Spumblog

I am going to start a new YouTube channel in addition to the one I have now. I will upload videos to it in addition to my current channel, although with less frequency. The channel will be a new home for vlogs- a place where I can put videos like "Believe me, Microsoft won't ruin minecraft" and "An Inconvenient Truth (About Let's Plays).

Why am I doing this? Because while I enjoy recording myself playing games, I feel starved as a video maker if I don't regularly produce a video with a little more polish. The science videos fulfill this need, however, I can't bring myself to create an entire channel dedicated to science when I have no real expertise. Science is a hobby of mine, not a profession. I would feel disingenuous if I let people subscribe on the premise that I'm an expert when I'm really just a dude with Wikipedia who thinks space is cool.

But why a new channel? Why not just upload those videos to your current channel?

Because of this:

This is a graph of my subscriptions over the last month. Try to ignore the fact that there is a dip in the end- That's bound to happen when I make less Minecraft videos (I just didn't feel like playing on a server that was going to be reset soon). What stands out to me is that fact that I am practically hemorrhaging subscribers. For every 3 people that subscribe, 2 other people are unsubscribing. There were even days where the losses outweighed the gains.

Now YouTube will drive you crazy if you let yourself think too much about the numbers. But I can't help by ask- Who are these 969 people that unsubscribed? What did they originally want from my channel when they subscribed and how did I disappoint them with my content?

And I think I know where the answer lies...

Imagine being one of the 700,000 people who watched the Universe Death Clock. You don't play Minecraft much anymore, but you still watch the occasional video on it, especially the cool ones. You finish the video, and watch the "related videos" from my channel which are all about light speed and space and stuff. Being impressed with my level of quality, you subscribe, hoping to see more in the future. But over the next 3 weeks, I inundate your subscription feed with daily Minecraft gameplay that you aren't interested in. You put up with it for a while, because you want to see the newest "cool" video right when it comes out, but eventually you're annoyed that I've put out 20 "other" videos and decide it's not worth it. You unsubscribe so that you get your precious subscription page real estate back.

Sure, a few people do watch the gameplay and decide to stick around, but I'm convinced that the lion's share of subscribers from those videos don't care for anything else that I make. Instead, they leave my channel disappointed that I don't make more "good videos" (i.e. the videos they subscribed for)

The point I'm trying to make is that the content isn't really the problem. All of your videos can be "good", but if they aren't reaching the correct audience, no one will watch it. So I need to start a new channel- something that people can subscribe to without getting spammed by videos they don't care about. Basically, the entire channel needs to be treated as 1 series.

Which is what I plan on doing with my vlogs. It will be a place where people can go to see well-researched, source-provided arguments about gaming, from someone who plays video games full time. This is also much more related to my college education than science videos (Communication) so I can comfortably present myself as an expert without feeling like I'm pulling one over on people.

Most importantly, new viewers won't be turned away by unrelated content. I want people to stick around after pressing subscribe, and I want to give them what they came to my channel for. I also very much enjoy making those vlogs and I'm excited about scheduling them into my weekly routine.

I'm still going over the finer details about the channel- Such as channel name, style, mission statement, etc... but I just wanted to throw this out there so it wouldn't be a huge surprise.

I got a comment on my latest video from people concerned that I was slowing down my video production that had a few thumbs up. And as we all know, 1 thumbs up equals a billion people. So I figured a few folks out there would be interested to see how I've divided my time over the last 2 weeks Monday -  Work on science video Tuesday - Work on science video. Record map tutorial (I threw this version away because it sucked) Wednesday - Livestream Hermitcraft Thursday - Build/Record Hermitcraft Ep 56 Friday - Record vlog. (I threw this away as well. I looked tired and sad again. I shouldn't record at 3am)

Saturday/Sunday - Spend time with girlfriend. I showed her my science video. I realized it was boring in the middle

Monday - Rework middle of science video Tuesday - Work on science video and record map tutorial (This is the version that's on my channel) Wednesday - Almost finishing touches on science video (I'M SO CLOSE)

I've still got a lot on my plate. I need to record 2 Patreon vlogs, write/record a new sticky video for the subreddit, finish the science video, plan a bachelor party, write a speech, the list goes on...

As far as Hermitcraft goes, I'm on the Mumbo schedule. 1-2 episodes per week.

In the past months, I have prioritized Hermitcraft, uploading 3-4 episodes per week. This caused my creativity to dwindle, my editing to suffer, my views to drop, and worst of all, my stress to rise.

I know you want more. I wish I could do more. But I would rather do 1-2 episodes I'm proud of rather than blow 40 hours a week on 4 episodes that I'm just making to fulfill a quota. I'm just not the kind of YouTuber that can be happy churning out that many episodes per week. I've done it in the past, and it's just not worth the stress or burnout.

So I'm back from my Thanksgiving break today. It was awesome. It gave me a lot of time to think.

In my normal life, I tend to be busy all the time. Even when I'm kicking back and watching TV or going out with friends, I consider it productive because I'm using that time to recharge my mental batteries. But I have this notion that I have to be doing something productive all the time or else I'm going backwards.

But it's been so long since I've been bored that I forgot how productive boredom can be. I have had so many thoughts. So many ideas. I think it's good for anyone who can benefit from creativity to do nothing for hours on end. Your mind starts to wander. You brainstorm with yourself. You give yourself time to get excited about new things.

I tend to stick to videos that I know the audience wants, otherwise I feel unproductive. But I occasionally forget that I do this YouTube thing because it offers me the creative freedom to do whatever I want. Sometimes it's loved by hundreds of thousands of people (Dumb Ways to Mine). Other times it''s hated and ignored (Pioneers of Yellowton). But I can't really choose how people react to it. I just make the things I want to make and see how it turns out.

I'll probably be doing a lot more Hearthstone. I like playing it, I like commentating it, and it turns out there's a big livestream following for it. Most of my friends are playing it a ton and I even got my girlfriend into it. And she doesn't much care for videogames.

Anyways, I got a lot more ideas and I'm excited to be back home so I can get to work on them. 

After I had logged off of Hermitcraft today, I logged into the Muse Farms world to play. But once I was in, I couldn't stop thinking about my mansion in Hermitcraft. Or the tree farm. Or the upcoming ABBA tournament. Or a prank I'm planning in the future. I was about to start recording, but I realized my heart wasn't in it. I wouldn't be recording because I wanted to play, I would just be recording because it's what a portion of my viewers want. I had to make a decision- Do something I don't feel like doing, for the fans? Or do what I want to do, so I can "be myself". It's a difficult decision, but it was decided when I realized that I simply wouldn't really be having fun. It would be a chore. Sure, a portion of my audience wants me to do Muse Farms, but they want me to have fun playing Muse Farms. Which is something I don't have a whole lot of control over.

