Bimonthly Progress Report For My Twitch Channel, FuzzyJCats, Sept 2 to November 1

FuzzyJCats Twitch Channel

It's going into December, so as usual, I've been procrastinating because there hasn't been any major changes at the level of no longer caring about viewer numbers. Albeit there are times when I have my neuroses and insecurities about numbers, though I was able to get over it after processing with my best friend, Todd. 

Because that breakthrough was huge, I felt I wasn't making any monumental improvements, except for taking 15 minute breaks after 2 hours of streaming, which helped me to last an extra 2 hours or so, getting in the much needed practice without fatigue.

I didn't think about taking breaks because I see my streamer friends stream 12 hours straight without any breaks. And the meme in Twitch is stream until you drop to gain viewers. I would stream until I couldn't focus any longer (normally around 2 hours) and stop. 

I stopped typing my streamer friends' link as I noted the emotional issues and stress it was causing me. It's so easy to forget to shout someone out that if you don't do so, you're concerned if the person felt slighted. Therefore, I'm only shouting out when being hosted and raided. Further, having excessive shoutouts made the chat harder to read, and I wanted a cleaner interface.

Since this progress report was long overdue and it was in the back of my mind, I was wondering what else can I do in the meantime to take streams to the next level? The answer has to go back to the basics - what do I want to achieve in streaming? Because if I know what I want, I can find out ways to accomplish that goal. Clearly, to "git gud" but specifically what is that? 

This is where the cliches of two heads are better than one, and how you can achieve anything with friends ring true, even as it makes everyone cringe when they hear that.

I kept asking the smotpoker887 extraordinaire how can I improve over and over again, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to accomplish in streaming. After hearing my neurotic rant, Smot merely asked, "why not be the best friend you can possibly be" from streaming.

That is what I wanted to accomplish! This is not too hard because you easily get to know your viewers - by remembering the past stream chats and talking to them through any of the social media messaging - so that when they show up, you can ask how is their house coming along (only if they mentioned that publicly to respect privacy).

Because I don't have photographic memory and we miss a lot of chat while streaming, I've been using Chatty to review the chat logs - this helps remind me of what was said in stream so I can get to know my new viewers better. Thanks to Smot, he explained how I can upload these logs to Google drive since it was hard to read on the potato PC. I can then read these logs anywhere I have access to internet.

Because I was working on being more friendly and engaging, I didn't have as much gameplay (this will improve through practice). As soon as I notice, I say hi as soon as a viewer shows up, but I forgot how I was to focus on then going back to what I was talking about, which takes a lot of mental focus.

I wasn't conscious of using that strat last month. Writing this progress report is quite helpful to concretely remind myself to be less tangential - which is why I want to be more timely in these bimonthly progress reports.

The discussion with Smot occurred maybe 2 months ago, and I got lulled into complacency as we all do as I focused on being more engaging with viewers.

However, recently, I wanted to see how I can be more entertaining: being a friend, but being an entertaining friend, which I think will take streaming to the next level, especially as it's an entertainment media.

After having two sleepless nights, I then talked with my best friend Todd who helped me to be more specific in what I mean by being entertaining. I told him that I wanted to be socially engaging. However, he mentioned the eye-opening reality that hearing another person's conversation may not be entertaining. Saying hello to viewers one after the other is not the most riveting or compelling conversation after all and most likely, only interesting to the person you're addressing.

After clarifying what I wanted, he mentioned the radio broadcasting 101 basics. This was rather shocking considering when you search how to be an entertaining Twitch streamer, no one wrote about this, but this is the most basic thing to do as an entertainer! In other words, that is how behind Twitch is compared to other forms of entertainment. 

Todd mentioned that I can write down the stories I want to tell and rehearse before each stream. After he said that, my immediate thought was "wow, that's so basic!" even as I didn't think about rehearsing. Because we all hear about how much entertainers rehearse out loud, spending hours a day honing their skills.

I noticed that when I have ideas to say while streaming, I even rehearse it in my mind, but when the time comes, I'm too inhibited to actualize how I envisioned it, and it didn't come out as colorful as I wanted it to and falls flat. I also noticed that I wanted to expand on conversational threads, but I hold back for fear of burdening the listener (growing up in the New England area, children were treated as to be seen but not heard). I know exactly why I do these things, but knowing is the easy part, changing is the challenge.s

Therefore, I have to do "inner work", accepting myself and not caring about "acting the fool" on stream for fear of viewers thinking negatively of me. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) here can work, because what's the worse that can happen if I'm able to rehearse and then act the way I envision the story, uninhibited? The absolute worse is that the viewers think I'm stupid or a loser or bad at acting (which I already know that I am), but who cares? If someone actually writes that and means it (i.e. a true troll, my viewers tease me affectionately on stream) during stream, then ban.

