Lincoln's Assassination

1865 - last of the American Slaves Freed

1881 - US President Garfield Shot

1901 - US President McKinley Shot

1912 - US President Roosevelt Attempted Assassination

1914-1918 - World War I

1930 - Great Depression 

1936 - First Public TV station

1939-1945 - World War II

1945 - Atomic Bombs hit Hiroshima

1945 - Jewish Holocaust

1948 - Assassination of Gandhi

1948 - Human Rights Standardized

1955 - US Civil Rights Movement

1957 - First Satellite Launch

1960 - Martin Luther Assassination

1961 - First Person Launched into Space

1963 - US President Kennedy Assassination

1969 - First Moon Landing

1972 - Watergate

1980 - HIV/AIDs Emergence

1981 - US President Reagan Attempted Assassination

1989 - Fall of the Berlin Wall

1996 - First Successful Cloning of a Mammal

1997 - Princess Diana Dies

1998 - Google Launches

1999/2000 - Y2K Panic

2001 - World Trade Center Attack

2004 - Facebook Launches and Social Media Skyrockets in Popularity

2005 - Hurricane Katrina

2011 - Prince William and Kate Middleton Marriage

2011 - Osama bin Laden Killed

2012 - Hurricane Sandy

2013 - Nelson Mandela Dies

2014 - Malaysia Airline Flight Goes Missing

2014 - Robin Williams Death

2015 - Same-Sex Marriage

2018 - Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Marriage

2019 - First Photo of Black Hole

2020 - Global Covid Pandemic

2022 - Queen Elizabeth Dies

and now...

2024 - attempted assassination of former US President Trump

Content Creator Challenge Day 30: Reflection

The journey through this challenge has been a long one, to be honest. While it has been great having a set structure of items to create and post, some of them have been very time-consuming and others honestly just seemed very daunting at first glance which caused me to start slipping and start procrastinating with posts. Up to the point that I had some content being posted days upon days later than it should have been.

We made it though. We got through all 30 days of the challenge and we will continue to grow and do more challenges in the future, preferably ones that I can pre-make some of the content to just schedule the posts for the days they should be going up!

Content Creator Challenge Day 29: Future Goals

I am one of those people who thrives with checklists so that being said, I have always had an idea of what tasks I need to complete to get myself where I want to be. Planning for the future is no different.

Looking toward the future, I have goals of continuing on in my full-time job but also continuing to grow as a part-time streamer/content creator. It will never be a money thing for me, just a relaxation and destressing kind of thing. Any money I do happen to make from it will end up going right back into this hobby and right back into the community. I plan on saving to get a real gaming PC instead of just my laptop so that it can store more games and play more games with fewer issues. Eventually, I would like to eliminate the laptop from the regular streaming setup as a whole and save it for gaming/streaming on the go! Baby steps though, one PC at a time. I want to continue to grow our community in the future and help other people have a safe place to just decompress and laugh at my stupidity. I want to be able to give back and help out other communities and other struggling individuals.

Making these lists though, that's the easy part; seeing them through and helping them come to life is a whole other ballgame and will require just a smidge of effort on my part.

Till next time Nightlings!

Content Creator Challenge Day 28: Post or Create a Media Kit

When you go out into the world, you are greeted with advertisements. Even just existing in the world and playing on electronics, you are greeted with advertisements. This is because the biggest way to get something known is through advertisements. Companies advertise new products, and people advertise new businesses. A media kit is just another way of you being able to advertise yourself. Your media kit contains everything anyone needs to know about your brand or your persona in every capacity.

A media kit contains what services you can provide. It includes any color schemes or themes that are used to represent your brand. It encompasses everything you may have done up to this point. It also shows how you can be reached such as through social media or through email.

You start to find yourself early on in your branding/streaming career but you may end up revamping or redesigning and there fore you may end up changing your media kit. You should always consider keeping an up-to-date version though in case you want to reach out to other artists for commissions or reach out to brands for possible endorsements. Your media kit can be essential in these situations.

I hadn't made a media kit up until now but it was not hard and honestly, I thought it was pretty fun and looks really nice! 

Content Creator Challenge Day 27: Introduce Your Mods

 Any streamer will tell you that it is a good idea to have MODs on your team, they help make your life just a little bit more seamless when you are trying to be active with your live community. Even as a first-time streamer who doesn't know what they are doing. Having somebody there who can help let you know that you muted your mic and forgot to unmute it. Having somebody who can help answer chat when you have gotten a little too into the virtual world. Somebody who can take care of the spam bots that are going to come through, because they will, even for noobs, ESPECIALLY for noobs. MODs are a very essential part of the streaming world. 

Now you can certainly try and take care of everything yourself, but you may end up finding yourself getting more stressed that way. You may end up having three or four different bots with different features to help keep everything reigned in. You may find that you are constantly having to stop what you are doing as an entertainer to press extra buttons. You may find that you inadvertently missed something because you were trying to fix something else and now you can't get back to the original item. 

Make sure your MODs are somebody that you trust and not somebody who is just going to take advantage of the power though. You want somebody that you can rely on to be honest with you about your content and your mistakes. You want somebody who is going to have fun with the chat but knows when enough is enough and time people out for doing stuff they shouldn't. You want somebody who is not going to disappear on you when you need them most like during a raid.

My MODs may not always have the time to drop in but they are always there for me when I absolutely need them and I know that if I am really starting to struggle, they will come help take away at least a tiny bit of that burden.

Content Creator Challenge Day 26: Share Your Discord

I worked really hard to set up my own discord when I first started streaming, it took some time but I pieced together bits from other servers I had been in and made it include all the things I liked most. Things such as designated channels for different types of conversations like those about superheroes or Disney princesses. Channels that posts for my various platforms can go into so that the community can stay up to date. Channels that not everyone has access to unless they are given special permissions or roles. All the roles you could imagine. Not to mention channels with various bots to entertain yourself if you're bored. Pretty visual titles to break up the monotony of most servers. Emotes to freshen it up and be unique for my server. So many things continue to get added as well, like counts to visually see how our community is continuing to grow. I am proud of what I have managed to accomplish and I will continue to update it as I continue to grow and learn new things!

 
https://discord.com/invite/JqD9sZxh3p

Content Creator Challenge Day 25: Life on a Rest Day

If you thought that my typical days were boring, my rest days are almost as if I am dead. 

Especially now that I have moved out of my parents' place, I usually get just one rest day a week and even then it isn't completely a rest day. My Sundays are my mostly do-nothing days. I sleep in late, I lay in bed watching shows most of the day and maybe elect to put away my laundry from the day before (but not always) and then I will do some meal prep in the evening so that I have lunches for work for the week. There are even some weeks that I am too lazy to make meals and just stay in bed all day watching shows with my boyfriend.

My rest days are definitely more so death days lol

Content Creator Challenge Day 24: Favorite Streaming Moments

I have loved most of my streaming moments, there have been a few moments that were not as fabulous as others but that does not mean I did not appreciate it and the growth it brought me. Some of my proudest moments have definitely been when I first started streaming and when I made my affiliate status. There are also the few bigger raids I have had, while I appreciate any and all raids I am able to receive, I had a lot of fun with all the chaos that the bigger raids brought with them. Being able to finish games with my community and share in the relief of finally finishing hard missions. Being able to show more than just myself that I am capable of hitting sniper shots on occasion. Being able to show growth in terms of moving into my own place or adding things to the background of my stream. I love it all and I love being able to share it with others, whether it is with just one person or with 100 people. 