I chose not to record. Or play. In fact, it seems a little stupid and conceited to even be writing this blog post. I mean, I am an adult. I pay my taxes, I work on my car, and look at labels when I go grocery shopping. Yet here I am, feeling guilty about not playing a videogame.

I started up MFS2 because I had a lot of fun getting back into vanilla Minecraft. But Hermitcraft is the first real SMP server I've played on and it is introducing so many more options that I've never had, in addition to all of the things I can be getting in single player. I can't say I feel like playing a watered-down single player experience today. And I probably won't tomorrow. Or the day after that. But I have been too quick to officially cancel series' in the past. So I'm not going to say MFS2 is cancelled, or that I won't go back to it. The simple facts are that at the moment: A) I can have more fun on Hermitcraft and B) More people watch/enjoy Hermitcraft.

I feel bad about putting a series on an extended hiatus. It feels slimy... somewhat unprofessional. But for the last two years, I have maintained a professional vibe because I thought that was what people wanted. I never talk about my personal life in my videos, I keep the audio and video crisp and clean, throwing away anything that doesn't look or sound great. But the simple fact is that a professional vibe just doesn't really matter. It's a ton of extra work, it creates a distance between myself and my viewers, and I've been doing it for two years and seen literally no channel growth because of it. I have more subscribers, sure, but I'm getting just as many viewers now as when I started uploading to this channel. The games you play and the personality of yourself and the people playing with you are all that really matters. In fact, I believe it may be hurting my channel because the time I spend focusing on editing could be better spent on more productive things. I'm basically feeling a tad dejected because the niche that I've been trying to fill doesn't really exist.

So for that reason, things are about to change. "Channel growth" was a driving factor in a lot of the things that I did, including near-daily uploads, playing high traffic games, and doing games that I didn't feel like doing that day. And it hasn't been accomplishing a damn thing. So I am going to start focusing more on doing what's fun.

The whole "Muse Farms" thing isn't the sole reason for this change. In reality, the I've Got Diamonds video is responsible for some of it. I spent almost a year on that video. I poured my heart and soul into it. I thought that people would love the quirkiness of the obscure parody. I didn't pretend to think that the animation was great, but I thought it was "good enough". I mean, look at Sparklez' "TNT". That video is terrible from an animation standpoint, but it has 73 million views. I assumed people just liked animated parodies and I was submitting mine into that mix.

But it flopped. It failed miserably. Almost no one outside of my subscriber base saw it or cared about it. I sent it to BebopVox and he didn't even give it a 5-second blurb in his "Minecraft Parodies" section of his show. Almost 500 hours of work went into it and it has barely more views than "porkchop falling over", which took about 20 minutes to make. Lesson learned.

The moral is that it basically proves that I have no idea what people actually want to see. I can't predict it or control it. I like to pretend like I know what I'm doing, but the fact is, I have no freaking clue. So rather than trying to harness it, I am just going to start focusing entirely on having fun. I'm still going to focus on making my videos fun to watch because I greatly enjoy doing that. But I'm not going to stress over uploading "because I have to".

That being said, Chris and I are starting to tire of the Mindcrack pack in Facepalm. It's horribly outdated, and we're reaching a point with Gregtech that you need Iridium to do anything, so we'd need to do a ton of grinding to advance. I mentioned in passing that we might be adding more people to the server, but since it's so outdated (and about to stop being supported), we will likely take a different direction. Though I'm not sure which direction that will be at the moment, and I need to discuss it with Chris. This situation is precisely why I didn't name the series after the mod. Because "Facepalm" is about sucking at something, and we suck at a lot more than just FTB.

Oh yeah, I'm still doing animation. That's fun. No projects on the horizon, just kinda messing around and learning.

Sometimes I forget that people don't have a crystal ball into my life, and it can make waiting for videos frustrating. So this blog will serve as news, of sorts, as well as a platform to vent my frustrations.

I know it say it a lot, but my real life has been a tad busy as of late. In the words of Wash "It's objective assessment, I can't help that it stays relevant." I don't think I've ever told it to the internet, but I live in a house with 4 other guys. For the most part, everyone keeps to themselves so it's easy to get my recording done without distractions. Still, you'd be surprised at how often my recording schedule gets interrupted, postponed, or cancelled because someone in the other room is talking or playing music too loud. For the most part, this has been a minor inconvenience, and a welcome tradeoff for living with four great people who are mature and responsible. 

However, just recently, we got a new member of the house who doesn't have a job, so he stays home watching TV. Now, in and of itself, this isn't a problem. I don't know where his money comes from, but so long as he pays rent, I don't care what he does. The problem lies in AT&T's U-Verse package. One little factor that they neglect to tell you during signup is that your internet speed is hindered by people watching TV. Significantly. As in, you have a ping of 30 while the TV is off, and a ping of 9999 while the TV is on. Basically, so long as the television is on, I don't have internet. Now, this is partly due to my wireless router, because it shouldn't be THAT slow, but switching to a wired connection will only recover some of those precious megabits. The real problem here is in AT&T's contract, which I need to pore over meticulously before I take any action against them. If I'm an idiot, and it clearly says that the internet will take a hit while the TV is on, then I'm boned. I may need to pay for another, separate internet connection. Which may be challenging because I remember the lady on the phone telling me that U-Verse and internet can't go into the same house. But that sounds more like a policy issue than a hardware issue, so there may be a way around that. Anyways, if the contract doesn't mention speeds or bandwidth loss, then I'll have them by the balls and we'll see what they can do for me.

The point is, I basically never have an internet connection now. Roommate A watches TV in the morning, and roommates B-D watch it late into the night. It's almost always on. I have, on multiple occasions, requested that they stop watching TV so that I can do some YouTubes, but this is a temporary fix. I kick them off for the day, upload a video, and then it's back on the next day and never goes off. And the cycle repeats.

In addition to that, Chris has been having internet problems at his own house. AT&T installed a faster internet, but they screwed up his router setup so he was left without internet. He said they would come out in a week, but that week ended Monday and I haven't heard from him since. Hence the lack of Facepalm!.

Fun times. My car also failed smog, so I tried to fix it, failed smog again, took it in for inspection, ordered parts, took it in for repair, spent way too much money fixing it, and smogged it again where it finally passed. I still need to take it to the DMV, but each one of these steps has taken a few hours (and many dollars), which add up over the course of a week.