I'm also working on self-compassion - accepting yourself unconditionally - so you don't judge yourself (leads to inhibition ) or others (pinched soul).

Writing down a full-fledged "script" and rehearsing it aloud, practicing may help me to be less uninhibited and perform the way I want it to. I can even force Todd to watch. It'll be an exciting adventure to see if these preparations will significantly improve the entertainment value of the stream!

Goals Achieved:

1. 15 minute breaks = longer streams = more practice
2. No more excessive shoutout commands = less stress, cleaner chat
3. Be a friend (first priority) and easier ways of reading chat logs
1. Be more diligent about reading chat logs
4. Realization of rehearsing scripts

Improvements to be made aside from the above:

1. Make sure I work on the bimonthly progress report as it solidifies what I'm supposed to be working on, and forces me to find out what other things I can improve.
2. More gaming action and fluency as per usual.

The How of Happiness Review

Bimonthly Progress Report For My Twitch Channel, FuzzyJCats, July 2 to Sept 1

FuzzyJCats Twitch Channel

Now that I accomplished the most important improvement to my stream, not caring about numbers, I was able to focus on my goals listed in my last progress report during this period.  

I was getting better at talking and gaming at the same time, as it didn't quite take as much effort as before. I was able to stream without exercising just as well as before when I really had to exercise to perform.

Interestingly, as streaming seemed to be more and more natural (though not quite effortless which is where I want to end up at), I felt that near the end of the period, I actually fell into complacency, so I didn't really work on self-care issues, improving fluency, removing vocal tics and filler words, and the like.

I could tell that I was starting to become complacent around last week, because I didn't have that passion I have when I want to improve upon things. The good news is that this week, after realizing that I was almost going through the motions (albeit while streaming, I was having fun being with my community), I rediscovered that excitement and drive to work on improving my content.

I found one obvious area to improve is to have more purposeful gaming while chatting. My default strat of just moving the character around as I'm chatting just to provide some change in scenery is certainly better than nothing, i.e. having my character stand in one place. But clearly, we can do better than that!

Admittedly, the strat was a good crutch as I was getting acclimated to the multitasking, but since it's taking less effort to stream thanks to experience, I'd like to actually chat and purposefully move toward the boss, as boss fights are amongst the most exciting content.

The roadblock is that for some reason, I feel compelled to narrate what I'm doing in gaming, so if I'm moving toward a goal, I'd talk about that, as opposed to talking about more interesting subjects that my viewers present.

Therefore, I have to make a concerted effort to only talk about why I'm doing something if there's nothing else to address in chat, and I can't think of any other topics to talk about.

I feel by consciously gaming purposefully the entire stream, my streaming content will improve immensely. But by doing this, I do in fact have to exercise as that's going to take so much more mental energy than just going through the motions (that might explain why I was recently able to stream despite not exercising).

Fortunately, I exercised for the first time yesterday when my asthma was stable, and I have to make sure that I exercise regularly like I used to during the beginning of my streaming.

I also want to improve being more fluent. Due to being so excitable, my mind goes all over the place, leading to my speaking in fits and starts, and often not completing sentences. 

A great example of a streamer who is warm, friendly, constantly talks to chat, addresses and knows all of his viewers, and offers amazing gameplay the entirety of his stream is RichieTwoTeas. Although Richie's a professional streamer, and I'm a hobbyist, it helps to have a lofty goal to strive toward.

I believe that purposeful gaming and fluency are the two major improvements to focus on for my second year of streaming as achievable goals. The third improvement of community building does not appear to have concrete steps to take, but I can work on finding solutions this period. My first stream was on July 25, 2018.

Improving equipment to stream through PC using OBS greatly improves audio-visuals to a noticeable effect, so getting a decent PC and learning how to set up OBS is definitely something I'll be working on down the road.

Although I tend to do better with improving on one aspect rather than multiple, it appears that having good game content and fluency are intertwined, so it won't be "confusing" to work on both at the same time, as they are what you do when streaming.

