There’s a tweet going around from Monstercat that has the social media sphere in a tizzy. Tweet Here

Basically, they’re trying to make it easier for people to reach Affiliate status by paying for a subscription to the Monstercat Gold service, and this is pissing people off (specifically those that are already Affiliates) because they feel like it’s lowering the bar EVEN FURTHER.

But I have to ask….Does this even matter?

Personally, I don’t think it does. Big picture, it just makes it easier for streamers to have access to ads, bits, and subs. If you’re an Affiliate you can monetize your stream. That’s great! But again, does lowering the bar matter? If just ANYONE can suddenly become Affiliate, does that ACTUALLY impact you as an existing Affiliate?

No, it does not. Why do I believe that? Because having that Affiliate tag doesn’t mean anything. It’s not magical. It never was, nor will it ever, make you a better streamer or give you immediate success. It literally was designed as a jumping off point. A way to get your feet wet and see if you wanted to work towards something greater.

Having the Affiliate tag? Again, it alone does nothing. You and your content. That’s what’s important. How you present yourself, your brand, your everything, is how you fail or succeed.

So, is Twitch giving away Affiliate? Sure, maybe they are, but it doesn’t matter. If you really want to succeed as a content creator then get over it, and get back to creating. Good luck out there!

This post is a 50-word writing challenge that was requested of me from my stream as a Channel Point Reward redemption, courtesy of Twitch user ManicProfessor.

No idea how many days have passed since I got sucked into my computer.

All I know is nobody seems to have really noticed.

The only way I’ve found to reach the outside is writing on my blog.

They keep liking my posts but nobody is coming to my aid.

This post is a 50-word writing challenge that was requested of me from my stream as a Channel Point Reward redemption, courtesy of Twitch user darthzelduh.

As the captain and first mate crossed the gang plank to parley all was silent except the waves.

Well, that and the clatter of glasses and spoons on the tray.

They had brought their ‘weapons’.

The pirate captain watched with a smile before yelling.

“Root beer floats! Thank you Mom!”

Finally slept through the night for a change and had a bunch of strange dreams but only one stands out now that I’m awake. It involved an ostrich.

Not just any ordinary ostrich, though. This one was some sort or chimera hybrid ostrich that was mixed with an alpaca or llama. You could see the blend of the animals in the head/face and it was honestly not that disturbing (at least not in my head, anyways.) To make it more strange, this creature was wearing a tshirt for a fictional band named Ammando Commando which was stylized in a two word stack so that both words used the same MM’s.

Then, my brain decided to take things to an even more bizarre level and somehow my dad was there with me and he was also wearing a shirt for Ammando Commando. So, of course, he gets excited because this fucking alpac-ostrich was a fan of a band he liked! What does he do next? He wants a damn picture with it….then all hell broke loose and it like tackled/charged him knocking him into me. I had to catch him and make sure he got away from the things ass end because I saw it start raising a foot like it was getting ready to back kick into us.

And that’s where the dream ended! Wonder what I did to have THAT dream in the mix? Oh well, I think Ammando Commando is my new alt-rock band name.

Not long after I posted that entry this morning, I realized I missed something. I mentioned that to help accomplish my writing goals I needed to read. What I neglected to mention were the things I could do to accomplish that particular reading goal OUTSIDE of the scheduled self-education reading time slots. That’s probably because I finished writing the post late last night (actually sometime around 12:30 this morning) and I may have been rather drained by the end.

So here’s an addendum! To help me accomplish my reading goal (and thus support my writing related goals) I decided I needed to get back to reading books regularly. I’ll also be trying to read more non-fiction, such as news, reviews, and other blogs that I come across that catch my eye. I haven’t decided on the actual number of things I’ll read, but just knowing I need to read and have the opportunity to do so at any time (and not totally structured is in itself a relief.)

Good thing I have a backlog of books to read to get me started. Here’s to reading more in 2020!

This isn’t a cooking blog, so don’t expect some awesome recipr formatting or anything. I’m just taking a moment to talk about a flavor combination I made.

Okay so it may not be the healthiest thing you can eat for breakfast but it’s better than crack, and so are these cookies I made for a work potluck today.

Coincidentally it is also National Maple Syrup Day, and these cookies taste like a waffle that has been slathered in butter and maple syrup.

The secret? Maple flavored buttercream frosting on a pudding sugar cookie.

The recipes aren’t secret because you can find versions of them all over the internet. So I’ll keep it simple here.

For the cookie:

Take your favorite cookie recipe. Doesn’t matter what kind from what I can tell. Add a box of instant pudding mix to the dry ingredients and an extra egg to the wet ingredients. Need to keep the dry and wet ingredients in balance.

For the frosting:

Find a simple buttercream frosting recipe you like and add Maple flavoring extract. About 1 1/2 teaspoons per 1/2 cup of butter. Maybe more.

And that’s it. Apart they aren’t anything special, but when eaten together is when the magic happens.

Simple.

Excuse the shitty hand writing you’re about to see.

A couple weeks ago I mentioned on my Twitch stream that I had picked up a small whiteboard to hang in my room, and that I was using it to list out some of my top goals. I only showed it briefly there, so I thought I should share it here for everyone to see clearly.

I picked the top 5 things I felt were going to be important to me for the immediate future and beyond, and I put them on the left.

Each goal has some supporting words and statements to help keep me thinking about the pieces that will make up the whole.

On the right side I came up with a list of things I recognized were time and/or resource suckers that I should be avoiding at all costs because they detract from my potential to complete any of my goals.

I then finished with a couple of two statements that I hope will remind and empower me to complete these goals.

Be Disciplined. Be Focused.

Wish me luck!

A text list of the goals for anyone that wants it.

Top 5

Publish a novel

Build my blog

Read more!

Stream consistently

Get healthy!

Lately, as part of my self reflection and re-evaluation, I’ve been looking into making better choices that lead to better habits.

One of those habits I want to work on developing is getting up early and going to the gym before getting ready for work.

Today started off alright. I woke up to my alarm at 5:45ish. I laid there for a minute or two and…..decided to go back to sleep. Oops.

This led to some weird dreams. I thought I had gone through an entire day and was about to wake up and go to work on a Friday. Sadly, it was still Thursday when I did finally get out of bed.

Oh well, at least it’s not Tuesday!

I’ve been fairly quiet on social media for the last month or so, and felt like posting an update.

I started typing this out on Twitter but quickly realized I was going to need more than 240 characters and also didn’t want to just post a string of tweets, so here we are!

The last couple of months have been an interesting journey. I’ve traveled to familiar places and spent time with old friends. I’ve traveled to new places and finally met friends I’ve only ever known online. I’ve started down a path for bettering my health and alreadt seen some improvements. I had time to reflect on who I was, where I’ve come from, and where I think I want to go.

During that bit of self-reflection, I decided on a couple things. First of all, goals for 2020 and beyond. I bought and hung up a small whiteboard with some goals written on it, as well as things I need to avoid going forward so that I can focus on the more important things.

In addition to that, I’m putting forth an effort to learn more and expand my knowledge. A while back I learned about a service called Masterclass and was recently reminded that it exists. So I looked into it, found some subjects I liked, and took the plunge. We’ll see where it takes me.

Now that it’s December of 2019, I’ll put together a different entry to cover more specific topics such as a proper reflection of my year and what I’m actually aiming to accomplish in the year to come.

Stay tuned!