To top it all off, I've been emailing back and forth with Universal Music about getting the required licenses to upload the music video. It's slow going because it takes them ~6 days in between each correspondence, and they keep treating me like I'm a record label by asking me all these industry-style questions such as "What label will it be released under" and  "Who was the writer and who were the composers of the original song?". It sounds straightforward, until you realize the song was composed by a group that's been trading out it's members like Pokemon cards. Thank god for Wikipedia.

So far as I can tell, everything is on course for the Extra-Life marathon. I had some lag related issues last time I tested the stream, but I think I will be able to fix those by keeping the TV off all day (feeding my roomates pizza and beer in return for their cooperation) and using 100' ethernet cable.

I got a comment on the latest Facepalm from a discouraged viewer. He said I should go back to "How I was" on my old channel. I wanted to address him personally, but I have a bad habit of only commenting to negative criticism through the comments. But I'd like to address it here:

To put it simply, I'm no longer an expert at Minecraft. There was a huge chunk of time where I knew everything there was to know. Like, everything. I could have recited every fact from every wiki page from updates 1.6 (beta) and prior. And I still do retain a lot of that knowledge. But the game kept expanding in directions that didn't excite me and I eventually just stopped caring. I used to read the changelog and my heart would beat faster, wondering how the world I loved would be improved. But time and time again, it would just tell me the game was going a direction I didn't care about. Mineshafts and villages destroyed the feeling of solidarity that I loved. Graphical "optimizations" made the game run smoother, but destroyed the look and feel of the game with lighting errors and invisible chunks. The need for "experience" and "magic" shattered the illusion of "survival" and turned it into "fantasy". Because of all this and more, I stopped caring. I didn't even read the changelogs when I played. So I stopped being an expert. I was tired of Minecraft. I stopped playing on TheMinecraftMuse because I was no longer willing to represent Minecraft as part of my persona. To me, Minecraft was a hardcore survival simulator that rewarded perseverance, planning, and automation. Apparently, that's not what other people saw in it, so it evolved accordingly. It evolved away from me.

My problem isn't that it's a bad game. On the contrary, it's a pretty damn good game. It's just not what I was expecting.

So I'm going to take something from my childhood and apply it here. Imagine you're planning a paintball session with your friends. You talk about the field you're going to play in, the equipment you're going to use, and the alliances that you're going to make. You plan out the games and start making equipment for it. You get custom clothes with team colors, tie flags onto the end of sticks as objectives, and your excitement grows. But as the day gets closer and closer, things start to change. Instead of providing your own guns, suddenly everyone wants to rent one, so that it's fair. It may be better, but it's not "yours". Also, it turns out that too many people were complaining about the field that you usually play in. Apparently there's snakes there. So they decide to change it to an indoor course. Suddenly there's a lot more rules, and a lot less options. Sure, there are things like walls for cover, but it becomes less about stealth and camo, and more of a free for all. Oh and all that stuff you made is useless now. Then that one kid says he has a paint allergy or some shit, and everyone agrees to do lazer tag instead. No one is ever out for more than 30 seconds, score is kept automatically, and the guns are more accurate. Everyone wins, right?

...right?

On any other day, lazer tag would be perfectly fun... But you were expecting paintball. You were expecting to be lying in the dirt, ignoring the centipede that's crawling on your arm so that you don't get spotted. You were imagining the feelings of accomplishment after hiding for 20 minutes in the dirt just so you could get a jump on their whole team and return to your base victorious. You were imagining the fear that would overtake you as you hid behind a tree trunk while tiny paint-filled missiles whizzed by your head. Instead, you got lazer tag.

And so you trudge around the dark, smoke-filled course feeling lied to and disappointed while everyone gallops around you laughing and talking about how much fun it is.

The topping on the cake being that, as a YouTuber, there's that kid with a lazer gun saying "Sorry, I can't watch your videos any more. You've changed".

...

The irony is that most people want you to be yourself. But they also want you to please them. If those two things don't align, you either disappoint your fans or you "sell out".

Do you remember Kiershar? If you do, then you're probably one of "my generation" of Minecrafters. He was the first person to invent the gravity trap. His inventions were simple, and his videos were straightforward. He was one of the few people that I actually went to when I was starting out. Some of his videos have almost 5 million views, and you've likely seen one before. These days, he gets about 4,000 views on each video (Same as me), despite having about 5x as many subscribers. His problem is that being "good" at Minecraft is fleeting. It's what people want, and it's what people "respect", but it's temporary. The same person who "loves" your authenticity and skill will unsubscribe from you a week later because they got bored of Minecraft.

My true passion comes from making videos and telling stories. Minecraft is just a medium for that passion. There was a brief time when my unhealthy obsession with Minecraft overlapped with my love of storytelling, and that's where a lot of my fan base came from. If you watched Muse Farms, think about why you liked it. I doubt it was the builds, because nothing was really that effective. You probably liked it because of the storyline. The characters. Wiggles was always around for comic relief. Beednox (The dog) had a tragic death. I would do things that weren't related to building, such as visiting a grave site to pay my respects. In the end, it was a story about stalling, wasting time, and finally, about facing the inevitable "end". I actually approached the whole series as a metaphor for "retirement" and "death". Finally, my last miniseries, Minecapsule, was a reference to "Life flashing before your eyes".

ALL THAT BEING SAID: I need to get the fuck over myself. I may not have the same "love" for Minecraft that I used to, but it is easily my most effective medium. One thing that's missing from Facepalm is an overall narrative, but I can't control what Chris does, which means I have no real control over the narrative. Not in any way that I'm used to, anyway. So I'm keeping the focus of that show on the interactions between Chris and I. But I'm also working on the "story" for a new vanilla series. I think I'm pretty much over being bitter about what Minecraft "could have been" and I'm ready to accept it for what it is. I've actually been playing the 1.62 snapshot and enjoying myself quite a bit. I plan on playing it for a while longer to re-accustom myself to some of the changes that have happened while I was in my apathy torpor and then starting up a new vanilla series. I looked at possible custom maps, but... meh. I work better in an environment of my own creation.

Just like Rooster Teeth eventually got away from Halo videos, I will eventually need to transition away from Minecraft videos. I want this channel to be about quality, good editing, and storylines, either within the game, or that I bring to the table. But for the time being, Minecraft just so happens to be "my game". And until that changes, I will be producing videos for it.

So, Independence day.

The celebration of America. What's America been up to, anyway?