Content Creator Challenge Day 23: Collab with Another Streamer

When I first started streaming, I was mostly playing Sims 4 on my own and that was my content but then I started playing games like Minecraft and Goose Goose Duck with my friends and I was becoming a primarily collab streamer. You may think that collaborating with other streamers is good and that you will grow your community that way, and sometimes you will if you do it correctly. But you will also quickly find out that you can sometimes end up fighting with those friends you collab with for their viewers or their chatters and you will struggle to grow at the same exponential rate you could be growing if you just let the viewers see you being your goofy self on your own. 

Now that isn't to say you can not occasionally collab with other creators but I just speak from experience when I say that there is a right and a wrong way to collab with others. Especially when it comes to streaming with others. It is definitely easier to make content collab-ing with other creators in terms of YouTube videos or TikTok but streaming can become problematic. However, it has gotten easier since Twitch added a co-stream option for their users. 

That being said, I will not be doing a specific collab stream for this challenge (although I play games with my streamer of a boyfriend on Wednesdays if you would like to come watch that!). Instead, I will find some clips from me playing games with other streamers and post that for you to view on TikTok.

Content Creator Challenge Day 22: Share Your Game Wishlist

Everyone has a list of things they wish they could have if money was not an issue. Things like new cars, new houses, new books, new games, new everything. Because of this, I have several lists in different places such as Amazon or Steam or Throne. Amazon actually has multiple lists. Lists of things I want for my apartment. Lists of things I would want in my future house. Lists of things I would want for my stream set-up. Lists of things I would want for collections. I have a lot of lists. 

Below you will find links to two of my lists. The Amazon list is just games I would want, primarily for my Switch console; the Throne list on the other hand has a lot of my gaming computer components I would want so that I can start taking PC gaming a bit more seriously.

Amazon Wishlist

Throne Wishlist

Content Creator Challenge Day 21: Cosplay

Being able to dress up and pretend you are somebody else is something that was once reserved for little kids only but it has since become something for you to be able to express yourself and to break away from reality. I mean actors do it so why can't we occasionally take a break from reality and pretend to be something else? Not to mention it can also be a confidence boost in terms of what you think of your own appearance. 

My family was not always a huge fan of it though and they still mostly are not, so because of this I did not get into cosplay until I went away to college and could start to experiment more. Just a little dabbling at first and then slowly I started getting into doing more gore and hair color spray and wigs until I got to the point that for the Ren Faire last year I made so many different outfits so that we could go every Saturday in a different outfit.

I want to get into cosplaying more but that is a hobby that requires more money than I can currently a lot to it. 

Content Creator Challenge Day 20: You Playing a Horror Game

I am a cozy gamer girl.

I do not do horror games.

I will watch horror movies. I will make comments about how silly and stupid the people are being in the movies by opening the doors or answering the phone or peeking out a window, but I jumpscare way too easily from the games.

And honestly, that is saying something because growing up, my dad would randomly come up behind us and jumpscare us all the time. Although maybe that played a role in why I am so jittery and easily jumpscared.

Regardless, it is a challenge we need to do for this 30 day content creator challenge (not to mention the audience loves being able to scare me) so I will be streaming a horror game over the weekend if anyone wants to join in the fun...

Content Creator Challenge Day 19: Finally Touching Grass

One of the most common comments normies make to gamers, "go touch grass". Do you know where that originated from? Technically it started back in 2015 on Twitter but it definitely gained more popularity in 2020 and 2021 when the global pandemic took over and normies temporarily became engulfed in our gaming communities. 

Most people probably think oh you spend all day inside gaming you need to go outside and meet people and have social interactions, which is definitely the biggest part of the whole saying; but it also was about how you literally could not leave the house to do anything and therefore needed to go out into your yard to touch grass occasionally and get that fresh breath of clean air, even if it was while wearing a mask.

As a gamer who also works a full-time job, I get to touch grass quite frequently though. I touch grass when I am leaving to go to work and when I am at work. So the comment of needing to go outside and touch grass is not super applicable to me. At least not that I feel like.

Content Creator Challenge Day 18: How Streaming has Impacted Your Life

While streaming is no longer the biggest part of my world, when I first started streaming, I did try and make it my everything (although, let's be honest, I tend to do that with a lot of the things I get into). Streaming has affected me greatly in that it has allowed me to remain sociable, to make a lot of new friends, it has allowed me to realize who some of my fake friends were, to learn more about myself such as likes or dislikes, and the biggest thing I feel that streaming has done for me, it has provided me with a way to relax and destress. 

Having an outlet for yourself is very important in life. If you keep everything bottled up then you are likely to have a very unhealthy mental state and you can go crazy. You will stop taking care of yourself in regards to normal functionality and will start to see a decline in more aspects of your life. All that is just to say that having an outlet like how I have streaming is important. While gaming in itself can be an outlet and you can find relaxation in just getting to let your mind relax, I find that being able to share my crazy with others and see what others have to say about how I do things is nicer because I don't feel so alone all the time.

Content Creator Challenge Day 17: Try a Challenge for a Game you Play

Playing games in itself is great. I find it very fun to just run through the game as it was intended to be played and complete the quests that the DEVs have put into place. Sometimes though, you finish the storyline or the game is more open concept and you want to give yourself a harder task to accomplish than what the DEVs thought up. Because of this, gamers of all likes have been creating their own challenges and then some even go on to share them with the community so that other gamers can try and complete the challenges themselves. 

Most games have speed run modes. Lots of games you can reverse controls on. FPS games have different weapon load-out restrictions. Sims has challenges like Rags to Riches and the 100 Babies. Minecraft even has its own hardcore mode on Java where once you die, there is no respawn. You can catch me trying out that gameplay for the first time over on our YouTube once I finish editing the video! 

(Spoiler - I did not die on the first night like I totally expected myself to!)

Content Creator Challenge Day 16: Reaction Video

Reaction videos can occasionally get a lot of traction if they find the right audience. Reaction videos can be about just about anything too. There are reaction videos for shows and movies. There are reaction videos to funny video compilations. There are reaction videos for video game playthroughs. There are even reaction videos for news items like political debates. Some of these reaction videos can be funny in themselves, others can be super serious; and it does not matter what the original intent of the posted video was. 

I have never been a huge reaction video viewer myself, sometimes I find that listening to other people gets distracting to the original content and I would much rather just watch the original video. Especially if it is a show and every second of the reaction video is filled with the person saying "oh ****" or laughing obnoxiously. 

Just because they are not something for me though does not mean there isn't somebody out there who would enjoy it. My boyfriend loves watching all kinds of reaction videos and would like to get into creating them himself. And slowly I have been starting to get into them myself, but only with certain creators. Those that are mostly quiet and pause their videos when they are going to go on a rant for a while.

But maybe you will enjoy reaction videos. So, I created my first and possibly only reaction video to post on my Youtube... I just need to finish editing it.

Content Creator Challenge Day 15: Brands You Want to Work With

Getting to work with different brands is the epitome of being a content creator. Working with other brands or being sponsored by brands is when I think you consider yourself to have achieved influencer status, otherwise, you're kind of just creating a blog of your life and people are getting entertainment out of it on occasion. 

I am currently nowhere near being at the point that I could even think of working with other companies or being sponsored by some, but if I had to pick which of the brands in existence I would want to partner with, these would be them and these are the reasons.