An easy improvement I made is buying 4 season-specific sub badges through Own3D, which was rather cost-effective, and they often (always?) have 50% discounts. One set of sub badges costs $15 with the steep discounts - you get 3- 6- 9- and 12- month badges. So far, I featured the ice cream and pumpkin sub badges, and the other two will follow upon season change.

Responding to viewers have improved. I obtain logs through Chatty.

Goals Achieved:

• No longer caring about viewer numbers
• Incorporated 4 Sub Badges 
• Using Chatty

Improvement to focus on for next period:

• Purposeful gaming while chatting  and fluency = must do self-care

The How of Happiness Review

Bimonthly Progress Report For My Twitch Channel, FuzzyJCats, March 2 to July 1

Twitch Channel FuzzyJCats

After a hiatus due to my friends being in hospital, when I came back to streaming, it finally dawned on me to not care about viewer numbers - at last! Even as I theoretically realize that ignoring numbers is a major solution to preventing burn out, there was always a part of me that cared, due to ego issues.

As a result, I was watching a lot of Twitch streams as that's the best way to grow numbers (i.e. networking = making friends), that it's caused migraines, not to mention, feeling imprisoned because I "have" to watch streams for numbers.

In other words, I was afraid to limit Twitch viewing as it may lead to decrease in numbers. However, during the period of time when I was visiting and supporting my friends, I didn't have time to watch Twitch, and despite this very sad period, I felt physically better due to lack of migraines.

When I came back to streaming, I had such a huge outpouring of support that I finally internalized deep down that it's my viewers who are the most important, not reaping numbers. Because of my viewers (and it can never be overstated, your viewers make your stream), I was able to internalize this completely. 

Indeed, one of the most deadly things you can do as a streamer is to take your audience for granted. Having all this support and love from my community make streaming worth it, and that certainly prevents burn-out. I must never forget how I felt when my community was there for me when I came back to streaming.

I'm not sure if my viewers noticed that I was more spontaneous and free during this time, but I felt like a burden was lifted from my shoulders. Indeed, you can ad lib more when you don't have to worry about turning off viewers. Although I enjoyed streaming before this revelation, my joy was constricted by worrying about concurrent viewers. Now, without my joy being choked off, I feel liberated while streaming.

Interestingly, since not being concerned about numbers, I noticed that I was able to stream just as well as ever. In fact, I may have been better at streaming since I had the same (or perhaps better) mental focus despite not exercising. Almost all of my past streams, I made sure to exercise. I think having this psychological freedom made streaming less taxing. When you're truly happy in what you're doing, in other words, you're able to be more effective.

It took almost a year to get to a place where I finally know and feel that numbers are irrelevant, and that's a breath of fresh air. In the meantime, I've come up with strats, a flowchart that I follow, that help guide my stream:

If there's someone commenting, stop everything and talk to the person (though remember what you were talking before that and continue that thought process).

Once talking to the person, if there's a pause in chat, go back to previous thought and complete the thought.

If there's no one there, comment on gaming action (why you did this, what you're going to do, how you feel about the cinematic cut scenes and the like), or tell interesting stories (more on that later)

Use load screens to catch up on chat and talk.

It gets rather stale talking about the same points (i.e. gaming action and streaming issues), so to improve content, discussing life experiences are key as you can fill dead air by telling stories. Talking about life experiences is material enough.

Further, these experiences don't have to be unique and exciting ones - often any common mishaps that you experience can be told very humorously. Making people laugh is one of the best forms of entertainment.

I never had reason to be a story teller, so being an entertaining story teller is a skill that I'll be working on. This is an entirely new and exciting new adventure that I'll be experiencing!

Progress made:

• Truly not caring about concurrent viewer numbers (finally!).
• Realizing that story telling can make streams more compelling.
• Putting in scheduled vacations, and notifying community, to prevent burn-out.

Improvements to be made:

• Be a better story teller.
• Thank new viewers for stopping by stream (use cbenni.com chat log to review chat history) - I was consistent in past, but not currently.
• Completing my thought processes and sentences (I have a tendency to do this IRL as well).
• Get back into exercising and self-care.
• The usual being able to chat and game at same time (this is not habit yet).
• The usual decreasing filler words, vocal "tics" and the like.

The How of Happiness Review

Bimonthly Progress Report For My Twitch Channel, FuzzyJCats, Dec 25 through March 1

Twitch Channel FuzzyJCats

This is a much overdue monthly report! I've also decided to make it easier to remember by writing the report on the first day of the month, so progress will be discussed up through today, March 1.