We've got Snowden being hunted by the government for informing citizens about shitty government practices. We've got teenagers going to jail over sarcastic comments made on Facebook. Cops are abusing citizens left and right. Student loan rates are going up while college degrees are becoming increasingly useless and we've JUST decided that gay people count as consenting adults.

It is really easy, even as Americans, to get carried away with the America hate. After all, our government hasn't exactly been showcasing its best qualities lately.

But independence day isn't about celebrating the government. Far from it. America is a country that was founded on the principle that all people are created equal, and the fact that we've been scratching asterisks off that statement for 237 years (*Black people, *women, *homosexuals) is a reminder that even though some generations have made selfish decisions, as a whole, we really do believe in equality.

The fourth of July isn't a day for celebrating your government. That flag doesn't represent Obama, it represents your neighbors. Today is a day for recognizing that the people who rally against their governments are usually the true patriots. It's a day for recognizing that even though you may disagree with someone about a policy or practice, you are both arguing because you believe it is in the best interests of everyone.

We've got 364 days in the year to disagree, argue, yell, and fight, because that's what it takes to strive towards an ever-improving future. But lets just take this one day off. Lets take this one day to celebrate the people who have made sacrifices just to improve our lives. Today is a day for celebrating the American lifestyle and how far it's come. So see your family, eat your foods, and/or do whatever you want. Just take the day to be happy and be free. Because our country is the only one whose sole purpose is the pursuit of the belief that every living soul deserves those rights.

There is a common misconception about success that seems to be especially prevalent on YouTube. The notion is that as long as you create a good product, success will eventually find you. Having heard of (and read) dozens of stories of success and failure, I've learned that this is only a half-truth. Yes, a quality product is a necessary ingredient in success, whether it comes in the form of videos, hamburgers, massages, anything. If it doesn't satisfy the needs of the consumer, then no one will want it. But there is more to success than a good product. You can direct the best movie in the world, but if you only play it in your basement, you will not become a successful filmmaker.

The other main ingredient is exposure. People need to know that you exist in order for them to like your product. But exposure can get complicated... How do you want people to see you? Where do you want them to see you at? What mood should they be in when they see you? Classically, this is called advertising. In small businesses (and YouTube channels) the goal is to project your image to someone who has never heard of you, and hope that they get a good enough feel for "what you do" that they are motivated enough to seek you out on their own.

Most YouTube channels grow by 3 means. 1) Word of mouth, 2) Video tags/search terms/related videos, and 3) Reddit. The simple truth is that LPs are terrible for channel growth. For the most part, any individual episode is not worth sharing with friends, and the market is already saturated with key terms/tags. This is why so many people starting their channels have trouble growing. Lets Plays are fun, but they are not useful. YouTubers just starting out see famous YouTubers making Lets Plays, and they make it look so easy, that they become disillusioned when they don't see any growth of their own.

The simple truth is that every famous YouTuber has something "extra" that they offer, or have offered. On my old channel, TheMinecraftMuse, I labeled my tutorials "Idea Videos". This was not an accident. I knew that "minecraft ideas" was a common search term that was not being capitalized on by any one individual, so I wanted to create a monopoly on it. I got a large amount of my traffic because of those search terms. But it's not just the terms itself that made that channel grow so fast, it's the fact that I gave people exactly what they were looking for when they searched for those terms. People gave me lots of reasons why they liked my videos, but no one realized that it was my strategic search term planning that led them to my videos in the first place.

Even then, growth was too slow, and offered no potential. Vanilla Minecraft was getting boring, and had no future. The fact of the matter is that Minecraft is a game, and like all games, it has a finite lifespan. Eventually, people will get bored of it. I love making videos, and I love telling stories, but my biggest regret was naming my channel after a video game, because it meant I would always be tethered to this product. So I changed my name and adopted a new image.

But the assets that grew my first channel would no longer apply in the new one. I rarely played vanilla Minecraft, so I had little to teach on the subject. Despite my efforts, I have found no search terms that really produce as much traffic as I had gotten before. I still make videos, but without any traffic-producing assets, my channel is neither growing nor shrinking.

So I started doing some homework. I looked to all of the most successful YouTubers to find other ways in which I could increase exposure, and as it turns out, everyone has a story.

Davidr64yt got popular because he did the very first decent Minecraft Lets play, so he was the first thing that came up in search results. He got to the top because he got traffic, and the traffic ensured he stayed at the top. But he's fallen into relative obscurity because he got (understandably) tired of Minecraft. While his first MC video has almost 5 million views, his newer videos get just shy of 30k.  What to take away: He succeeded because of search algorithms.

SeaNanners originally created the Annoying Orange, a series of videos that went viral in the early days of the YouTubes. He started playing videogames, and now is able to produce a ton of content that maintains his internet fame. What to take away: He succeeded because he created viral videos

CaptainSparklez first got famous under his alias ProsDontTalkShit, where he played Call of Duty videos. After seeing a slight increase in traffic when he started MC videos, he switched to a more family-friendly name (He actually named himself CaptainSparklez basically on a dare). He stayed at a few dozen thousand subscribers until he made his first viral video, "Revenge". This skyrocketed him to fame. Furthermore, I don't know if he has always been friends with SeaNanners, or if it occurred after he became big on YouTube, but SeaNanners is always "Liking" and sharing CS's videos, which increases exposure drastically. What to take away: He succeeded because of viral videos and collaborations

The YogsCast were the first people to get an official YouTube show called "Minecraft". They were podcasting before MC, but they got a majority of their fame because of it. What to take away: They succeeded because of search algorithms.

Guudeboulderfist started the first "server for famous people". MindCrack got a lot of success because so many big names were able to collaborate with each other. What to take away: He succeeded because of collaborations

I could go on, but I think the pattern is obvious. YouTube success is all about viral videos, key terms, and collaborations. I have experimented with all 3: During my Black Mesa series, I immorally gave my videos unrelated tags to experiment. Over many dozen videos, I saw little changes in traffic. So they key terms failed.

During my Terra Firma series, I experimented with collaboration. Many big names agreed to join, but never did. Of the few people that did join, few made sufficient videos to justify the amount of effort that went into maintaining the server. Additionally, the game started to get incredibly tedious, which I felt was making my own videos worse, so I stopped playing. I'm glad I did, too. I would rather it end while it was still a good series, rather than be something that devolved into boring bullshit. So the collaboration failed.

When I heard "Dumb Ways to Die" I couldn't get it out of my head. Then one night at 2 in the morning, I woke up realizing that I could make an amazing Minecraft cover out of that song, and no one else had done it yet. I busted my ass for the next week filming and recording, only to have my hard drive crash and lose half my work. The day after the crash, online periodicals like Kotaku did articles on how so many covers of the song were popping up on YouTube, which drove traffic to these videos into the millions. I was able to re-record and release my version a week later, but I missed my window of "official recognition". I'm still bitter about that.