In no particular order;

- Nintendo

    This is a very popular gaming company that was first started back in 1889. Over a hundred years before I was born. And while they may not have always been a huge part of my life, they are definitely the biggest part of why I game. Nintendo and its Mario franchise have helped hundreds of thousands of people to find a love of gaming, including myself. I continue to love Nintendo and its products and continue to throw money at them in the form of new consoles, new controllers, and new games. Sure there might be better ways to game in terms of quality graphics and quality consoles; but that feeling of nostalgia can never be beat. As somebody who considers themselves to be a Nintendo Girlie, to partner with them or receive merch from them would be a blessing beyond belief. 
- El Gato

    This company produces several streamer-friendly gear including their most well-known stream deck which allows creators to easily swap scenes or initiate different on-screen visuals and any number of other things. While I have not had the pleasure of getting a stream deck just yet, I have been using one of their capture card devices since I first started streaming. My capture card allows me to connect my switch to my laptop and OBS with ease. That way I can share all of my content with you lovely folks.

- Disney

    Do I really need to say more? Disney is my childhood and a large portion of my relief when it comes to releasing stress. To be partnered with them is probably a very rarely achieved dream, you need to fit some very strict requirements if you want to work with them.

- Nerf

    Nerf was started in 1969; yes, go ahead and laugh at the number of you immature buffoons. Nerf started with sports balls like footballs and basketballs, it wouldn't be until 20 years later that they would create their first blaster. Since then they have made hundreds of different blasters with some of their most well-known series being the N-Strike Force and the Elite Blasters. More recently, they have been doing collaborations with games like Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite, and more. My family used to have huge Nerf battles, it was a great way for family bonding. There were a couple times that we thought we should make a YouTube channel with our battles. I still love Nerf and still have most of our original blasters but I also now have a large collection of their Fortnite series blasters because why wouldn't I? Being sponsored by them and getting new blasters to try out would be awesome and would make my brothers jealous, possibly even make my dad mad we didn't actually make those videos.

- Build-a-Bear Workshop

    As somebody who used to work for the company, BAB has influenced me in many ways. I am happy to have been a part of their family and was sad that I had to depart but I left on my own accord to follow my dream career path and they understood that. I still go to my local store often and have way more of their plushies than I would have ever imagined when I was little. While I wouldn't stop spending my money with them, having a sponsorship with them where they provided me with the latest Pokemon plushies in turn for showing it on stream would be amazing.

- Deddy Bears

    I only recently came to know and love Deddy Bears but I think they fit our theme very well. Nighttime creatures, things that go bump in the night, plushies. Very much our persona right?

- Littles Laboratory

    A lot of people don't realize it right away but I am a little. I age regress on occasion. The online community definitely sees that side a little bit more than the in-person crowd does but that is because in person I feel very restricted by society and online I can relax and be myself and accept that I have some things in life that I need to work through. I found Littles Laboratory back when they first started out of the upper west coast states out of a single apartment. Before they vanished for a couple years and came back under new ownership. They still have tons of fun designs that they had back then but they now have even more options and have expanded from just adult onesies to underwear for both genders, full pajama sets, tutus, and more. I have not had the chance to order any of their merch just yet, mostly because I haven't had a safe space to order them to and wear them, but also because I want to get in healthier shape before I order them that way they will fit for a while.

Content Creator Challenge Day 14: Shoutout Your Fav Streamers

Streamers are generally a united front, what is good for one is usually in the best interest of most to know. While you may not like all the streamers you come across, you are likely connected to them through some means. Somebody has to spearhead changes somewhere/somehow.  And let's be frank, you do not need to be friends with every streamer you like or look up to.

Some of my close friend streamers that I love and support regardless of their status include the following;
https://www.twitch.tv/fenrahleverbren
https://www.twitch.tv/bd0mz
https://www.twitch.tv/deadly_mouse25

Some streamers that I have grown close to and like to think of as friends;
https://www.twitch.tv/sg_vigilante
https://www.twitch.tv/nadinenightmare

Some streamers that do not know I exist but look up to;
https://www.twitch.tv/peachysaiyan
https://www.twitch.tv/headshotchick
https://www.twitch.tv/bbjess

And then of course there is my boyfriend; https://www.twitch.tv/robosaint42
And my brother; https://www.twitch.tv/deathspartan99

Content Creator Challenge Day 13: Review a Popular or New Game

Minecraft

Released ... May 17th, 2009

Platforms Available ... PC, Xbox, Chromebook, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo WiiU, Phone, Playstation, Nintendo Switch

Downloads ... 600 Million

Active Monthly Players ... 166 Million

Updates since release ...  41 (including those tested in Alpha phases)

Spin-Off Games Created ... 3 (including Story Mode)

I am sure that my brothers had played Minecraft before I had but even if they did, we were all watching YouTube videos together. Creators like Mumbo Jumbo and his HermitCraft Server were one of our favorites. Eventually, we would acquire an Xbox 360 in our house and convince our parents to get the Bedrock version of Minecraft. The great thing about playing on the console over PC, all four of us could play on the same device at the same time. Not to mention we did not have to stay near each other on the map. Initially though, there were not infinite maps in the Bedrock version of the game, so our spaces were relatively close to one another. But as with many games, Minecraft has continued to grow and change with the times. Adding more monsters and friendly creatures, new textiles and building blocks, fun new biomes to explore and tons of new food to grow and cook. Minecraft is simply put a game that will never get boring, there are always endless possibilities of how you can choose to play the game and what you will build while doing so. And the spin-off games are just as much fun, allowing you to actually put a story to the wordless lore of the original game.

Content Creator Challenge Day 12: Tech Setup Tips

When I was first getting started with streaming, I briefly thought about how I did not have a solid PC build to attempt to stream off of. I knew that my laptop might not be strong enough to support the stream and the game simultaneously. But I also knew even less about computers than I do now and I really barely know anything now. Most of what I have learned has been in the process of doing and in being informed by others in the community how I could be improving things. My suggestion to you is going to be to take in any and all advice that people are willing to give but understand that not all of it is going to suit you and your personal setup best. You need to be able to look into things yourself and experiment with different software and different parts as well. 

The one thing I would definitely suggest checking, your RAM. I currently utilize my Lenovo Legion Gaming Laptop for everything I do. And for the first year and a half, possibly two years, I assumed that because it was a gaming laptop, that it would be sufficient for what I needed. I quickly found out that it wouldn't like playing certain games while trying to also stream it and I kind of just accepted that. Until my boyfriend sat me down and explained that when you get a laptop, they only provide you with a single RAM stick but there are usually two slots for RAM in a laptop. For those like me who don't always fully understand computer lingo, RAM is a type of memory storage. Unlike a hard drive or a flash drive though, RAM is temporary storage. This temporary storage point allows your computer to process tasks. If your RAM is small, typically 8 GB, you will barely be able to process a game without lag let alone stream. I believe my laptop had a 16 GB RAM stick in it which allowed me to play games efficiently or stream lesser quality games without issues but would get easily backed up in the case of say a raid coming in to stream. I definitely helped take some of the pressure off my RAM by streaming primarily console games and using a capture card, but even this would still use up some of the RAM in my PC. My boyfriend helped me upgrade to 32 GB of total RAM storage which has allowed me to play more games on my PC with less lag. So check in on your RAM. See if maybe you should consider upgrading it before you try gaming and streaming off of the same device.

My next tip I would suggest, if you have never used your device before and it is not already cluttered with all your gaming software; how much general storage space do you have? I know laptops can not store much to begin with but make sure you are maximizing your storage if you can. I am not a fan of external hard drives because I am scared that one day I will go to unplug it and all the data on it will be lost, but at this point, I also can not switch out my hard drive to my PC because I do not have a way to transfer everything over to a new hard drive without buying a special transfer contraption. And then I would also have to go through the process of reinstalling Windows and I really am not a good enough PC girlie for that just yet. So if you can, make sure you have a lot of internal storage before you start installing all your games and streaming software. You will chew through that space very quickly if you are like me and have lots of games. Or even if you are just like my boyfriend and play games with a lot of space requirements. (The one game that I play with him requires like 103GB of space!)