Also, as I'm only streaming 2 times/week, I've decided to make these bimonthly progress reports as not much change occurs in only 8 streams.

Since Christmas, I have improved in terms of being able to multi-task without any preparation almost as smoothly as when I'm fully prepared, that is being in good health and having exercised before streaming! I recall when I first started streaming, I was flustered and struggled whenever anything goes awry, and my resilience in streaming has improved over the months of practice.

Therefore, I can stream more spontaneously, and as a result, I streamed after work yesterday, when I tend to be completely brain dead, and it wasn't a bad performance!

I felt that by streaming after work and having my days off to do whatever I need or want to do, it will improve my lifestyle. The issue with work is that I dread having to get up and being tied to a schedule as well as paperwork. But if I have streaming to look forward to, it would make me look just a little bit forward to work, rather than having that sinking feeling.

It's more ideal to be able to live in the moment and enjoy the day off before work, but that's easier said than done. Instead, I think about how I have to get up and be rushed to go to work, which gives me a sense of dread. I'm the type of person who likes to do chores and responsibilities in a relaxed manner (again, something that I have to work on).

While getting to the ideal state of being able to live in the moment, and not being so non-plussed about being rushed to a schedule, I think streaming after work can help with not feeling as much dread, since again, it will be something that I look forward to.

I believe I have gotten over my issues with viewer numbers. Tired of having the post-it blocking my viewer numbers on screen, as it blocks the game, I decided to take off the post-it. The fact that I don't even notice the red viewer numbers flashing means that I'm immune to feeling one way or the other by these numbers!

However, there are times when I feel a little demoralized when I see that my Wed viewer counts aren't as high as my Sun numbers, and noticing that my average concurrent viewers over the months haven't really increased, but remained stable at around 10.

Even so, I believe that not caring about the viewer numbers while live shows progress and also helps with gameplay as I can see the more of the game.

The other thing that came up as an improvement is that in the past, I streamed because it forced me to exercise - but now I no longer need to exercise before streaming. Furthermore, before I came down with current bronchitis, there were quite a few days when I exercised when I didn't have to stream! Now that I no longer need streaming to force me to exercise, the only reason for me to stream is if and only if I find it fun!

I believe I was burned out at one point and decided to stop Twitch completely since I got deeply involved in a niche Japanese RPG game, Atelier Sophie. During that time, I was thinking, wouldn't it be nice if I can spend more time playing video games with complete focus and immersion on my days off than having to stream!

However, I then felt guilt that if I stopped streaming altogether, it'll be unfair to my viewers who subscribed to me - they're paying monthly fees to watch me - and I feel that I need to give them their money's worth.

Whenever I have to do something out of duty and responsibility, it tends to be a wet blanket. I don't know what changed and made me find streaming a joy again - perhaps it was taking off a week due to getting chest cold - because streaming the past 2 days in a row was a joy!

In other words, anytime I feel that streaming is a burden and an obligation, that will be a sign to me to take some time off - hopefully I can stream a couple of more times just to give the community a heads up that I'm going to take a break. 

When I was caring about viewer numbers, however, I joined stream teams and found out that they tend to have extreme favoritism, where members who may not support but are friends reap all the viewer numbers. I've noticed quite a few members who support the leaders of these stream teams through buying and gifting subs, bits, and donations, yet had low concurrent viewers. On the flip side, those who are friends (despite not supporting at all) had very large numbers, despite the quality of streams between the two groups being more or less the same.

As a result, I stopped making these stream teams my main team. Fortunately, I'm not going to fall for these stream teams anymore since I'm more or less able to not care about my viewer numbers as evidenced by no longer needing post-it to block these numbers during broadcast.

I still need to work on habits such as making a cluck sound at times when I complete a thought, and again decreasing filler words. Making sure my eyes go back and forth from game to chat has not come naturally by any means. There're still quite a few times when I get so enthralled in the game that I forget to look at chat, or I get too involved in chat, that gameplay comes to a grinding halt.

