Thursday, January 20, 2011

1/20/11 - Let's Just Take it Slow...

Hey guys, SlimKirby here!

It's been awhile hasn't it? Almost 3 weeks in fact, but nonetheless, here I am for another blog entry, and for what is technically my 100th entry. Last time, I got a little deep about the future of this blog and if there was any possibility of me continuing it after some pretty major doubts. I have been doing a lot of thinking, like I said I would, and I'm still just honestly not sure about the direction of where to take this. So I decided that for the time being, I just wouldn't worry about it and focus on doing informal, unplanned entries for awhile, because honestly, isn't that what a blog should be about? Well, in my opinion it should be, so that's what I'm going to do. Who knows, this may actually allow me more time to think about where I want to take this and get me excited about updating again! So yeah, basically, just don't expect an entry every week, and I'll do my part in trying to get something out every now and then. Also, don't be surprised if some of my entries end up being progress reports for my channel, because while some of you probably get enough of that on my channel as it is, that's really the biggest thing going on in my life at this point, which will seem kind of sad to some of you, but when you look at my fanbase, and the benefits I'm getting.....it's a lot more important than you would think. But anyway, enough rambling, that is going to be the plan.

So what has happened since I'm gone? Well....I had a really great Holiday season, as I think I mentioned during my last entry, but I'm going to put emphasis on that again just because it really was a great Holiday, definitely the greatest one I've had for awhile. I got to see a lot of family and friends (mostly family because most of my friends decided to pull a little vanishing act on me...jerks), I got a lot of new gifts and games, and just had a very good time in general. And also (and I'm sure several people are going to freak out about this), I even got to meet MadameWario face-to-face for the first time! And yes, she's just as fierce and pimptastic as she is in real life. =P So yeah, it was a really good break......and it's kind of a shame that it's over already. =(

But yes, I am once again back in school again for my 8th (and unfortunately, not final) semester of college classes! This semester might actually end up being a little easier than my last two, just because of the nature of some of my professors, which I guess is a good thing, but it still might be a bit too early to tell. All of my classes are pretty much morning classes, which gives me a lot of time to goof off in the afternoon and still get some work done on assignments or video projects if I need to. I have an 8 AM class (which may not seem bad to high school students, but trust me, 8 AM is like the equivalent of 5 AM for college students), followed by a two hour block of two classes from 10 - 12 on 3 of the 5 days of the week....something I'm still trying to get used to, but I'm sure I will in the coming weeks. To me, college has always been pretty formulaic, in that once you get a routine going, as long as you stick to that routine, you are pretty much setting yourself up for success every time. The earlier you learn that, the better off you will be.

This Christmas, along with my brand new laptop which I bragged about a few entries ago, I did get quite a few different games, consisting of Samurai Warriors 3, Goldeneye 007 (Wii), Epic Mickey, Zelda: Four Swords Adventure, Advance Wars Dual Strike and Days of Ruin, and a few games on Virtual Console (some of which were actually gifts from other Youtube users and LPers! ;)) I really only got the first 3 as gifts, as the other ones were actually GameStop purchases, but I technically used a lot of the money I got for the Holiday on those games regardless. I haven't touched very many of these games yet (just not have had the time, plus when I have, I've been way too obsessed with Samurai Warriors 3 to play anything else), but I'm sure I'll get them played and I'm sure I will talk about them as well.

I also had my all-day stream of Kirby games about 2 1/2 weeks ago, which for the most part went pretty well, aside from UStream failing on me in a number of different ways (the biggest being destroying most of my recordings of the stream X_X). I guess the biggest thing I can take from the stream event is the realization that I need to plan streams better in the sense of being prepared for the games I'm doing and not biting off more than I can chew, and also that UStream is not an efficient website for streaming. Live and Learn I guess......