Another good tip, when it comes to your streaming software; you need to understand and acknowledge just how many applications you are going to be running and how much wear and tear that puts on your computer. When I go live, I not only have whatever game I am playing and my OBS up, but I also have Discord, Streamlabs Chatbot, MixitUp Bot, and usually at least 4 tabs in a browser running. That is a lot for my PC to be running at a single time (although it also is not the most I have seen people have open) and it can start to slow everything down if I am not careful. You need to be able to watch your PC metrics, see how much of your CPU is being used consistently, see how much of your GPU is being occupied, see if the bitrate connection is set too high for your connection to streaming sites. See if there are ways you could potentially limit these applications, do I really need two different chatbots? no, I could realistically combine them into one, I just like how my Streamlabs chatbot lets me have a bot name, and am being lazy with switching over. The point though, some softwares may take up more credentials than others. Twitch Studio was a great stepping stone for me before I moved on to Streamlabs OBS. Streamlabs was very user-friendly and very easy to navigate and adjust my layout, BUT it used up a LOT of my CPU. Part of that stems from the fact that it just has so much to offer you and help you with your stream, the store running in the background really does not need to be doing that. There are ways you can limit its usage and help out your stream without compromising but you should honestly just consider using OBS instead. I know it looks daunting, but you can very easily create a layout for your stream in Streamlabs and then OBS will automatically convert the save files to be used on their software! So definitely take a look at all your options and monitor what it is using on your PC.

Content Creator Challenge Day 11: Answering Q&A

 A few days ago we posted on a bunch of our socials asking what you wanted to know about us that you may not have already known, and we got some responses! So here are the answers you have been seeking out!

"If you could tame/befriend any FICTIONAL creature, which one and why? Same for real creatures, past or present!"

-  A fictional creature? I don't think I have ever thought about it in terms of fictional creatures only. I have always wanted to have a tamed wolf, like a pure wild wolf that randomly decides I get to be its master but that would fall more into your real creatures category as wolves exist in real life. Maybe a pixie or fairy. You don't want to get on their bad side so maybe if I could tame and befriend it, then it would work out in the long run for me to be friends with it! It could stop me from falling into fae traps and help me work out all those pesky contracts.

"What video game holds the best memories? What was the hardest part of streaming then vs now?"

- There are a few games which I have played which hold significant memories for me. Mario obviously holds a lot of my love because it is the core of my gaming memories when I was first introduced to the world of gaming but Minecraft is another viable option as it was one of the few games that myself and all three of my younger siblings could play together without actually having to play together. We could boot up a world and all play on the same console but would not have to be anywhere near each other when building. We would do this every New Year's Eve.

- When I first started streaming, the hardest part was trying to find a time that I could hop online without worrying about there not being enough internet available in the house for everyone or if I would wake people up when I was screaming at the games at 2 am, not to mention having to stop mid-stream to help my dad with something or go and pick a sibling up from work. Now that I am in my own apartment, I do not have to worry about those issues as much. Instead, I have to worry about will my technology cooperate, did I remember to charge my tech, and what game will I decide to play!

"What kind of music do you listen to?"

- I grew up on country and Christian rock but being between a Millennial and Gen Z, I definitely also was highly influenced to listen to pop music by friends and siblings. I will listen to just about anything at this point in time with hard passes being anything that I can not understand like really fast rap and screaming music that hurts your vocal cords. 

"What do you like to do in your free time when you aren't gaming?"

- If I am not gaming or working, I am usually spending time with my boyfriend trying to expand my movie knowledge. I also enjoyed reading books at one point and would love to get back into that more. (Throw out some book suggestions and maybe I will consider reading them to review here!)

"What's your favorite game of all time?"

- How do we classify something as a favorite? I hate having to pick something as being a favorite because it feels like I am saying that the other options aren't good enough or aren't worthy. If you are going based on play time though it would likely be Minecraft. If only because I spent so much time being my underground railway system that really got me pulled into the online gaming community and Discord groups.

"Why is League of Legends the greatest game on Earth?"

- Personally, League is not the greatest game on Earth. Especially since I can not even get it to work on my PC most tries. It also is definitely more of a game that I would play as an idle play game when I am bored and do not know what to do with my life. I am sure there is a strategy to it and better ways to perform than others just like in games such as Pokemon. However, I would still vote Pokemon as better because I can collect all the cute critters. I have yet to see anyone show a cute critter on screen when they play League.

"Pineapple on pizza, yes or no?"

- While I will not go out of my way to purposely get pineapple on pizza, I will not usually shy away from it either if you put it in front of me. It is really more so a matter of what you are putting on the pizza with the pineapple. Just putting standard ham chunks with the pineapple, cool, no problem. Putting pepperoni and mushroom or sausage and peppers with that pineapple? That is a weird combination and I will probably pick the pineapple off, I will still eat it, just separately from the pizza!

"What's your favorite restaurant?"

- I do not go out to eat very often but when I do I tend to have some places I frequent more than others. Fast food wise; if I want something sweet I head to Wendy's for a frosty, or if I really want nuggies and fries I head over to McDonald's, breakfast time I enjoy getting the quick little egg and bacon wraps from Dunkin. Real sit-down type places; Ihop is always a good choice for breakfast (I used to frequent Denny's with my grandfather but it just doesn't feel the same anymore), Olive Garden is always nice for the endless pasta bowls, but also getting the fun happy hour drinks at Applebee's is another good staple choice!

"What's your favorite BAB you have?"

- It is very hard to pick just one. They are all my very precious babies, all 50+ of them. And they each hold a special memory of some form. I do not know why I decided one of them is more special than the other and gets to sleep in the bed with me but I have a standard cuddles bear from their online collection, I got it for myself Valentine's Day '23; that one sleeps snuggled in my arms every night so that one is probably considered my favorite. But I do also enjoy my pawlette rabbit that I named Gingie as well as my Halloween bat because she suits our nightling family well!

"What music do you listen to (if any) to keep you motivated/what songs amp you up?"

- I actually have a playlist on Spotify labeled my "Motivation Mix" that I play when I need to keep myself focused and motivated to get tasks done. The playlist is much like my others in that it is a hodgepodge of all kinds of genres. Most of the music is very upbeat and talks about some form of being powerful, lots of powerful women type stuff. But I also have a lot of Disney music on there too like my favorite Beauty and the Beast tracks.

"What would your absolute dream wedding look like if money wasn't an issue? And what is your favorite season?"

- I don't often think of what kind of wedding I would want. When I imagine what type of wedding I would have, it is usually the stereotypical wedding in the church with the standard white dress, but that is not because it is necessarily what I want, it is because it is what I was taught to want and it is what my father would want. I would probably rather have a very non-traditional wedding in the middle of nowhere with trees surrounding everything, dark cover of the leaves preventing the sun from seeping in, and deep red accented garments rather than pure white. On the other hand, I could also really enjoy a castle wedding with medieval princess vibes. What can I say, I am a weird person with some weird desires I guess. Both of these style weddings fit into the fall season very well which I would of course deem my favorite season. Totally not because I love that the world is starting to go silent with decay or anything.

Content Creator Challenge Day 10: Behind the Scenes of Stream

Similarly to my day in my life, my streaming setup is not currently anything spectacular. I have at least progressed from streaming off my bed and only playing console games to having a desk and starting to venture more into playing PC games. I don't think my laptop appreciates that very much though. 

