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 

Homemade Food

I have been in my own place for a little over 4 months at this point and I am very much still crunching pennies. I am going to be crunching pennies for a little while as I very much still have furniture to buy and bills to pay so that's a thing. But that is fine, I have accepted that and I have always been relatively savvy with my money so I can still occasionally buy myself a little gift for doing a job well done on surviving to this point. 

One of the things I do to save on money is looking for coupons or sales, but also, if you pay attention to the expirations on some foods, they will get clearanced out when the stores are getting close to their "Best By" date. Now, I am sure that some people will disagree with me in that not all foods have to be eaten by their best-by dates, there are certainly going to be some people who complain that just because you put it into a freezer does not mean it will last forever. And you are mostly right. But, it does not become poison once that date has hit and freezer burn does not set in overnight. You have time. And let's not forget, you can cook it up right then and there, extend that ticking time of expiration just a little longer, and have food to eat!

I found a ham over the weekend, yes, a whole ham, well a whole butt anyway but it was a good like 6 or 7-pound ham guys. Like the kind you make for Easter dinner. It was on sale for half off! Because it had two days left on its best-by date. So I scooped up that ham, paid a whole $8 for it. Combined with a bunch of stuff I already had at my apartment, I have prepared food that should last me the whole week! I had a giant hunk of ham steak with some over-easy eggs the first day when I prepped the ham to go in the oven. Made instant mash and green beans to be put into 6 Tupperware containers for lunches. Boiled up the ham bone and made homemade ham and potato soup that will be good for a couple nights' worth of dinner. And there's still a big ol' Tupperware of cubed ham in my fridge for me to make into other food!

If you're in my discord, you likely see me post my dinners every so often. They usually don't turn out half bad! But yesterday when I was making the ham and potato soup from scratch, somebody told me I'm a chef with all the foods I make. Maybe I do know a bit more about cooking than the normal folks my age do, but that by no means makes me a chef. I just know how to survive. I know how to fend for myself. I know how to make sure that I am getting my daily nutrients and that nothing is wasted.

Making sure that I ingest those foods and daily requirements is a whole different ball game though!

It isn't hard to learn things. It is not necessarily rocket science to be able to save money. You just need to put a little bit more time and effort into it than just buying yourself a burger at McDonalds. And honestly, homemade food is often better flavor-wise than the restaurants any how! You don't even need to do it from complete scratch and make your own butter or such (not that I would expect you to anyway!) just get the pieces of the whole item at the store and put it all together. You'll find that you can usually make 4 or 5 servings of a meal for the same price as buying a single entree someplace else.

Knowing Your Audience

 If there is one thing that companies are good at, it's knowing their audiences. 

Fortnite is no exception. They know that their player base includes streamers and everyday gamers who are going to be addicted to the pretty colors of the skins and characters, the modern dance emotes in the shop, the iconic loot llama pinata mystery toys, the fun replica pew pews with their Nerf collab, and so many other items.

Companies continue to produce products because they know that we will cave and spend the money on it. 

We enjoy being able to live our addictions beyond the screen. Even more so if it "enhances" our gameplay on the screen. Like this bright yellow control that I absolutely insisted I needed for when I play Fortnite on my switch.

Cinco de Mayo

 Or better known as the day that Americans have an excuse to drink way too much and act silly.

Cinco de Mayo is not meant to be about eating tacos, drinking margaritas, or wearing big hats. For the Mexicans, it is meant to be the anniversary of their victory over the French. And no, it is not the equivalent of the American holiday, the Fourth of July. Cinco de Mayo is not the symbol of their independence, they prefer to use when they first declared war against Spain for that date.

Back in September of 1810, Mexico declared war against Spain who had ruled over them for three centuries since the fall of the Aztec Empire. That day is referred to as their Independence Day because it is when they broke ties with their parent country and started to fight for their right to be a stand-alone country. Five decades later, in 1862, Napoleon was trying to spread his rule to other territories and he sent 6,000 French troops to the coastal town of Puebla. They were unsuccessful. The 2,000 Mexican soldiers that were waiting there that day, fought valiantly and won. That is what Cinco de Mayo represents.

