PAX Southbound! Vlog 2019-02

This week I'm off to PAX South 2019 with Jr. Streamer Electroboy11. This is going to be quite the adventure. It's Junior's first ever PAX event, and there's a lot of things that I'm looking forward to!



Next stop, San Antonio!

Running Resolutions: Vlog 2019-01

Oh baby, it's still cold outside, but I've gotta get my plans in order for the first half of the year.



Running objectives go! Looks like I'm committed to running in a couple of local distance races in March and April, then my first full marathon in Fargo, don't ya know.

Last one for 2018! Grades & Goals! Vlog 2018-52

Last vlog for 2018! Can't believe I managed to do this every week for a year!

With that in mind, here are my final grades for my major 2018 initiatives, and my general plans for 2019.


Fitness - B
Content - C
Finances - D+

Going to do better next year!

Christmas Wishes 2018 - Vlog 2018-51

From my family to you: Merry Christmas

Monday Vlogs - What Went Poorly in 2018? Vlog 2018-50

Retrospective Part 2. What went wrong this year?

1. Finances. Still treading water with debt.
2. Deadlines. Missed a lot more of those than I should have. I need to work on not over-committing myself.
3. Speaking of over-committing, I grossly underestimated how much of my spring and summer time would be consumed by kid sports and half-marathon training.

That's probably the big three. Part Three will talk about what steps I'm planning for 2019 to continue to build on success and improve on my failures.

What Went Right in 2018? Vlog 2018-49

The end of another year always puts me in a retrospective mood. This year, since my finances and schedule are already largely locked in for December, that mood started a little earlier. I'm going to take the next few Vlogs to do a bit of a retrospective on 2018, focusing on what went well, what went wrong, and what I need to improve for next year.

1. Fitness: I ran my first half-marathon this year, and am definitely in the best shape that I've been in since my late teens.
2. Productivity: The Bullet Journal method absolutely revolutionized my productivity this year. After a rocky January, things really started to come together where my content output was concerned.
3. Streaming: I finally made Affiliate! Now to make my first dollar...

Of course, it wasn't all blinding success. Next week I'll take a look at what went wrong this year.

Ten Years of Extra Life: Vlog 2018-48

Back in 2008, the very first Extra Life charity fundraiser raised a few thousand dollars as a bunch of gamers, decided to help a sick little girl and defy some media stereotypes at the same time.

Ten years later, we've raised over $40 million for sick and injured kids around the world. I haven't been in every 24-hour marathon over the past ten years, but I'm proud to say that I was there for the beginning, and have been able to return as an active participant for the past three years as well.


Anyone interested in donating to Extra Life can do so here.

One of my favorite things about the charity is that they're partnered with the Children's Miracle Network hospitals, meaning that money donated stays local, it doesn't go to some random location. I fundraise for my local hospital, Sanford Children's which is where my kids would go if they were ill.

Let's Talk About D.Tube - Monday Vlog 2018-47

I've been experimenting with a new video service called D.Tube. Considering my concerns about having all my videos in Google's questionable care, having a backup plan seems like a really good idea.



A lot of this came from my mistake upload that cost me a channel strike, but I've also been looking for a YouTube alternative since Vid.Me shut down earlier this year.

Unfortunately, while I like D.Tube and I think it's got promise, there are three major issues that I've run into which prevent them from truly being competitive with YouTube.

1. No upload scheduling.
2. Per the TOS, videos aren't necessarily permanent.
3.  Upload process is really buggy.

There are a number of things to like, however, such as the ability to take live screencaps of any portion of your video, and better payouts than YouTube for a small channel. At the moment, I would say that the best plan would be to look at D.Tube as a secondary channel that complements YouTube.

Home Again, Home Again! Vlog 2018-46, Agile + DevOps East 2018 Wrap Up

I can usually count on Delta to get me home on time, with a minimum of fuss. I mean, there was that one incident, but when God answers your question "Should I move here?" with a line of thunderstorms stretching from Washington D.C to Atlanta, then you can't really hold it against Delta for not getting you to your connecting flight on time.



The Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld was probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. Great service, excellent venue, I definitely recommend them. They put a lot of thought into the little things: the concierge handing you a cold bottle of water when you check in, and a rack of water and towels by the front door in the morning for runners being just a couple of examples. This isn't a paid endorsement or anything, by the way, I just really appreciated my stay there.

Like I said earlier, Delta did their usual solid job getting me home. Thanks to the well stocked IFE, I even finally got to watch Deadpool. Now I understand all the love for that movie. Time to rent Deadpool 2, I guess.

Happy early Thanksgiving to all my American readers!

Vlog 2018-45: On the Road Again in Orlando

Orlando seems like an interesting town. Seemingly built up largely to service the various amusement park walled gardens that call the area home, it's not exactly a walkable city.



Good thing my hotel has pretty much everything I need!

I'm very excited to be here for Agile + DevOps East. I'll be working on my Agile Test Engineering certification, then attending a bunch more cool agile classes and training over the course of the week.

More to come!

Another Running Milestone! Vlog 2018-44

I came back to the first 5K race I'd ever ran, this time with a buddy. Adventure Girl had been training for this since the week after I ran my half-marathon, and she thought she was ready.


She was, mostly. She came out of the gate a little fast, and had some trouble in the final third of the race, but she finished strong, and can tell her friends that she ran a 5k race now.

Pre-race photo. Did I mention it was a costume run?

We'll see what she wants to do next year, and if she can drag Mini-Me into racing with her as well.

I Made A Big Mistake - Vlog 2018-43

I made a mistake. It cost me a channel strike, but that's not a huge deal. What's important was how I reacted to it. It turned out to be an excellent reminder that it's best to have all of the facts before jumping on social media to be angry about something.


First impressions aren't always what they seem.

Who Reads Anyway? Vlog 2018-42

Finished the book I've been reading, which only puts me three behind schedule for my challenge this year. I don't think I'm going to make it. The next thing on my To Read pile is not what you'd call light reading.



But it's going to be a fun week. Valkyria Chronicles 4 playthrough is in full swing, and I'll have a full review of MindWar coming up on Thursday. Ash of Gods: Redemption and Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance videos are still running as well.

The End of An Era - Vlog 2018-41

It was an eventful week. I'm now the parent of a teenage boy. My oldest daughter got to experience her first rock concert, as we caught the Lynyrd Skynyrd Farewell Tour. We got our first snow of the year. Finally, a three-and-a-half year long Let's Play of the Star Wars: X-Wing series came to a close as I completed the final mission in X-Wing Alliance.

Monday Vlogging: Temporary Single Parent - Vlog 2018-40

Having one half of the parenting team gone for a long weekend really makes a fellow appreciate her efforts more.



One particular observation that kept occurring to me over the weekend is that I don't know how single parent hobbyist streamers make it work. I'm getting off easy, because my wife had the meal plan, lesson plans, and most of the laundry already squared away, so I didn't have to do a major shopping run, plan kids' schoolwork, or spend too much time worrying about the kids having clean clothes.

If I did have to worry about those things, I doubt I would have had time to prep video and blog content for the next week, much less actually sit down and play some games at some late night point.

Monday Vlogging: Sometimes I Actually Finish Games

Maybe I'll get my play throughs done a little more frequently if I'm only focusing on one at a time...

Monday Vlogging - Keep On Keeping On

I seem to be struggling a bit with motivation this week. Maybe some of it's the come down from hitting a big goal, but a lot of it is just looking at other areas of my life and being frustrated with how slow progress is being made.



Gotta keep on keeping on, I guess. Things don't get better if you just sit on your butt and whine about it.

Monday Vlogging - Half-Marathon Completed! Now What?

Well, that's one major goal for 2018 done. Now to take stock, and plot how I'm going to do better in 2019. I know, it's time to run some full marathons!

Monday Vlogging - Football!!! Vlog 2018-36

Football is back! Woohoo!

Monday Vlogging - Long Weekend

Not that much to say here. It's a long weekend, the last big weekend of summer, and I was out enjoying it.