When I go to set up for stream, the first thing I do is make sure that I have everything plugged in correctly and accounted for. Then I go through the process of making sure I have plenty of water and snacks, maybe even dinner sitting in my mini fridge for when I am finished. Then I start to go through the process of making sure everything is working properly. I make sure to open up my Streamlabs chatbot and Mixitup bot prior to opening OBS, and then I start doing checks of my scenes, making sure it is detecting all my cameras and mics or games properly. Go through the checks to ensure my commands are functioning properly, and that nothing is lagged out or out of the screen. And then slowly I start amping myself up to hit that go live button. Before I do though, I always make sure that I adjust the stream titles and games on both Kick as well as Twitch because while I may not be a big streamer, I still take the time to multistream on both platforms. Eventually, I would even like to throw Tiktok Live into the mix and try to get some people from there as well. Once I know that everything is seemingly working and that I am being detected through my setup, I hit that button and hope for the best and just try to have as much fun as possible!

There is probably more I could or should be doing to be making more progress in the streaming world but it's just a hobby for me, something for me to do to distract myself and get that serotonin boost. 

Content Creator Challenge Day 9: Favorite Video Game Character

There is a reason I am a Nintendo girlie through and through. While I will certainly pick Yoshi the first chance I get in Mario Kart or Mario Party, Mario himself is obviously the staple character and it is his games that started my love of gaming and it is his games that I will continue to love and fall back on until the end of my gaming career. 

One of my first memories of gaming; my older two siblings were still living at home with us, my parents were hosting some friends for a happy hour, and the youngest two kids had already been put down to bed but the other four of us didn't have to go to sleep just yet. In fact, we may have even ended up staying up past our bedtimes because the adults decided to let us hang down in the basement with them and play video games while they drank with their friends. So we sat on the floor, NES plugged into the 10-inch box TV with two controllers actually plugged into the console and two controllers plugged into an extra controller adapter that remained unplugged from anything else because us younger two couldn't actually play the game. We sat there laughing and thinking we were jumping on the Goomba and crawling through the pipes, eating the mushrooms and finding the secret paths. 

Eventually, I would be old enough and have fine enough motor skills to actually try playing the games like my older two siblings. I would be able to try pulling the trigger on the orange gun for Duck Hunt or press X and Y to jump on the Goomba heads. 

That is where my love for gaming began and would continue to grow and that is why Mario will always be my favorite game character.

Content Creator Challenge Day 8: A Game You're Currently Playing

While I will admit that I hyper-fixate on games and that I will sit and play a game for eight hours straight without even thinking of eating or taking a break to fill my cup, I also know for a fact that I never sit and play just a single game from start to finish. I do eventually stop at some point and I end up playing another game at the same time making the play time take longer than the average gamer ... Although my play times are likely longer than the average gamer to begin with. 

Some of the games I am currently playing include Fortnite, Palia, and Dreamlight Valley. Although I have tons of games that I have started and left unfinished that I will likely get back to someday. 

Content Creator Challenge Day 7: Q&A Announcement

Humankind is innately inquisitive. They want to know how and why things work. They want to know why certain decisions are made or why certain actions are taken. They want to know how animals evolve and what they originated as. They want to know how somebody raised in a loving home can end up doing something like hurting their classmates. They want to know how technology works. Why do some people prefer to use OBS over Streamlabs? Why is it that two people can hold the same position but be paid different amounts? What are somebody's favorite things? Does it influence how they pick things out like books or clothes or houses and paint?

I may not have the answers to everything but I certainly have what I personally think some answers are and I also have my own opinions. Now I obviously can not touch base on some subjects like religion or politics because of some standards I need to maintain but I would love to try and answer any questions that eat away at folks so for the next 3 days everyone is welcome to ask any questions they have on any of our platforms and I will gladly answer them in some of my content posts for Day 11 of our challenge. And if no questions are asked, well I will just make up some myself!

Stay safe and happy Nightlings! <3

Content Creator Challenge Day 6: Day in Your Life

My life is very boring. The first thing I do in the mornings is wake up and say good morning to my boyfriend who let me fall asleep on a call with him for the millionth time. I get up and get ready for work, sometimes it's quick and simple, and I can just throw everything into my bag and head out the door because I already have my lunch prepped from earlier in the week but sometimes like today, I will have to whip up a quick sandwich beforehand. Then I start my drive in to work, sometimes it is also quick and easy and I get to sit in the work parking lot eating a muffin and chatting with my boyfriend, other times I have to sit in traffic and then walk right into work because there were three accidents along the way. I spend my day at work and then I get to leave and immediately hop right back onto the phone with my boyfriend. Please don't try telling me that is toxic or manipulative. We mutually acknowledge that our lives are boring and do not do much of anything so we spend our nothing much of anything with each other, doing nothing with somebody usually feels better than doing nothing by yourself. Then once I am home I will start prepping dinner and will chill online playing games or watching shows until it is time for me to go to bed and repeat the entire process again the next day. Some days I have extra chores I get done like taking out the trash or making new content for my posts. Some days I take a shower or a bath. Some days I will do my makeup to make myself feel pretty. But otherwise, it is just the same routine every day and I mostly like it that way.

The only thing I would change is maybe having my boyfriend live with me instead of needing to sit on Discord all the time, I could just bug him in person.

Love you babe <3

Content Creator Challenge Day 5: Top 3 Tips for Streaming

When I first started streaming, I did not fully commit to it for myself. I started streaming because I wanted to help out a friend and they did not know where or how to start. Not to mention it was something my own brother had been saying for years he wanted to do. So I looked into it, got the necessary software, and started with just the most basic setup because I had no intention of actually making something out of it. I picked up little tricks here and there, learned which software was better than others, learned what things I should or should not say online; all that important stuff. Eventually, it got to the point that I enjoyed doing it and I was streaming more often than the person I was trying to help get started. The biggest things I learned from how I started and how I have seen others get started form my top three tips for anybody trying to start streaming.

1. No excuses, Start now

When you are thinking of starting to stream, a lot of people think you need to have the whole setup before hitting the button. The reality of the matter is, even when you do finally have that full setup, you are going to have outdated equipment or you are going to realize that you forgot something or didn't need another thing. So just stop thinking you need to have certain things and use what you have. You may end up finding out that you do not even like putting yourself out there and do not want to do it. What happens when you come to that realization after dumping hundreds if not thousands into your setup? Are you going to try and resell it? You will never get the full value back. So just start with what you have and you will learn as you go.

2. Network (Don't be rude and pushy, make friends)

You can NOT just hit that go-live button and assume that you are going to become a sensation overnight. You are not going to gain hundreds of followers from your first stream, you aren't going to be rolling in views just because you won three matches in a row. You need to take the time to put yourself out there. You need to network with other streamers and other communities, you need to advertise yourself and what you do. But there is a right and a wrong way to do this. Do not go into somebody else's stream and start talking about how you stream yourself, do not tell them that you are going to go play the same game and stream it yourself because you can do it better and show them the correct way to play the game. You need to make friends. You need to show them that you are not just trying to steal their community away from them. You need to let people like you and then maybe they have a self-promotion discord that you can put your link into or maybe they have a community night where they ask if anybody else streams and has tips or needs help, you can certainly put yourself out then. Often, building those close connections will get you more views because you are loyal to their community and their own friends and fans see you supporting so they want to support you as well.