Still, the video reached 100k views the first month, and is currently just above 300k as I write this. And frankly, I'm not that happy with how it turned out. Maybe I'm my own worst critic, but the dance scenes were crap, and there was no custom audio track (it was just the stock version that the original singers provided). Melanie's voice was breathtaking, and I believe that her voice is the only reason the video did as well as it did.

So I started taking steps to improve the visuals in future music videos. I've been learning Blender for the last 8 months, and my production of Facepalm has slowed down because I am so damn close to finishing the next music video that it's all I can focus on. It has easily been my largest project to date, with most of my free time from the last 4 months going into this one video. It is lightyears better than my previous animations, and I am hoping to get a very big name on board to do the vocals. I've already enlisted a talented musician to cover the music track, and it sounds great. It looks like it's still about a month away from being finished, but the bulk of the animation is done. It has been an absolute ton of work, and I have never been more proud of any of my creations before. I do hope that it gives me a little e-fame boost.

Here's some shots from the video that I think turned out pretty good :)

Anyways, the moral of the story is that even though the fans seem to regard Facepalm as their favorite thing on my channel, I need to focus on something that will actually provide growth, otherwise I'll have to get a real job, at which point, production of videos would decrease drastically.

Before I go, I'd like to finish by saying that I admit, it comes off as though I'm approaching this entire YouTube process like a cold-hearted business deal. The fact is, this is what I do full time. I have fun playing videogames, editing, animating and interacting with fans, but in order to be successful at anything, you need to set aside time to take it seriously. I absolutely love making YouTube videos, and will do so with or without internet fame. However, given the choice, I would rather be successful and make money. Though it gets stressful at times, I quite enjoy unraveling the mystery that is "YouTube" success, and I hope that after I have quantified it, I'll be able to share my secrets with others.

One more month.

After one more month, I will finally be free.

I will finally be free from the shackles of education that have monopolized my time for the past 21 years of my life.

Actually, it's a little ironic, but after all this time, I actually enjoy school. Presuming I'd rather not be sleeping, I enjoy learning about my chosen major, talking with classmates, and putting together a really well written research paper. I swear school just gets easier as you get older, independent of any other factor. I see people around me (All aged 21-22) struggling with tests and papers that I really don't think are that hard. But 5 years ago, I would surely be struggling just as much, if not more, than the rest of them.

But that's not to say I'm not putting the time in. Quite the contrary, I'm putting more time into school than I have in the past 5 years. Admittedly, it's not as taxing as other majors (I'm a communication major), but the professors always love making their students write research papers. Now that I am reaching the end of the semester (and my degree requirements), the research papers are piling up and video production time will be even more scare than it has been up until now.

The bright side is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. After this month, all of my time will be my own again. For the viewers, this means a lot more episodes of Facepalm!, and a heavier focus on 3D animation. I know it seems like I've only done one animated video on my channel, but it has become a serious part of my life for the past few months. Once I have gotten proficient with it, there will likely be a lot more animated videos on my channel. It's really fun to do. I've always fancied myself an artist and 3D animation gives me the ability to create art without the necessity for all those pesky motor skills.

Speaking of Facepalm!, I've noticed something about myself while editing it. Every series I've ever done has become tiresome to edit at some point. I've always wanted to find ways to make the editing process more efficient, but once I reach peak efficiency, the process becomes formulaic. There is no more discovery... no more fun. Editing just becomes a chore. This was especially true near the end of Terra Firma. The gameplay was fun enough, but I would completely dread the editing process. Even once I had it down to a science, it would only take about an hour, but that would be the most boring, mind-numbing hour of my day.

That's why I'm trying something new with Facepalm!. I don't take any shortcuts during editing. I will sit in front of the screen watching for any ways I can make an improvement. If I can insert a "text" joke here, if I can increase the volume of the music to fill the silence, if I can rearrange our commentary to make more sense/be more entertaining, I will do it. The benefits of this method are that I am having a lot of fun editing, and I am producing a really well-made show. The enormous downside to this method is the time consumption. It can take up to 6 hours to edit one episode. So far, the fastest episode I've put an episode together has been 3 hours, which was as long as I've ever spent on an episode prior to Facepalm!

Here is the process, and the average time it takes to do each thing:

1) Prepare template. In order to make sure that my videos are consistent with the previous video and are always evolving, I don't have a set "template". Instead, I load the previous video and remove the footage, music, commentary, etc... I'm left with a Vegas file that has the intros, outros, and volume levels of the previous video. I will also go through the previous video's objectives and prep them for the "Objectives Overview" at the beginning of the video (10 minutes)

2) Process the audio tracks. This means removing noise and arranging them in order to sync with the video track. (10 minutes)

3) Lay down video tracks and adjust volume. I will start at the beginning of the video and play it a few seconds at a time, making sure the volume is fine, the audio is synced, and lay down new video files as necessary. I'll also play with the audio tracks to cut out unnecessary noise and clicks. My fraps is set to split each section of footage into 4GB files, which means each file only lasts about 30 seconds. I do this because files that get too large seem to get corrupted easily, with black portions and weird color lines. And even if a file is broken, I can probably just jump-cut past it and I'm only losing 30 seconds. This is also where I decide what footage needs to be cut out. (90 minutes)

4) Special sequences. This is where I'll put in things like intro and outro fades and montages. If there are no special sequences in the video, this process is relatvely quick. But sometimes there is a portion that can take a lot of work, like the montage in episode 14. (20 minutes)

5) Set the music and objectives. Again, I will go through the video from the beginning, choosing the best song for any given situation, making any necessary volume tweaks on the commentary track, and lining up the Objective popups as they come. (60 minutes)

6) Proofreading. Once again, I will start at the beginning of the video and go through making sure everything sounds/looks good before I render. This is also where I put in those little "text popups" that appear on the screen. I usually end up making final minor tweaks to volume here as well. (45 minutes)

7) Render. I usually do this while I sleep so I don't count the time it takes, but a 30 minute HD video usually takes about an hour.

8) Final check. When I wake up, I will watch the video in its entirety to see if any changes have to be made. Usually they are fine, but if anything is messed up, I need to fix the problem and re-render, which can add another hour (30 minutes).