Progress made:

• Being able to change my schedule after work to improve quality of life - I can multi-task almost as well even if I'm not in perfect condition thanks to months of streaming practice.
• Streaming is no longer a "crutch" to force myself to exercise as I no longer need to exercise before streaming, AND I was exercising on days when I wasn't streaming.
• Therefore, only reasons for streaming are for fun and obligation to paid subscribers.
• Recognizing if I feel burnout, taking time off is a must!
• No longer caring about seeing viewer numbers while streaming, no longer needing to block off screen with post-its, so gaming is easier and more pleasant with greater visiblity.
• Recognizing stream teams to gain followers don't work - no longer buying into stream teams that promise increased viewer numbers, but end up showing extreme favoritism.

Improvements to be made:

• The usual being able to chat and gameplay at same time (this is not habit yet).
• Decreasing filler words and vocal "tics".
• Continuing to not care at all about numbers.

The How of Happiness Review

Monthly Progress Report For My Twitch Channel, FuzzyJCats, Nov 25 through Dec 24

Twitch Channel FuzzyJCats

During this month of streaming, I continued to work on improving the usual chatting and gaming at the same time, and not using filler words, though I noticed I constantly slip into using a lot of filler words as they help to fill dead air.

I was also trying to find out how we can tell if we're entertaining. Certainly watching your VoDs help you notice if you're articulate or not, if you move around too much such that you're off the facecam, but I still can't tell if my streams are entertaining.

However, I started having an inkling as to what's entertaining to viewers this month. Since the entertainment is in real-time, and people are chatting, like with everything, people find you very interesting if you ask about them and talk about their issues. This is try-hard but cbenni.com can let you review your logs so you can remember what your viewers say, so when they show up the next time, you can ask them about that specific thing. 

For instance, if they mention that they're starting a new job, you can ask them how work is coming along, if they like their new boss, coworkers, and so on and so forth.

So another try-hard method is after each stream, I have been more or less writing these topics to talk about when the viewer shows up next.

Again, this is very try-hard, but it can help not only make your chat more entertaining for specific viewers, but with these topics on hand, it will help reduce dead air.

Aside from the usual goal of chat and gaming ratio, working on dead air, and removing filler words while streaming, improvements to be made is to be more aware of my viewers so I can ask them about issues next stream. 

The How of Happiness Review

Monthly Progress Report For My Twitch Channel FuzzyJCats, October 25 through November 24

Twitch Channel FuzzyJCats

Finally knowing and feeling that I want to stream for my community, and enjoying the process and challenges of improving stream content, as opposed to numbers grasping, I had a wonderful month streaming.

The first day back after my hiatus was rocky and rusty, but I felt the same joy I did the first month of streaming.

I wasn't upset about the drop in numbers (50% drop) as it was fun talking and socializing with chat. It also reignited my desire to improve which can be rather challenging. Being challenged and rising to the challenge makes me happy.

I set up a better schedule for myself, as discussed in the last monthly progress report, and streamed between 1 to 2 hours in the morning after exercise and chores, which worked extremely well for my lifestyle and well-being.

At first even 1 hour was difficult, so I don't know how I was able to stream 4 hrs starting out! But because of my new plan of stating only 1 hr, I can go over if I want to.

At any rate, the interesting thing about not caring about "success" in terms of viewers to the road of Partnership is that I felt more free and daring. I wasn't afraid of making mistakes so I can be more spontaneous.

There was a couple of moments during streaming near the end of November that I felt natural and effortless, though most of the time, I had to really focus and concentrate.

In terms of improvement, I would like to see myself typing less and incorporating ways to support my viewers who are streamers instead of "shouting out" which means typing their link in chat, causing the eyesore that is clutter.

I've noticed when watching streams, when chat gets clogged with auto-messages of auto-bots, it's harder to read what others are saying, as you have to scroll down. It's not aesthetically pleasing to see a block of text. That's the precise reason why I got rid of hydratebot, who reminds you to drink water.

Of course if someone raids and brings their viewers over, you must shout-out and thank the person. I think it's also kosher to shout out your team members. As a member of both Midnight Saloon and Pallet Town, as well as a participant of RoyaleStreamers, I'll have to be cognizant to use the shout-out commands.

Because I was more free, I noticed some of the "bad habits" slipping in, mainly filler words. Therefore, I want to be able to stream content by getting rid of filler words ("so", "now", "like", etc), and replacing them with more meaningful descriptive words. That will definitely improve my content.