The events that occurred on that day then led to the French withdrawing their troops from all of North America, allowing the American Civil War to run its course without additional parties intervening. This may be why Americans tend to celebrate the holiday more than the Mexicans do, or at least the original reason.

But as with most holidays, the original intent is no longer the actual reason. Instead its a reason to have a little extra fun and be a little extra silly.

Whatever reason you choose to celebrate and whatever way you decide to take part, just make sure you're being safe out there!

May the 4th Be With You

 Are you a Geek? Are you a Nerd? Are you somebody who just pays attention to social media?

Then you probably know exactly what I mean when I say May the 4th be with you!

It's a Star Wars thing of course.

Many fandoms have started to come up with days that honor their fandom and the people who help to bring the fantasy to life but I don't know if any of them have gotten quite as big as May 4th has. In fact, their day isn't just the 4th, they also go into the 5th for Revenge of the 5th (although other people prefer to celebrate Cinco de Mayo), and often span the entire following week for promotional deals and gameplay!

I have never been hugely into Star Wars, but I am also not hugely into anything to be honest. I would say I am into Disney but do you realize just how much the Disney genre encompasses? It even covers the Star Wars franchise at this point! 

This isn't to say I don't enjoy the Star Wars series, I do, I even have one of the droids from the Depot at Hollywood Studios; but growing up, every kid in my family was kind of grouped into whatever fandom the picked out and were set into it, no overlapping allowed. So since one of my brothers was really into star wars and had most of the books for the series, I was not allowed to encroach on their territory.

Now that I am out on my own though I can start to get into more of those things I want such as the Star Wars franchise or finally catching up on Marvel.

That just takes a lot of time as they are constantly coming up with new content for the franchise.

So until then I enjoy the content I can and wish all the best and that the 4th may be with you!

The Grind

Sure, life is a grind sometimes, but if you're a gamer, you know what I really mean by the grind.

So many games anymore, especially the cozy ones, are filled with grinding. Repetitious activity to try and make any form of progress. Spending hours of IRL time trying to hunt down every specimen for a collection. Chopping away and beating on rocks to get resources. The grind is endless. And often you feel like you're making no progress until somebody new starts and sees what you have done and is in awe of the spectacle.

Being on the grind may not always seem like fun, but the outcome is worth it.

Unless of course, you are like me and still dread all the time put into grinding because it also means you have no time for other games. Especially not if all the games you are playing are grind-based games.

Why do we love grindy games so much? They're addicting, that's for sure!

At least I can say that my Palia house has finally gone from 2 rooms to 5 with 3 more being built as of this post...

EARTHQUAKE!!

Earthquakes can occur anywhere on the planet, there's just a higher probability of them happening in certain areas due to fault lines. Something that doesn't affect if an earthquake is going to happen? Global warming.

Yeah, apparently there are some people out there who blame an increased number of earthquakes on global warming and the weather changing.

For those who don't know, the earth is covered in tectonic plates. There are 15 of them to be exact, 7 large ones and 8 smaller ones. These plates are constantly shifting due to the radioactive processes which occur at the planet's core. In layman's terms, when the hot and gooey magma inside the Earth bubbles and boils, it moves the big rocks around. An earthquake occurs when these plates then interact with one another, either by crashing into each other and forming hills/mountains or when they scratch against each other in passing.

I guess I can see why some people may think that the rising temperatures are causing more earthquakes. They probably go off the logic that a hotter atmospheric temperature means a hotter core temperature and therefore more radioactivity and more earthquakes.

In reality, the core temperature of the planet can impact the atmospheric temperatures but not vice versa.

The real question here though; if an earthquake is tectonic plates moving around and any planet can have tectonic plates, then are they still called earthquakes on other planets? Are they Marsquakes? Jupiterquakes?