9) Upload. Here, I start the upload, write the description (Including the song list for that episode), create the thumbnail, and write the tags. (5 minutes)

All in all, this list adds up to about 4.5 hours, which is probably the average time it takes to edit an episode of Facepalm!. In past series', I would basically cut out steps 5, 6, and 8, instead adding the music in step 3, which would save roughly 2.5 hours, but the product wouldn't be as good. These lists also don't include the 3 hours required to render and upload because I'm not "actively" working.

Anyways, the point I'm trying to get at is that these videos are a ton of work, but it's also the most rewarding work I've ever done. Unfortunately, it is not "high traffic" work, so I'm focusing an equal amount of time on special videos that will draw traffic. My last success, Dumb Ways to Mine, was thrown together in a relative hurry and got 100,000 views in the first month. I'm taking my time on this next project, making sure every scene is gorgeous, and I'm aiming for a million. And I really hope, then, that I will expose many more people to Facepalm! because I truly believe that the mainstream Minecraft viewing audience will love it. They just have to hear of it first.

Oh yeah, here's another image from editing, just to prove that I am still working hard on that video. Steve looks so worried D=

So I'm working on another music video cover. I can't say which song it is, and it's not currently in the spotlight. But it is a pretty catchy tune from one of my favorite bands as a young teenager.

A lot of work goes into making these things. For as much credit as people like to give for good lyrics, they are by far the easiest part of doing a cover video. I am working closely with a good musician to cover the music and I've started making the models in blender for the video.

I'm amazed at how hard it is to make a decent mouth for a minecraft model. You would think it could just be a square, but those look silly when the model has to open or close its mouth. Or talk. Or basically do anything except hold an open mouth. When you look at the best MC animations out there, their mouths are usually very dynamic circles. I might take a different approach and paste sprites with different mouths on the model as their expression changes (And maybe even eyes, now that I think about it). It would be within my skill range, be easy to work with, and would set my characters apart from any other video.

As far as a singer goes... Well, I think TryHardNinja has the perfect voice for this particular songs, as it has that... well, try-hard nerdy sound to it, which is perfect for this song. Unfortunately, I don't know him, which means he is highly unlikely to respond to my messages. Since he is my number 1 choice, I am going to develop the video and the music first, watermark the video and the song and send it to him, so he can see the quality, and ask if he wants to put his voice over it.

The mentality behind that choice is this: As a YouTuber, I get dozens of messages from people saying "I am ABOUT to do ______ and I was wondering if you wanted to be a part of it". Not to sound rude, but we get very jaded with these statements. Mostly because people very rarely follow through. I have yet to receive a message where someone says "I have done ______ and want you to be a part of it." This way, we can see that the person is serious, their level of quality, and the product that we are about to put our name on.

The only thing I'm worried about in the video is the amount of work that will go into the animating portion. The music production might take a couple dozen hours, the singing might take a few hours, and the editing will take about a dozen hours, but the actual animation is likely to take hundreds of hours. I'm working with a friend of a friend to do the sets for me, while I take care of the characters, but he seems less than motivated at the moment... I've even offered to pay him (which is rare for me), but I may end up outsourcing the job to another person. If that is the case, and you're familiar with blender, keep an eye on my twitter and facebook feed.

And on that note, I'd like to end by patting myself on the back for how far I've come as an entrepreneur. People think YouTubing is all video games and good times... which is true about half the time. But the other half includes making a conscious choice to do something productive. This current project started when I realized that Fullscreen members have licenses to cover songs by Universal Music Publishing Group. I realized a new music video would be fun, would test my skills as an editor, musician, and animator, and would greatly help to grow my channel. I would also need to be able to put a small team together to make it happen. No one told me what to do or how to do it. No one is here to teach me the various skills I have to learn or who to contact. The final production of this video lies solely on my shoulders, which is liberating, yet slightly terrifying.

It reminds me of when I was working at a campground. My boss told me to power wash the deck. I had never power washed anything before, so I asked her "Uhh, how do I power wash something?", to which she rolled her eyes and said "Figure it out, I have stuff to do!" It wasn't what I wanted to hear, but it taught me a powerful lesson- 

I've just finished negotiating a contract with Fullscreen network today! I know I've displayed some mixed feelings on partnership in the past, but here's where I'm at right now:

Network partnership is, in theory, a great idea. I like how a group of like-minded people can come together to help each other expand, learn, and have fun. The collection of talent is awesome. Unfortunately, someone is usually financially responsible for turning that talent into profits, so you can get shady business dealings that can stifle creativity, like the Machinima directors who have been quitting YouTube because they can't get out of their contracts.

They can also have the unfortunate side-effects of controlling or over-commercializing your content. But this is not ALL networks. Some of them are better than others. I would like to give my personal experience, but I have none. Like most people, my only source of information is other people who have belonged to networks.

But despite the occasional horror story, becoming a professional YouTuber is all but impossible without network partnership. First of all, you can only monetize 100 videos without a network. My current channel already has 166. Secondly, a single copyright dispute can destroy a non-partnered channel. I've gotten multiple messages from people who have told me how their channel was deleted because the owner of a video game/ song issued a takedown notice. I've been walking on eggshells with both of my channels, making sure I had the rights to every last sound effect to ensure that I would not get deleted out of nowhere. Not only do networks own the licenses to broadcast these things, but they also provide a buffer between complaints and account deletion if a complaint does arise. Finally, the growth and revenue boost you get from joining a network is... well, significant.

As it stands, there are two networks that I would never join. The first is Machinima and the second is Vevo. In my opinion, both of these networks overstep their boundaries when it comes to "defending" their "property" (i.e. issuing takedown notices to other people, abusing their talent, etc...). So when I looked up the "top 10 YouTube" networks, I was pleased to see that Fullscreen was number 3 on the list! And can you guess who the top were? That's right. Machinima and Vevo.

I was also pleased to learn that many of my favorite YouTubers are partnered with Fullscreen. Sethbling, Lindsey Stirling, Devin Supertramp, to name a few. So when they contacted me about partnership, I was more than willing to listen. We spent a couple of days going over the details and made me "officially" part of the network today, although it may take a few days for it to become apparent on my channel. I can't go over any of the agreement's details, but I can say that we spent a lot of time making sure it was satisfactory for both parties.

Still, I can't help but feel for the thousands of people out there who are falling by the wayside because of YouTube's incredibly cutthroat copyright system. Since it's still illegal to post most videogame footage, most Lets Players are breaking the law in the hopes that they'll become big enough to get noticed before their channel is deleted (Even if they don't know that yet).