Progress made:

• Improved schedule with less expectations in amount of streaming hours, which helps to reduce burnout
• Not caring about viewer numbers.
• Had moments of feeling spontaneous and free during streaming
• Reinvigorated my wanting to improve stream

Improvements:

• Getting rid of filler words
• Decrease typing in chat drastically, which will reduce chat clutter

The How of Happiness Review

Monthly Progress Report For My Twitch Channel FuzzyJCats, September 25 through October 24

FuzzyJCats Twitch Channel

During this period of time, I was burned out, but in denial, and pushed through streaming. After hearing about my friend's illness, I took time off to be with him and his family, and having this time off, it led me to rethink streaming.

During my first week off from streaming, I was so burned out that I made peace with quitting streaming entirely, and I was okay with it! However, after taking more time off, I forgot how much I loved streaming.

I remember when I first started streaming, I loved it so much to the point where I was counting down the hours to stream, but I didn't stream extra than my schedule because I didn't want to overdo it. I tend to get very obsessed with things, overdoing it until I burn out completely. So I actually held back from doing extra streaming during the first couple of months to avoid my tendency to crash and burn!

I also noticed that during the time I wasn't streaming, I wasn't exercising because I wasn't doing anything that mentally challenging. When I was streaming, I really forced myself to exercise.

Putting all of this together, I realize that I love streaming. I also find it healthy both physically and mentally to continue, as long as I don't take streaming seriously. In other words, don't worry about the viewer numbers!

Also, I started out too hard and too fast by streaming 4 days a week for 4 hours a stream. It makes more sense when you start a project that you've never done before, to take it one step at a time, slowly mastering each step until you take the next step.

So, it makes sense for me to scale back until I can easily do 1 hour per stream without strain, then add 30 minutes slowly. Perhaps streaming 1 day/week to start out with and increasing slowly. I think max 3 days/week.

Don't be upset if viewer numbers drop drastically as I'm no longer going to do the ridiculous networking.

Work on:

• Return back to streaming slowly to avoid burn-out
• One day a week to start, for 1 hour until that's really easy, then adding another day for 1 hour up to max 3 days/week
• Stream longer than 1 hour if I really want to
• Move schedule to mornings, better time for me

The How of Happiness Review

Monthly Progress Report for my Twitch Channel FuzzyJCats, August 25 to September 24

FuzzyJCats Twitch Channel

I reevaluated why I'm streaming as I was wrestling with getting Partnership, and why I feel the need to over-achieve in the field of Twitch streaming. After evaluation, I've let go of the goals of Partnership, but to rather focus on improving myself as a streamer, not worrying about the results.

I've noticed there were quite a few times during the two months I've been streaming where I'd achieve the same high I'd get when I did very intensive exercise for 45 minutes straight when I was healthy. Interacting with my community in chat gave me rush of endorphins.

My community is so supportive, positive and fun towards myself and each other, going out of their way to help by solving problems, making us laugh and feel better.

They pushed me to stretch my gaming skills and broaden my gaming horizons. I'm even playing an FPS for the first time ever (and the first time ever being this successful).

They made me improve myself in achieving goals, not just in gaming but health goals. They've also supported and helped each other achieve Affiliation and other milestones.

Because of streaming and the necessities of networking, I'm so grateful, overwhelmingly so, for meeting so many wonderful people who come from all walks of life, all of whom I wouldn't have met otherwise when I was a gamer and Twitch viewer.

I will continue my preparation for my stream. This is a must if I want to continue to improve my content because my community deserves it.

Indeed, for the next month, it's vital to keep in mind how much my community means to me, to enjoy streaming and to not worry about Partnership and plummeting views. This attitude will be my focus.

Progress made:

• Coming to terms that I don't need Partnership, and working through my ego issues to be at peace with the decision (this hasn't been wholly resolved yet though but getting better)
• Rather, I'm here to enjoy being with my awesome community and improving, which makes me happy
• Smotpoker887 became my mod
• Thanks to SpaceDandyTTV, I installed Live Now Bot to my Discord server which automates announcements to #stream_share channel whenever a member streams
• Installing StreamElements leadership board extension to my channel description
• Installing StreamLabs schedule countdown extension to my channel description
• Learned how to timeout (had 1 homophobic user but didn't know how to delete comments at that time)

Improvements to be made (aside from focusing on chat primary, and gameplay at same time):

• Continue to support members to gain Affiliation and Partner, but in healthy, sane ways 
• Continue to be at peace with not feeling like I'm "inadequate" if I don't get Partnership but rather enjoy the process of Streaming.
• Being able to timeout/ban LIVE in a TIMELY manner!
• Not moving around as much as sometimes I was actually off camera
• Listen to and summarize Stream Key Podcasts to improve content
• Improve game skills by practicing the game off-stream
• Continue to be consistent with prepping for stream (exercising, preparing topics)
• Continue to be enthusiastic
• Work on considering the pros and cons of a tip jar
• Maintaining work/stream/life balance