3. Hide View Count

Your numbers are not everything. Sure you need to meet certain numbers if you are trying to make affiliate or partner or you really want to get the YouTube button; but, you can not just go into it expecting certain numbers and then get frustrated and shut down just because you aren't meeting those expectations. You need to be able to have the same energy with 150 viewers that you have with just 1 or even no viewers. If you sit there and you notice that nobody is watching so you do not bother talking and you just play the game in silence, anybody who pops into your stream is going to likely leave because there is no entertainment value there. Not to mention, how many times is the viewer count actually accurate on the streaming sites? There is a lot that goes into those numbers and they are often wrong. So turn it off. Play your game. Talk to yourself. Have fun. The viewers will come and you will have more people to talk to eventually.

There are tons of other tips I could give to new streamers like how OBS is ultimately going to be better because it doesn't use up as much GPU and CPU as Streamlabs does. Or how setting up a discord might help you connect with your community more when you are not online gaming. Or how lighting is everything, especially if you are going to be a cam streamer. But I personally think all of that stuff comes second to these three. They have been the things I have seen keep people struggling to get anywhere. The three that take the fun out of what you are trying to do.

Content Creator Challenge Day 4: Favorite Game

You know when you are new to something or somewhere and they make you do those icebreakers? The ones where you list your hobbies or your favorite movies? Why do we do that? How can you make somebody have a favorite anything in a world filled with so many creative exploits?!

Asking me to pick a favorite game is like asking a parent to pick a favorite child. You shouldn't. Sure they probably do have a secret top pick but they probably have tons of favorites for different reasons.

Ask me what my favorite game is? In what scope? Can we narrow it down a little? Do we mean my favorite game right now? Do we mean my favorite Mario-specific game? How about a genre? Favorite console game versus favorite PC game? Like, why must you force me to pick between them all?

I guess I would say my current popular picks are Palia, Dreamlight Valley, and Fortnite but another good fallback is Minecraft. Then of course you have my nostalgic feels favorites which would be any of the Mario Games because I was raised on Nintendo and will be a Nintendo girlie to the very end.

But seriously, I have too many games for you to ask me to pick a favorite, be it Pokemon, Dead By Daylight, Rock Band, Animal Crossing, Phasmophobia, or any number of games!! Why must you torment me so?!

What if I asked you what YOUR favorite game was? What then??

Content Creator Challenge Day 3: Funny Stream Clip

Being the content creator, it can sometimes be hard to determine what of your content is actually worthy of being clipped. Clips can be funny, they can be sad, they can be happy milestones of finishing a game, they can be awkward moments where you say something you shouldn't. 

Going back into your content and trying to highlight these moments is very important to your growth. Having those clips not only allows you to use them on other platforms such as TikTok or YouTube shorts, but it also allows other streamers to showcase your content when they shout you out and it allows new viewers who view your channel while you are offline to see quick snippets of what it would be like to hang out when you are live. 

Personally, I love watching my clips back and remembering what games I was playing and how much fun the community was having, but I hate having to sit and rewatch the four or five-hour-long streams back to have to clip the content to use. That is where the viewers come into play. That and some of the autoclip bots, I haven't found any of those that I quite like yet though. A good little tip, while Twitch and YouTube do already have a clip feature implemented for your users to use, it would also be a good idea to put a chat command into play that allows for a faster and more instantaneous process for your viewers. 

What are some interesting moments that you have experienced in videos you have seen? What are some moments you wish you could experience more often?

Content Creator Challenge Day 2: Your Setup

How you choose to game is completely up to you. You do not have to let others dictate what you do or do not play nor how you play it. Technology, however, will limit you in many ways.

You are always welcome to stick strictly to console gaming. Just know that you are often giving up good graphics as well as playability in order to have portable consoles versus stationary consoles. Similarly, playing on a console as a whole can sometimes restrict you compared to PC gaming because controllers are only allotted for so many key binds.

My setup is nowhere near where I wish it was but I am grateful for what I do have and the progress I have made.

Back before my time streaming, my time gaming was spent very strictly on consoles. I did not start PC gaming until I was in college and had a laptop that I could play Sims4 on. Now that I stream, I still largely play games on my Switch, but I also now have a better gaming laptop and play a number of games on there. The major downside to a laptop over a PC though is that I am often limited on space and have to pick and choose which games I have installed as well as my laptop can sometimes have problems staying cool because everything is so compact. This does not stop me from getting online and using OBS and twitch and discord and whatever game I may be playing though to hang out with my friends and stream to my community.

My setup as it is today includes; 

- Lenovo Legion 5 

    - AMD Ryzen 7 5800H w/ Radeon Graphics

    - 32 GB Ram

- Nintendo Switch

- Elgato HD60 S External Capture Card

- Kofire UG05 Wireless Gaming Headset

- KLIM Chroma Wireless Keyboard

- Onn Brand Wireless Gaming Mouse

- Bamboo Fun CTE450 Drawing Tablet (for designing emotes)

- GoWeb C90 Pro Camera (used for when I do crafts or mystery package opening)

- FIFINE Gaming USB Microphone (not currently used because I don't have enough USB ports)

Content Creator Challenge Day 1: Introduce Yourself

We, as humans, often change the manner in which we describe ourselves based on any new experiences had in life but also the group of individuals we are talking to at that moment.

I actually touched base on this not too long ago. If I am talking to my peers at my full-time job, I act a lot more formally, I mention my hobbies of reading and crafting, I discuss any new foods I tried or anything I caught in terms of new techniques for the field. If I am talking to family members of any relation, I am more withdrawn into myself and let them do all the talking and question-asking. If I am talking to new friends on stream, I act a bit more goofy and I mention the things in my life I may never mention to anyone in any other scenario.

Some of the common items across all; my name, my age, my favorite things like colors or foods or games.

Some things that get mentioned across all groups but in different depth; my family, my job, my trauma, my relationship.

What do you choose to say when you introduce yourself? What ice breakers do you prefer at events for newbies? What do you choose to withhold to yourself?

Challenge Yourself

Sometimes it can be hard to find your own inner motivation. 

Sometimes you need something to help push you forward into the river of progression. 

Sometimes you face a block of forms and need a little step to get over that hurdle. 

Sometimes you need to look toward inspiration from others. 

Which is exactly what I will be doing this next month. I will be pulling some inspiration from another content creator and I will be doing a 30-day streamer challenge, all of the content that I post throughout June will roughly follow the guidelines they put out in the following post. 

Let's see what this next month will bring for us!

Social Media Detox

Most people are very familiar with a binge. Especially when it comes to shows on streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu. You start to take in content, but you can't stop, it just keeps pouring out of the screen and you just never hit the stop button. The same thing happens with your snacking habits; you keep snacks in your house, you put them somewhere that is convenient and in easy reach when you are playing games or reading a book. You reach for a handful of popcorn, and another, and another, until the bag is empty and you go to grab another for the process just to reset itself. 

You binge-watch shows. You binge-watch movies. You binge-eat snacks. You binge-scroll social media posts. You binge-spend online shopping. You binge a lot of things in your life.

Sometimes what you really need, is not a binge, it is a detox. Sometimes you need to take a break and distance yourself from these habits. Don't start that new 20-episode series. Don't rewatch the entirety of the Marvel cinematic universe. Don't restock those bags of chips you just finished off from your pantry. Don't boredom scroll on TikTok. Don't post every meal you eat or every puppy you come across on the street. Don't buy all the new Taylor merch that just dropped. Don't get that dress because it's a color you don't have yet. Just don't.