I thought I remembered reading something on Reddit a while back about the EU making piracy legal... but I can't find the source at the moment, so don't hold me to that. Reddit has a bad habit of jumping the gun on statements like that (How many times has cancer been cured?). At any rate, it shows that our world's governments are finally willing to stand up to publishing companies and defend the rights of the individual. Maybe if we make a big enough wave in America, we can bring back people's ability to upload videos without fear of their hobby, job, or career being put at risk.

I'm just afraid that YouTube is on its way to becoming ThemTube.

There's always a mixed reaction when I end a series. Some people gripe, others cheer, but in the end, I never really "choose" to end a series. I just decide to stop playing the game because it's not fun anymore. What follows, logically, is that I can not make any more videos (Because I don't play it anymore). So I "officially" end the series.

But to be honest, I don't really see this as an end. You see, it had been my secret plan all along to eventually transition Terra Firma to a more industrial style mod, but I didn't want anyone to know this... So I went around telling people that I "didn't like" the idea of mods like Tekkit. In reality, I wanted it to appear as though my transition to those mods on camera was a slow process. I'm devious like that :D

You see, I had a plan (Which was my first mistake). I kept a close eye on what Bioxx (The creator of TFC) had planned for TFC. He said he wanted transitions through the ages. He wanted magic. He wanted industry... But he wanted it all to be done right. The first few builds only focused on the stone age. Then, for a while, there was a heavy focus on blacksmithing. I assumed that what would come next would be a heavy focus on medieval stuff... things like windmills, butter churns, horses, etc... Bioxx clearly had a desire to include multiple ages in his mod, as you can see the numerous "unused" items that remain in the game. Items like saltpeter, which have clear uses in things like explosives and gunpowder. But the code for TFC got too messy, and he is starting from scratch with TerraFirmaCraft 2.

Unfortunately, I don't have time to wait around for TFC2. I predict that it will be another 6 months or so before he's working on the metal age again, and even longer before he gets into medieval, modern, or future ages... If that ever happens at all. I wish him the best, but I can't make videos for a mod that is not longer progressing.

My plan was to slowly rebuild a copy of our town in Terra Firma using Tekkit (I had not originally planned on FTB, but there's no reason not to go for it now). Once I had gotten my fill of Terrafirmacraft, I would do a "time passing" episode where we transitioned from the Terrafirmacraft mod to the Tekkit mod, all while keeping the world mostly intact.

But last week, I spent like 20 hours (3 and a half sittings) going caving with Beednox. We made a branch mine that stretched across the entire Dolomite layer of rock below our house. I made more pickaxes in that time period than I had made during the rest of the series combined. All of this was because the series was getting stale and we hadn't advanced. Afterwards, I realized that if we couldn't advance in as long as it could take to record 20 episodes, the problem wasn't with us. It was with the game. And even if we DID find the next tier of metal, we would just have to head back to find the NEXT next tier of metal. The stone age was fun, but the metal age is just an incredibly drawn-out mining simulator. And since there is nothing past the metal age, there was nothing more to show. And there is no show if there's nothing to show.

But like I said, I don't even see this as an end. Just a transition. However, one mistake that I made, which I am going to avoid, is naming the series after the mod. I mean, if it weren't named "Terra Firma", I wouldn't even be calling this the end. If it were called, like "Spum's Adventures", it would have just been the end of "Season 1" or something. So when I start the new series, it's going to have a more resilient name. That way, when I choose to change something drastic, people will know that I will still be the same person, with the same editing style, playing the same game. Although I still need to think of a good name. Because "Spum's Adventures" sucks.

It is my hope that the continued support for FTB will provide a more ongoing viewing experience.

I'm sorry to say I may have to be scaling back my video production. Between Terra Firma, learning blender, and school stuff (Which includes independently learning 2 years worth of Spanish in 2 months so I can graduate on time), my days are getting stressful.

I woke up yesterday and had no desire to play Terra Firma... well, that's not true. I like playing it. But I had no desire to put a video together. I'm having a different technical problem EVERY WEEK. It's very easy to get frustrated with a game when playing it for 30 minutes means spending 5 hours fixing clicks and coughs, crashes, corrupted tracks, and mysterious background noises. And then after putting all of that work into it, a large section of the viewers complain that it's boring.

But in their defense, they have a point. We haven't made any real advances. They are saying they want me to go back to town, but... why? I would spend an hour going back, realizing we don't have resources to advance, and then head back into the camp or to another spot in the wilderness to start all over again. In reality, none of the options sound especially appealing.

In addition to that, I'm finding that my videos can either A) Have a narrative or B) Have multiple other players, but not both. My past viewers have enjoyed my shows because of the meaning that I bring to them. There's always a storyline or an end goal, and I use certain events to represent milestones along the way (e.g. the quest log in QGA and FTE). Unfortunately, I have no control over time in Terra Firma. The world is always going in the background, so I lose my ability to control the narrative. And adding a quest log to Terra Firma might have been interesting, but I opted to save the time it would take to edit one into every episode (It adds about an hour's worth of work per video) and spend that time making 1 additional episode per week.

Also, some people complain that my other videos take my time away from Terra Firma. Yeah, a little. But I spend about 20 hours on Terra Firma per week, and about 2 on everything else combined. It's really a non-issue.

To top it all off, my channel isn't growing. I'm getting more subscribers, sure, but my views have remained relatively constant ever since I started the channel. This means that all of the work I'm putting into Terra Firma is basically wasted time. In a perfect world, I would love to keep pumping them out just to satisfy my current audience no matter how many views they got. But if I don't focus on growth (which equates to income), then I will eventually run out of money and be forced to get a real job. Which means almost no videos at all.

So here's the plan- I am going to be removing the "scheduled upload times" for Terra Firma so I can stop making excuses when I have to delay them. I'm still going to aim for the weekends, but I may not always make the deadline. Obviously, I'll still be aiming for at least 3 per week.

I want to focus more on my "IRL" videos. I told myself I'd focus more on vlogs when I started this channel, but Terra Firma has monopolized my time. Hopefully, with the small cutbacks, I'll be able to squeeze them both in.

I also need to make more small animations with blender. I find myself getting frustrated because I don't know how to do something and giving up for the day. I'd rather spend a few hours doing something terrible for the practice, rather than giving up altogether. 

Ugly looking post, I know, but it's 3 in the morning and I've been running off tiny amounts of couch-sleep for 5 days. I just don't want to forget to keep people informed about this subject so I'll proofread it later.

I've gotten "approved" to wait in some sort of queue to talk to Curse about partnership over Skype. The whole process all seems a little impersonal, but what do I know, I've never partnered before.