As far as Youtube stuff is concerned, I guess things are going well. I'm still not completely ready to start recording with my new set-up, so I've been spending the last few weeks on recordings I've been able to get done while I was at home. Kirby's Dream Course finished up last week, and thank God am I relieved. Again, it's not that I hated the project..it was just a lot more difficult than I thought it would be (and I already knew it was a pretty difficult game). I probably should have done the playthrough on an emulator, because in the way I handled it, I spent more time overall on failed attempts than I did successful attempts, and that didn't really help me one bit. Mario Party 7 is starting to wrap up, and at this point I have all of the videos recorded, so it's not like there is anything major preventing me from finishing up that project. I just want to drag it on (although that's putting that in such a negative way) for a little bit so I don't finish that too quickly and then as a result, also finish Mario Bros. Wii too quickly. I technically know what my next project is going to be at this point, so it's not like I have no idea of what to do afterwards, or anything like that, but this is definitely the most tapped out I've been on ideas, so I am definitely trying to keep an easy flow going as I try to come up with some other ideas. And lastly, there is New Super Mario Bros. Wii, perhaps the project I am the most satisfied with at this point. I'm actually moving through the game a lot faster than I expected to, even with the larger time limit, and for the most part, I think it has been moving along pretty well, and going along well with my audiences. I think it was definitely a great project to start the year with (even though it did start in the 2nd half of December). That project should finish up sometime in February.

Also in other Youtube-related news, things have started up again on CrystalStarStudio with 2 new projects, a 3rd on the way, the concluding videos of TTYD, and then some other great stuff to follow suit. The project I am involved in still won't be starting for a few weeks (still trying to work out all of kinks), but it will be here eventually.

There has been a lot going on recently, and there is so much else I could discuss as well, but I know you guys can only listen to me ramble on for so long, so I think I'm going to try and end it here. So yeah, this is how you can expect the blog to be from now on; all updates will be informal and independent of a common format, and they will all be unscheduled and unplanned (I will try to announce on twitter and/or my channel page when I do have an entry though, so don't worry about checking here all the time). And basically, yeah, that's how you can expect things from now on, or at least for a little while. I may decide to get back on a common format and schedule eventually, but for now, it's not something I will worry about.

I guess that's about it. I will talk to you guys later and see you around Youtube! Take it easy! Later folks!

- SlimKirby

Monday, January 3, 2011

Where in the World is SlimKirby?

Hey guys, SlimKirby here with a short message.

As you may have noticed, I haven't been doing very much updating as of late. Last you heard from me was the weekend before Christmas, and it's already a few days into the new year, so first off, I hope you guys have had a wonderful holiday season and happy new year celebration like I did! =)

Now, getting on to the main point of this entry; my lack of updating on this front.

Some of you have probably already realized the reason for my lack of updating (or for those who don't like this justification, my excuse for not updating) stems from the fact that I have been pretty busy as of late keeping up with family, friends, and all of that other general holiday stuff. And for the most part, that is true, but I can't honestly say that is the only reason.

I'm not sure how evident it has been in recent entries, but I've just been getting a bit tired of doing a new entry for this blog every week. It's slowly starting to become more of a chore than an activity I like doing (which is how it started), and if it is becoming THAT much of a burden, I really don't think I should do it anymore, or as often. I've always been under the belief that negative feelings of an activity often contribute to poor performance on that particular activity, and I don't really think my blog, or my readers deserve a half-baked entry every week of me saying, "Oh god this week was busy" and "ZOMG! ZOMG! YOUTUBE PROJECTS!" I honestly just don't have that much to talk about, and when I do, I take care of it in my videos or through other media. The only reason I kept with the blog for so long was when I was doing my daily updates back during my Let's Play of The Simpsons: Hit and Run, I legitimately enjoyed doing it, which is why I updated every day. After a few weeks of that, I felt burnt out again, so I switched to weekly updates, and not even 1/2 of a year through that, I was already starting to update late and sometimes just not at all. I'm not sure if this means I should switch to every 2 or 3 weeks, or even monthly updates, but it honestly feels like no matter what, even that would be shortly lived.

Now, don't get me wrong, I do like keeping the blog and if I can make it work, I will definitely do everything I can to keep it moving, but at this point, it feels like I'm more forced to write it rather than just doing it myself, which is not what a blog should feel like. So yeah, that is the dilemma, and where I go from here....I'm not exactly sure.

So here's the deal, I'm going to give myself a few more days (or weeks) to think about everything, and I'll see if I can maybe figure something out. If I determine that the blog might be something worth keeping, then I'll try my best to keep it going at my own pace (but it will not be a weekly pace, I assure you (unless that is what will work best, but eh...whatever)). If not, I'll probably wait til the very least, my 100th entry (this is technically entry #99, but I won't count this as part of the count) and then close it up for a little while until I feel like brining it back again.

Thanks for understanding guys, if you did. If not, oh well, I can't please everyone. Thank you for your time, and I will talk to you guys later.

Later folks!
-SlimKirby