Underneath my yellow skin

Tag Archives: YouTube

In the beginning

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When I started this blog, I had a grandiose idea of what I wanted to do. The topics are based on the days of the week. Musings for Monday and Fun for Fridays. etc. It was a good idea, but I ended up pretty much just ignoring it and writing about whatever I wanted to write. Because that’s me. That’s always me. I’m both very rigid and very not-rigid. I’m rigid in that I like to follow a routine. I get up, do  my hour of Taiji in the same order with only the weapons rotating each day (parts of it), feed Shadow, get the coffee going, and then clean Shadow’s litterboxes. I also take my meds and brush my teeth in there.

I message Ian, check the RKG Discord, do the Wordle and then the Octordle for the day,  all the while having videos in the background. I write my post for the day, then work for my brother. I play some games, then do my fiction/memoir writing. 2,000 words. That’s what I do every day. Of course, I feed Shadow two more times during the day (breakfast, lunch, supper). He also have a bowl of dry kibble that he can eat throughout the day and  two bowls of water. I also leave water in the bathroom sinks because he likes to drink from those as well.

That’s my daily schedule. However, what time all that actually happens at wildly varies from day to day. I woke up late today 10:30 a.m. and didn’t really get rolling (after my Taiji routine) until 1:30 p.m. because I had to run to Cubs and there was some drama there. Apparently, they had just started a stamp program and did not train the cashiers how to use them. My favorite cashier had to deal with it with the person before me and complained to me afterwards.

Now that I’m changing things up and going to migrate to video (hopefully), I think I need to be more structured about what I do.  But, again, this is fighting in my brain. I am rebelling at the idea of following a schedule, but the pragmatic side of me says I have to build a brand.

I know that the most successful way of being a content creator is to find a niche and flog the hell out of it. Make everything related to that niche and go buck wild. Have merch,  will sell it. It’s the tried-and-true way of doing it (tried-and-true for a job that is a decade old, really).

There are variety content creators, but it’s still within a topic. Like video games. Someone can be a, say, a Pokemon streamer. Or someone could be streaming games, but different ones. Maybe in a genre or maybe not. Or someone streams indie games.


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Let me entertain you

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I was talking to K yesterday and we got on the subject of what I want to do with the rest of my bonus days. I’m working on some writing projects, but that’s not unusual because I always am. I’m also toying with doing video. I hate the idea because it’s so not my medium, but writing is dead and I have to adapt with the times.

I was mentioning how I’d said on Twitter once that I was thinking of streaming from my couch, Shadow on my lap, as I drank my coffee and surfed the internet. This was years ago. I actually had a few serious ‘I would watch that’ responses, which floored me. I mean, it shouldn’t. There are mukbangs, ASMR, people reading out loud, and a bunch of other stuff that is just basically watching a person existing.

Which, ok, fine. But it’s still weird to me. I mentioned this to K and she said she could see it (with me). She reminded me that I had acted in my twenties and that maybe because of that or something else, but I had a presence. I immediately jumped in and said, “I have charisma.” I know it. ‘ve known it since I was in college. But because of what I’ve seen my father do with it,

It’s hard for me to see it as a positive, but these are my bonus days. If I can’t do something differently now, then when? My brother has been saying for a long time that I should use my charisma for good. Not to mention my ability to read people.

I’ve been on a kick of feeling myself (literally and metaphorically). I tweeted Lizzo’s Good As Hell video (live from Glastonbury) because that’s my theme song for this year. Yes, I’m late in the Lizzo love, but I got there eventually. Someone on Twitter told me that his ex was jealous of his friendship with me. Like, it actually became an issue in their relationship. That floored me because I’m not particularly flirty on Twitter. Yes, I will talk about sex or my as or whatever, but it’s not as if I propositioning people. Also, I don’t do pictures. At least not at that time. I have posted a few selfies post-hospital, but mostly with my mask on.

I thought it was really wild that his girlfriend at the time had an issue with us being friends, but when I told K about it, she said she could understand. And it reminded me of when I was in college, I was friends with a lot of guys. Back then, I was into the cool chick meta for many reasons. One, I liked ‘guy’ stuff much more so than ‘woman’ stuff. Two, I wanted to be accepted by guys. Three, It was a way to hang out around the guys I liked without being threatening. I could be one of the guys and laugh at them about the other silly women. At some point, though, I realize that I was only there on sufferance and if I ever slipped in my behavior, I would become one of those ‘silly girls’.


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Am I too old to be new?

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Blogging is dead. I know this and yet….

The written word is my forte. I am at my best when I can take my time and put some thought into what I’m saying. It’s why I prefer email to texting as well. I like the asynchronous nature of the medium and if I need to be more immediate in my communication, then there’s messaging and the phone for that.  I hate texting and refuse to do it for the most part, by the way.

I’ve been talking to my brother about making videos. He does it for his realtor business and he’s been urging me to do cooking videos. He’s willing to help me out. When I mentioned that if I were going to do videos, I’d want to do something I liked doing rather than hated doing. Yes, it would be funny for me to do cooking in the dark or something like that, but if it got popular, then I would have to continue cooking. I have thought about doing a cooking channel based on me finding delicious and simple gf/df recipes, but….

Some background. I have watched many cooking videos. 90% of the ones I’ve seen are women. They start out with an interminably long story about how they went to Target with their kids and bought more than they thought they would. I. Don’t. Care. This happens on cooking websites as well. A ten-paragraph long intro to the recipe. I know why they do on websites (because they want to keep you there), but I hate it. I also don’t like it on YouTube when they give their spiel (“like, share, and subscribe!”) at the beginning rather than at the end.

I do understand that they’re trying to create a community and make connections. I know that on YouTube, it’s about personality. And that is where my problem lies. I hate all that crap. I don’t mind a bit of sharing, but ten minutes upfront is way too much. I don’t care about your kids; I really don’t. My brother really liked My Drunk Kitchen and urged me to watch. I didn’t find it funny at all. Then again, I’m very anti-drinking, so there’s that.

Side Note: I hate most comedies–sitcoms, romcoms, etc. I’m much more for conversational humor than pratfalls, gags, and actual jokes. I also hate shouting and exaggerated reactions, which cuts out three-fourths of YouTube. One prime example of someone I hate is jacksepticeye, an Irish guy, who does games. I thought, “Oh, I like British people. I like games. This will be cool.”

Friends, let me tell you, it wasn’t cool. He screams at the top of his lungs all the time in a very grating voice. Putting aside the screaming, I just don’t trust anyone who is at that level of agitation all the time. It’s not real and he’s doing it for the clicks. I mean, that’s why everyone on YouTube does what they do, but there’s a way to do it authentically that doesn’t blow out my eardrums or make me roll my eyes.

Here is quite possibly one of my favorite food YouTubers. Jun’s Kitchen. He’s Japanese and really good with his knife skills. He’s one with nature and animals as is obvious by his interactions with his cats. He doesn’t talk much during his videos and while, yes, he does do that slice of life thing, it seems integrated with the videos–not just an addendum because it’ll get clicks. He only posts a video every month or so, but he has a large fan base.


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