There's a few reasons I want to partner with a network. All of which are related to money. You can argue "it's not about the money" until the cows come home, but if I didn't make money, I wouldn't be able to do this full time. Or at all.

The first is that partnering with a network will give me the ability to monetize a wider variety of game footage

The second reason is that I get a quicker response time on approving the monetization of my videos. You may have noticed that Dumb Ways to Mine still has no ads. This is because it basically "fell under the rug", so to speak. Some videos are reviewed within minutes. Others have been online for 3 months and the monetization is still "Under review". I finally went through and simply disabled every video in this category and found that there were 20 (of my 111) videos that slipped through the cracks.

Thirdly, I will be able to monetize more than 100 videos. Which I didn't even know was the limit until last week.

Fourthly, I'll have more protections on my account in case of copyright bullshittery

Unfortunately, I would be earning LESS CPM (dollars per thousand views) if I signed with them than I am currently getting. Which is rare, but apparently my views offer a good turnover rate for some reason. Which is weird because I watched some of my ads and I don't think many Minecraft LP viewers are interested in balding cures, but I guess that's why I'm not the marketing expert.

Good god, finally something is going well! Many moons ago, I stated that I wanted to reach 10,000 subscribers by the end of my first month. Well, it's now been 3 months and I'm close to 9,000. Not exactly on schedule, but it's not been for lack of effort. On the contrary, I don't think I've been "bored" once since I started this channel. Between moving, school, and dealing with hardware, I've had a pretty action packed 3 months. With a loose definition of "action".

At any rate, I've finally trudged through all the roadblocks that were standing in my way. My desktop is successfully set up, all of my finals are over (4 A's and a B), the laptop has a new hard drive, I'm (almost) all moved in, software with compatible versions is installed on both computers, and I've got plans to get my couch and a new set of vocal tracks. Oh yeah, I've also got 2 weeks of videos edited together and ready for upload while I'm gone for Christmas, including two special videos. One of which is Dumb Ways to Die video that's been a tremendous amount of trouble and the other is a Christmas special video. I've also been talking to Curse about a partnership. Are you concerned this will affect my videos? I was too, and then I read their sample contract: http://www.unionforgamers.com/public/NewContractCurrent_SAMPLE_ONLY.pdf You'll notice there is nothing in there about content (Except that I need to have a channel with 90% video-game related videos, which I already have and don't plan on changing). It's not a sure thing yet... there are a few points in the contract that will need to be changed before I sign with them.

My little absence from YouTube has taken longer than expected. People still seem to think that I'm forsaking them and demand that I prioritize my "most watched" series as the most important thing in my life. Unfortunately, life isn't that simple, but you can rest assured that my priorities are the same as they've always been

The short version is this: I've been too busy. Between finals week, packing my microphone to record a singer, and moving, this last weekend hasn't left much time for videogames. The long version is this:

For months, my living situation was less than ideal. I was generally able to record in peace, but that was about the only upside to the house I was living in. There were no cabinets in which to store food, the other housemates were all creepy as hell, I had to park a block away, and my name was not on the lease (Which meant that I was a guest instead of a resident, legally speaking). Basically, I feared for my life and couldn't eat. I paid rent, but had no say in the ongoings of the house. I had been there for three months, and yesterday, I was finally able to pack (most of) my shit and move into a more suitable place.

So why, you might ask, did I live in such an awful house? In the Summer, I went on a trip to Europe for a month. My lease at the time expired a week before the trip and my roommate was moving to Florida, so rather than paying for a new place where I would be absent for a month (And thus, waste ~$500), I decided to put all my stuff into a storage unit and keep it there until I got back. Technically, I was homeless while I was travelling around Europe.

Europe is where I met Melanie, who is the singer in my upcoming video. We were supposed to do a cozy little show in Switzerland, but time got the best of us and that never happened. When we got back to the States, she invited me to a small gig she was doing at a local bar, so I went there and fell in love with her voice. I asked her if she would be willing to sing for a future video (although I had no idea what that video would be at the time) and she agreed.

Fast forward to a week ago and I was sitting at my computer, formulating thoughts on how I was going to produce said video. As I was dicking around on YouTube, I found a link to someone elses "version" of the video. Seeing that it was entirely possible that another YouTuber would fill the Minecraft "niche" for this concept in the very near future, I got off my ass and called Melanie. I wrote the lyrics, made a practice video for my dancers, and started recording visuals right away, before I even knew which direction I was going to take with it. Melanie is busy with finals too, but I managed to talk her into recording on this last Saturday. Over this last week, I've gotten about 5 hours of sleep per night trying to put this together, and I'll be relieved when it's done.

Ok, rewinding back to the Europe part. By the time I got back, everyone I knew had already found a place to live for the rest of the year. I stayed on my brother's couch near LA for about a month looking for places to live in San Diego. You may notice that there has never been more than a 1-week gap in between my videos. That's because all of Facing the End was recorded, edited, uploaded, and set to release at predetermined times before I had even left for Europe. About 4 hours before I left for Europe, to be exact. I cut that one pretty close. At any rate, that's why I chose to end the trilogy then. I knew I would be gone for one month and staying on a couch for the next, which makes it very hard to produce LP's. I was, however, able to find 10 minutes in between the neighbor's ridiculously loud daily Fiestas to record the audio for Idea videos, so I kept those going until I found a new place.

...Which took longer than expected. I made 3 trips to San Diego from LA that month to look at houses, none of which were suitable for recording. I only had about 1 month because school was starting and there was no way I was going to miss a semester just because of a small detail like having a place to live. So the day before classes started, I put everything I owned (besides the bed, table, and desk) into my car and drove down to San Diego. During the drive, I had Craigslist open on my phone and I was looking for places. In an effort to not be homeless, I decided that I would settle on the first place that would let me stay there for 1 month, regardless of any other details. In that sense, I was lucky that it was a good house for recording, but that was about its only positive quality.

Ever since then, I had to get out. I didn't care when. So when I got a text message from a friend last Tuesday saying "My co-worker is looking for a roommate" I responded immediately. I checked out the house and it seemed like a good fit, and the nearest possible move-in date was this weekend. The hell with the fact that it's the week before finals and I should be studying and finishing essays, I had to get out.

Put all of this together and it means that I spent the week working on finals and video content, I spent Saturday recording a song, and I spent Sunday moving. Right now, it is Monday morning and my desktop computer still isn't set up, so I'm writing this from my Laptop. I was going to put together TF31 because I have that recorded already, but I forgot that the audio files were still on my desktop. I don't know when I'll be able to get a truck to move my desk (and thus, set up my desktop), but obviously, I'm prioritizing that pretty highly.