The How of Happiness Review

Monthly Progress Report For My Twitch Channel FuzzyJCats, July 25 to August 24, 2018

This is the first of a Monthly Series of My Twitch Channel FuzzyJCats Progress Reports 

First month, July 25 to August 24, 2018

Through the support of delinquentMuse’s loving community, after all these years (I became a Twitch member October 2014), I mustered up the courage to stream. My first broadcast was Wed, July 25. I used the speedrun strats that I featured in my blog, and officially won all the trophies on the 7th day, but paperwork at late hour led to sub button on the 8th day.

My original streaming intent was to improve my diction: improving articulation, avoid swearing and using fillers words such as “um” and “like”. I wanted to follow my oculoplastic surgeon’s perfect enunciation and diction, Dr. Roberta Gausus, of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. (In foresight, I wished I asked her permission to video record her speech).

However, I quickly realized two things. First, how much mental focus and concentration it took to do so. Second, I was surprised at how fun streaming was.

Because of the exhausting mental preparation that is streaming, which took more mental energy than accomplishing a no death Dark Souls 2 run, I started exercising, eating more fruits and vegetables, and significantly improved sleep schedule.

I quickly became addicted and obsessed with streaming, so I decided to buy PS4 Facecam and eventually added Facecam when I got less anxious about streaming.

I found that reviewing your VoDs is crucial, and the most obvious thing that I noticed is how “flat” I am when there was no one chatting. And how excited, thrilled and overjoyed I got when I would see someone chat and interact. What this proved to me is the importance of my viewers above all else. I want to challenge myself to improve content and presence to make my stream the best possible since my viewers deserve that effort.

Even so, I noticed that my ego got in the way, as I recognized that I want partnership. So, the challenge for me next month is to stop worrying about numbers, and rather enjoy the fun and process of streaming, and just being with my beloved viewers. Thankfully, I have practiced meditation spottily over the years, so I can use some of these principles to focus and hone in on making my viewers feel valued and welcome.

Through admitting my ambitious nature, this will help ground me. Through acknowledging my competitive nature, I hope this will allow me to be more cognizant of NOT having ambition drive the streams. Rather, I want to focus on interacting better with chat (I miss a lot of conversational threads), appreciating my viewers more, and incorporating more gameplay as I often stop gameplay to chat instead. 

The overarching goals are to continue to show appreciation toward my viewers, “perfect” talking to chat to the point where I don’t miss chat conversational threads, and THEN focus on gameplay.

I need to work on pacing myself energy-wise as I notice I get drained near the end of stream. I didn’t realize, but I actually stopped stream before 5 PM on August 22! (edit: actually, Twitch dashboard analytics now said I stopped after 5 PM). 

Improvements made over the month:

Overall, improvements made were with technical issues.

• Having Microphone stand for better voice audio
• Having Facecam with Chromakey screen
• Thanks to smotpoker887: Put post-its to cover viewer/message numbers, this cut down on tortured expression when I notice viewer numbers are “low”
• Working on Channel description page
• Thought about mission and values of the channel--love of gaming, health so we can support each other in affiliation/partnership
• Contacted AWA for permission to support, received logo
• Watching Stream Key podcasts which inspired me to make improvements
• 100 Proof Gaming category on channel
• Working on delinquentMuse team names

Will work on (aside from the overarching goals):

• Being able to talk with energy and enthusiasm when there’s no chat, instead of having tortured expression on face.
• Continue to prep topics before stream.
• Stamina management, eventually I would like to stream more hours, but 4 hours is now the max limit.
• Be more consistent with exercise. I’ve been doing 13 mins stepmill except for two times before I stream, but will need to incorporate strength training more consistently.
• Be more consistent with going to bed at the same time. At least I’m getting 8 hours, but it throws me off if it’s not the same sleep/wake time!
• Not sure how to manage being itchy and sniffling--been using Claritin and NetiPot. I don’t want to resort to Flonase given that I’m already on steroid inhaler (i.e. it’s best to avoid as much steroids as possible).

• Breathing management due to asthma. Improving with steroid inhaler and aerobic exercise but not in “perfect” condition yet.

The How of Happiness Review