Take a second to just stop, just breathe, just acknowledge that there are other things you could be doing and accomplishing. Maybe you need to catch up on a book. Maybe you need to do some chores. Spend some time with your loved ones. Maybe you could do some meal prep and eat healthy for the week. Maybe you could go outside and exercise. Maybe you could explore your city and visit a museum. Maybe you could find a new job. Maybe you could save money. Maybe you could get enough sleep and allow your body to just overall recuperate. Maybe you could do a lot of things. 

Or maybe you'll just feel like you're falling even more behind and that you could be more productive just binging things after all.

Saving for the Unexpected

There is always a possibility for something to go differently. Your heater may need more oil. Your AC may need to be replaced. Your car may get a flat and need new tires. You may lose hours at your job and not get as much in your next paycheck. That is why it is best that you have savings. I have been told by many people that they wish they could live a more frivolous life but that they can't because they can barely afford their bills as it is. Hopefully, regardless of this, they are planning for the unexpected. It is advised that you have enough saved up to sustain yourself for at least 3 months. The hope is that 3 months is enough time for you to come to terms with whatever happened, and get yourself back on your feet. Get yourself a savings again. Get yourself the necessities without struggling or begging.

Do yourself a favor. Don't go out to eat again this week. Put that money aside and save it for a rainy day. A day when you could really use that twenty bucks to get some cheap food or get that bus ticket to your shift.

Get Use to the Heat

I don't generally like to complain about things, especially when I have lived firsthand with worse things, when I have seen firsthand how things can be worse. But it is so hot right now. I am definitely a cold-climate girlie. Living up north where the days are shorter and the snow is deeper. 

Don't get me wrong, I will do what I have to regardless of the temperature and regardless of the weather circumstances, but there are definitely some conditions I prefer over others. The 80-degree temperatures that I will be seeing this week? Not it. The 90 and 100-degree temps that are bound to come this summer? Definitely not it. But here we are and here I will stay. Trying not to melt into a puddle before I finish my assignments. When I do turn into a melted popsicle, I will crawl my way in front of a fan so that I can have my own personal little flurry like Olaf does.

Use 'Em or Lose 'Em

One of the best and worst things about being an adult in the workforce? Paid days off that you have to use before a certain time or you lose them. It is nice because they are in fact paid days off that you can use to get other chores done or use to take mental health days. But it is not so nice that if you do not use them they will just disappear. You are essentially missing out on free money if you do not use them. Unlike when you have vacation time and sick time that rolls over into the next year or gets paid out at the end of a term.

You should always make sure that you are getting the most out of your job. This applies to whatever training opportunities they provide you with but also any allotted time or allotted extra finances they are willing to disperse to you. You deserve everything they are willing to provide you with, especially when you are a dedicated worker and try your best every day. And make sure you don't just work yourself dry outside of work either, take them mental health days for yourself when you can. We all know we need them, we just forget to do it every now and again.

Thank God For Ethernet Cables

I've been streaming and playing games online with friends for a while now, the entire time it has been through my gaming consoles and my laptop though, none of which have ever been hard-lined in. I tend to rely very heavily on my WiFi connections to get all of my work done. This, for obvious reasons, is not always ideal. Sometimes it can cause you to miss deadlines with homework assignments. Other times you may be in a match and you suddenly disconnect. Maybe you're in a call with friends watching a movie together and you start to buffer because a storm is passing through. 

Disruptions in your connection could be for several reasons. Maybe you just do not have a good plan to begin with, maybe you should upgrade from that 400 Mbps to the 800 Mbps. Or, possibly, you have a storm passing through your area and you just can't get a good connection to the tower. Do you have a lot of people trying to connect to the WiFi at once? It could be that there are too many devices on and the router doe not know who to prioritize the connection too. 

I have always had at least one of these issues at any given point in time, especially the too many devices online at once. But now that I am in my own apartment and it is really just me using the internet at any given time, you would think I should have a pretty good connection right? Wrong. Even with a 1000 Mbps plan, I still struggle to get half of that on my laptop at times. This can be very problematic when you are trying to not only game with your friends but to also stream that gameplay online for others to see.

There very obvious solution is to just connect my device with a hardline. Yes, many people have suggested this to me. Yes, I know they are right. But I have never been able to implement that solution until now.

I finally spent the money and got a Cat 8 ethernet cable to run from my bedroom to the streaming room and boy howdy did that help! Unfortunately, a good internet connection doesn't help when your gaming software doesn't want to function properly and so you are left scrambling to find an alternative for that!

But that is a whole different issue.

To - Do Lists

Do lists help or hurt you when you are trying to get things done?

Every time I start to get motivated to do stuff, I like to see everything I have actually accomplished listed in front of me. So I make my to-do lists, I even sometimes set them to remind me to do more stuff the next day because I would ideally love to always be motivated and feel accomplished.

But then I have a hard time sticking to that regiment and fall off track. I never understand why. It isn't hard to do. I always end up getting the stuff done it just could have been done a lot sooner and a lot more efficiently. 

Is it that a list is just too much of a commitment? Do I put too much on my lists? Do I just not have the right mentality to keep up with lists? Maybe it has nothing to do with the list at all and it is really just a matter of time restraints. Maybe it's more of a not having enough spoons thing and I used my monthly allotment and now I need to wait for the allowance to come in again.

Either way, I'm going to try and take advantage of the motivation while I can. Getting stuff down now is better than not getting it done at all or waiting until the last second right?

So which are you? Are you a list person or just do it as it comes to mind and wing it kind of person?

Taking Care of Your Devices

Are you somebody who uses technology all the time? You're not alone, there is a great majority of the world which relies heavily on technology in their life. Many people wake up in the morning and they immediately roll over and they pick up their phone. They check their emails, they check their socials, they respond to missed messages, etc. Some people pick up their phones when they start to feel bored and want to play games in their downtime. People hop on their computers to get office work done but they also hop on to play serene games like solitaire or intense games like Sea of Thieves.

But are you also taking proper care of your devices? Are you making sure that you aren't overheating them? Are you taking the time to clean out the dust which is filling in the crevices? How quickly does your battery life drain? Have you taken into consideration that leaving a single photo or app up can cause the lights to burn impressions on your screen?

Many people forget that technology may not be alive but that it still has a life span. Realistically, they probably have two different "death" dates. Technology has a date in which it becomes outdated and you should probably upgrade because the technology has just advanced so much, but you usually end up reaching a death date based on usage before that period, especially if you are somebody who uses technology as much as I do. 

Take Your Time

Sometimes it seems as though people forget that life is not a race.

You do not need to go barreling down the highway at Mach Speed 1. You do not need to get all the groceries in with a single trip. You do not need to take all your courses in a single semester. You do not need to buy all of the furniture for your house in a single trip. You do not need to read all 6 books in a series in a single sitting.

What you need to do is take time to breathe and take in your surroundings. You need to take time to enjoy life. You need to take time to acknowledge that you are only capable of so much and that running yourself thin will end up killing you earlier than you may have anticipated.

You will get everything that you need to done by the time you need it. Don't rush through it. You may end up messing something up if you just throw it together in an instant.

Patch-Note Tuesday

While it may not apply to ALL games, Tuesdays are a very popular day for game companies to release patches or update for their software. And if you're somebody like me, you probably have most of your games set to auto-update. 

But what about when the update doesn't go through? What about when you end up sitting there waiting for the game to update for 2 hours because it was an extensive patch? What about when you finish the update and it corrupted the files so now you need to attempt to reinstall it and wait another 2 hours?

It can get very annoying very quickly, especially if you were planning on doing time sensitive quests or if you were going to play with friends, or god forbid tou wanted to stream it online and make content!

I find that the most frustrating part, isn't the hindering your time playing; no, it's the fact that you may decide to switch to a different game while you wait for the update to finish and end up with yet another update for a different game!

