#actuallylukedanes

and though i don't spend a lot of time watching youtube as entertainment, i am always happy to cheerlead and watch when they think i'll like a specific video they've made. but since i don't play most of the games they feature, i tend not to have the foundation that would mean i actually understand what's happening! lol.

especially for games that they've played for a long time, that have been around for a long time, that lots of people are super familiar with but that i just don't have any grasp on--like the sims.

i know what it is, i know about it from the world in general and from my family members who play it. but i don't know it the way i would if i played. i don't know the different places in the game where sims can live, which content comes from where, or how things get built.

(and yeah okay, that may not be sims-specific, it's possible a lot of world-building knowledge can translate easily across games. but i like puzzle games and sorting things! i'm not gonna build stuff unless you give me legos. so i don't have a ton of experience building cities or houses or people. if i'm honest, i wouldn't have the patience to spend my time on all those details.)

so i couldn't BE more delighted that their channel will post the conclusion next week in a series of videos called A House For Tate. because in those five videos, they took the character they have in sims that represents me, built, landscaped and furnished a dream house for me, just based on their creativity and their ideas about what i would like. i didn't put in requests or have any idea how it would turn out, and because life has been so hectic, i'm finally watching them now.

and i'm telling you all this not just to say, my best friend is talented and works hard on their channel and deserves some attention and love--though they are, and they do, all of that is true! i'm explaining it because, as i started working my way through the videos, it has been An Experience. and by the end of the second one, i figured out why.

i usually have a hard time watching youtube for fun, when it's something like a game build or a let's play, because my attention span is not designed to watch other people do things that are meant to be interactive. my thoughts wander, it's hard to focus. it's even harder when i'm not familiar with the game, because then it's like watching someone perform a skill you don't have WHILE speaking a foreign language--just, higher difficulty level to follow!

but in this video series, @actuallylukedanes very deliberately designs the house with me in mind. not just in style, but in their voiceover, where they're showing and telling the origins of what they choose and just basically adding details they might not otherwise, because they know i'll enjoy the extra information.

...they've created the equivalent of a TV miniseries just for me, basically. my brain is THRIVING with this.

the whole time i was watching the second episode, i was taking notes for the comment i wanted to leave when i finished the video. and by the time i was done, i had to break it up into at least 4 still-long replies, because i just had so many thoughts and reactions to share!

it didn't occur to me until later that the reason for that is the same reason why it took me 3 times as long as it should've, to watch the video: i was responding to it the way i do with television...as if I were pausing and liveblogging my thoughts along the way.

but in that case, I stored them up until the end so @actuallylukedanes could know them all. however, it was, admittedly, a lot. and i'm not seeking to clutter their channel.

so that is why, after the creator wisely pointed out that i could just do that if that was how i was kind of doing it already...i'm going to just straight-up liveblog the rest of the videos here, the same way I would TV shows.

For food content, I recommend The Kitchen and Jorn Show. They mostly do food tasting from different companies, as well as a few small cooking competitions. Both hosts are openly queer, and one is married to a trans woman who features heavily on the channel. They tolerate absolutely no bigotry or hate, and immediately delete and block comments that are discriminatory. I always feel super safe watching their channel as well!

Hi anon, and thank you so much!! These all sound great.