Why cant we stagger which companies do updates and patches?? Why do they all want us to go touch grass so badly these days?

Going Back to School

There are a lot of places, a lot of jobs, that require you to have a higher education before they can give you a position. There are also plenty of jobs that have continuing education requirements where they make you take more courses even if you have a degree. Honestly, as long as my job is going to take care of the bill for me to take those extra courses, I will more than gladly go and get more certifications that can help me succeed and help me to go further in my career. But that is not the case for everyone.

School is not for everyone. Some people just do not learn well in an academic setting, they need to get that hands-on experience instead. And that is more than okay! There have been plenty of people who have excelled in life-based primarily on their experiences and their own can-do attitude.

When I was in high school, I could not see myself going straight into the workforce. I only ever really knew my academics and that was what I wanted to continue to do, go to college. But then I started to realize that I had it easy in high school and that my senior year of college was just a little more than I could handle. So I thought that I would stop there. But then I applied to graduate school of all things. And a double major of all things. With an overseas program! Unfortunately, I did not end up getting to see that program because of a global pandemic that decided to halt all of our lives, but that is what happens sometimes, life happens.

Now I am presented with the opportunity to continue my academic studies and have my job reimburse me for most of the costs that I put out for certifications because it helps their department too. The problem is just having that money to begin with and also finding programs that are closer or can work around my work because I really don't want to end up missing out on any opportunities on either end.

Would you go back to school if you had the choice? What would you go to school for?

Happy Mother's Day!

 So today we take a second to recognize the unwavering love our mothers and mother figures have for us. 

Unlike some other holidays, this one is recognized by the United Nations.

This is because most humans recognize that it is important to acknowledge where you come from and who helped shape you into who you are. Whether it is somebody who is biologically your mother, somebody who adopted you and became your mother, somebody who married into the family and took on the role, or maybe just somebody in your life who fills the role and helps to guide you and nurture you; many people can help to shape us.

Not to mention there probably aren't many people who would have been as willing to carry you in their womb for approximately nine months to be able to bring into this world.

So take the time today to acknowledge the moms and mom figures in the world who help to care for others. Yes, even the pet moms. Because they too are working hard to be able to make the world a better place for somebody in their life. 

...

We like to celebrate Mother's Day at our house by making my mom her favorite homemade foods and getting her some new books to read. My mom has taken the time over the years to help ensure we are educated and knowledgeable, that we know how to take care of our own finances and can keep our homes well maintained. She has helped to guide us through our taxes, she has helped to ensure we get to all our events and activities on time, she has helped to make sure we can continue to thrive on our owns should we so choose.

Thank you mom!

Keep An Eye On Your Spending

Have you ever found yourself really wanting something and you think you're good to get it but then your card declines because you maxed it out? Yeah, you may want to consider tracking your spending habits then and make sure you aren't going past your limit.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for some self-indulgence every now and again but there is a difference in splurging once in a while and spending all your money without taking into consideration what you can actually afford. 

I can not speak for everyone across the globe, but at least for those here in the states, when you are given a credit card, you really should try and keep your usage below 30% of your total allotment. You may feel like that is an incredibly small amount, especially if your card limit is not that big to begin with; but you will quickly realize that the interest you accumulate will equate to more than what you actually spend and if you can not keep up with paying the card off right away, the amount of money you will spend in the long run might just be triple or quadruple what you would've spent if you had just waited a month for you to have more cash in hand for an item.

Now, I do also understand that sometimes you just have no choice and need to get necessities or something breaks and needs to be replaced right away, but then you need to consider finding other ways to limit yourself and make payments. 

And getting yourself a dozen cards to increase your limit is not the solution either. What happens when you can not make all the minimal payments on any of those cards? You are going to have a lot of people jumping down your throat trying to get their share of your life.

So maybe just take it easy and try living a little bit more in your means, okay? 

I'm not saying you can't go get that new book or new tool, I am just saying make sure you are aware of what you have spent already and what you can afford to spend in the future.

Look out for your financial health and you mental/physical health will stay just a smidgen better too! Just because we say money can't buy happiness doesn't mean it isn't correlated.

Have You Checked Your Fluids Recently?

I know for a lot of people the task can be daunting and easily forgotten about. I know you can go about your daily life and think oh, this is running smoothly everything must be hunky-dory. But that isn't always the case. There are some things that you should be doing preventative maintenance on pretty regularly. Your car being a big one. Especially if you drive it around frequently enough.

Not everyone has somebody to teach them how to take care of their car, I'm one of the lucky ones who did. But even as somebody who knows what I am doing, I still find myself checking myself to make sure I don't accidentally mess up. There are tons of people online who have made car videos and tutorials on how to change your oil, when to fill up your radiator with coolant, zapping your AC unit so it gets cold again, changing your tire, and so much more. This way, if you don't have the money to go let a professional check these things, you can manage on your own. 

Now, there are definitely some things you will have to go get help for; not everyone can pull a bumper straight like my father does. But there are definitely some things you should be able to check on your own.

Things like your windshield wiper fluid, your radiator coolant, checking your oil level, and putting on a spare tire. These are important things that you should be able to do and help you get your car to a place that can do the rest of the work for you. If you let your radiator coolant levels get too low, you could end up overheating your engine and having smoke billowing out. Forget to fill your wiper fluid and you may get a bunch of mud on your window that you can't finish clearing off and crash into something. Forget to get your oil changed and the parts in your car may start grinding and deteriorating. 

Make sure you are taking the time to check these things and learn about them if you haven't already. It just might save you a couple hundred dollars one day.

We Reached 100 Videos on Youtube

Life is filled with milestones and achievements. What and how you choose to celebrate is completely up to you. Everyone has different things that they deem important. Sure everyone has the big firsts that we all acknowledge; your first step, your first word, your first tooth, your first day of school, getting your license, your high school graduation, your college graduation, etc. etc. But at some point, your achievements become your own and you celebrate whatever you choose to. You celebrate waking up and being motivated enough to shower or make breakfast. You celebrate being able to pay off a loan. You celebrate getting a new job that makes you happy.

For me, I try to find every little thing I can acknowledge and say, you did that, you're making progress, and you're doing something with your life no matter how small.

I first hit that go-live button on Twitch back on August 30th, 2021. It was really just meant to be me learning how it all worked so I could help a friend get started and maybe help out my brother too since that was what he really wanted to be doing with his life. And while I was not great at it, I also was not horrible at it. I made affiliate status and was able to start pulling in petty change on October 22nd of that same year. Just under two months and I had gotten the 50 followers and the 5 concurrent views you needed at that time. I can't say I have progressed too much further since then, I did have to take a whole year off to focus on finding another job at one point. But now? Now I am doing my best to stream every weekend. I am doing my best to push up to 250 followers. I am doing my best to keep at least 1 subscriber. I am doing my best to keep my 10 average viewers entertained and happy. I am doing my best to explore other possibilities. Posting on my blog daily and improving its layout. Sharing content on Instagram whenever I can remember. Making daily YouTube posts so that I can maybe start earning on there too. 

It may not seem like much. It may not be significant. But to me? It is. It's progress. It's me remembering to do something every day. It's me remembering that I can be and do more if I just choose to. 

And now we are here.

At the point where I have 100 videos officially posted on YouTube and am continuing to grow. The next goal milestone? Hit that 100 subscribers on YouTube. Hit them 250 followers on Twitch. Hit 1000 followers on Tiktok. Honestly, just continue to make progress and do what makes me happy.

Thank you for always being there to support me Nightlings <3