Author: ian

Hey all!

MJ’s surprise surgery definitely threw off my plans for this month, but things are rolling again now that she’s a bit further along in her recovery. She’s doing great by the way! Just needs to rest and heal up.

Priority #1 is a new video. I’m about midway through production on a new brutalmoose video, and the plan is to post it this weekend. It’s coming along pretty nicely! It was originally going to be a new entry into the Arcade Series – I suppose it still is – but my plans changed a little bit with the surgery-ness of it all. Instead of going out to review a real life arcade, this time I stayed inside and reviewed a virtual one. It’s been a lot of fun to work on, and it’s something that people have been asking me for, so I’m excited to finish it up. I think my Pop Star review really re-ignited my fire for reviewing media. It’s my favorite video that I’ve made in quite some time and I am eager to do some more of that. Movies or games or something else, we’ll see. Something besides food, please.

Anyway after that video comes out we’re going to do that Sonic blind box stream that I was planning. That was originally going to happen before the video, but, again, surgery schedule adjustments. After we unbox some Sonics we’ll start thinking about what the next Stream Series will be, because I plan on doing at least another one of those next month.

That’s all the beans I’m going to spill today, but trust me when I say that I have been baking many other beans on my brain’s backburner.

I also vaguely considered becoming active on Twitter again the other day, but I dunno. Seems like a good idea but also a terrible idea? For now I’m just going to try to be more active in my Twitch Subscriber Discord, so if you’re in that feel free to drop in sometime to chat. I know I’ve really reclused myself in the past year or so, but I think I’m ready to start connecting again. As much as I complain about social media and online communities, I’ve definitely come to miss having and interacting with a community for the positive aspects. Just gotta find the right way to engage and interact, because I dont think that the way I was doing it before was super healthy for me. Anyway, Discord friends come hang out!

Thanks for reading! See you soon on the YouTubes and then on the Twitchs.

Meowdy folks!

I’m happy to report that everything went smoothly and MJ is home safe and sound from her surgery! The vet let us look at the stone that they removed, and geez it was huge! Glad she won’t have to deal with that anymore. She’ll be on a special diet to prevent future ones so hopefully this was a one and done deal. Recovery is 2 weeks, with the worst of it over in a week it looks like.

Thanks for all the supportive messages! MJ is too tired to read them right now but I told her all about them.

Meow news, everybody.

So, everything has happened very quickly the past week or so, but my cat MJ is going in for surgery in just a couple of days to remove a bladder stone that the vet said was too large to dissolve. It sounds like it’s supposed to be a pretty straightforward procedure that shouldn’t be risky or anything like that, but that hasn’t stopped me from worrying endlessly about it. I thought that I might want to stream between now and then to get my mind off of it, but I think I’d just end up spending the whole time talking about how stressed I am because it’s kind of consuming my brain at the moment. But I know MJ has a lot of fans, so I wanted to keep you all in the loop! I’ll post another blog once she’s back home safe and sound, and then after that I plan on returning to open those Sonic blindboxes I teased at the end of last stream.

Not much other news to report right now. I am currently working on a vloggy-ish video that I filmed at the zoo a couple(?) of weeks ago, but it’s not really shaping up how I wanted so I’m re-thinking my approach. I also plan on filming a new entry in the Arcade Series this month, but first things first I have to get MJ healthy again.

Hey guys!

Short blog while I get things ready for the stream tomorrow, but I wanted to let you guys know that there will be a stream tomorrow! The plan is to play Sonic Adventure 2 over the course of 3 days, separated by the different stories. Since I expect to get through it all pretty quickly, I’ve also got some chill-out games lined up for us to play, as well as a little funtivity to end out the last stream.

I also went out yesterday and filmed something a little different! Going to keep it vague for now but I’m excited to put it together, so there’s a little micro-video update. Hoping for a couple of videos this month but we’ll see.

Oh also, Patreon friends, I did not charge for this month. I really expected to deliver more content in July but hit some setbacks, so I didn’t really feel right taking the Patreon money this month. We shall see what August brings! Hopefully more videos and streams, that’s the plan.

Alright, that’s all for now, but I’ll see you all when we escape from the city!

Hello friends!

I’ve been working on some new things, and now I’m going to share with you an update:

stream
I’m making some more changes to the stream! The Fatty Bear stream was a ton of fun and I loved getting to play with my new hardware, but there were some pretty clear setbacks that needed to be addressed before I got to our next series: Sonic Adventure 2.

Most important of all is the visual fidelity of the stream. While I do love how my entire stream looks like it’s coming through a VCR, it also looked a little… bad. I’m not streaming in HD, sure, but for some reason the footage I was getting looked extremely low resolution, and as hard as I tried I was unable to accurately balance the colors. It turned out to be 2 separate problems, both of which I’m happy to report that I’ve solved.

Firstly I retired the upscaler that was converting my footage from S-Video to HDMI. It’s been a really trusty converter for me, but I had a hunch that it was part of why the video looked so bad. Sure enough I got a couple new upscalers and I found one that looks much much better, from a brand that I’ve had success with before called StarTech. I’m sure it’s not as good as a Framemesiter, but it also wasn’t nearly as expensive, and the colors are way better than my older converter.

The other important change that improved the quality of my video was removing my Time Base Corrector from the equation. I was basically running all of my footage through a little box that’s supposed to make the video signal really strong and consistent, but what I didn’t realize was that the video it outputs looks like straight-up doo doo. I’ve captured a lot of VHSes this way throughout the years, so I bet a lot of Mystery Tapes episodes could have been a lot cleaner captures… Anyway, the video looks WAY better. Still looks like it’s coming through the VCR, but you can actually read the text on screen and the colors look solid. So I’m really pumped about that.

Unfortunately it took me a while to solve that problem, and I’ve eaten up the 3 days I was going to stream SA2 on. I think it was worth the sacrifice, though, because the streams are going to look 100% better than they would have otherwise.

I’m also working on the theming a bit! I stripped away a lot of the old theming for the last stream and now I’m working on the new shit. Initially I thought I was going to completely get rid of the snack bar as well as donation alerts, but I’ve since changed my tune. I want to keep some of the Drive-In essence alive in this new era, and I also want to keep the old Secret Menu alerts alive for people that happen to come across them while watching VODs. And, honestly, as much as the silence was nice during the Fatty stream, I really felt left in the dark in regards to donations and subscribers. So the drive-in isn’t coming back exactly, but I am keeping some of it alive and repurposing it a bit.

I am bringing back the popcorn kernel badges, though. That might be the most clever idea I’ve ever had, and I’ve accepted that I’ll never come up with a better badge idea. Buttercup Popcorn lives on.

So I’m almost ready for SA2! I need to finish up a few more assets for it, but other than that I really think I’ve solved all the problems from my Fatty Bear stream. I don’t think I’ll be dropping out and having that weird mic issue any more either, I think I’ve got that taken care of. The only question is when the streams will be, and I don’t have an answer to that because of the next topic…

brutalfoods
There will be a new brutalfoods this month! I have a brand deal for really rad new brand, and I’ve got a food video idea that I think is really stupid and funny and I am very excited for it. The chip video was a little cut-and-dry, but this one… won’t be. It is going to be a bit of a time crunch though, because I’m waiting for a prop to come in before I can film, but I’m hoping that it’ll all come together to be really silly, funny, and slightly informative. The true brutalfoods way.

So I’m shifting my focus to brutalfoods right now, but the stream is right there behind it in my brain. I am very stoked for some SA2.

I’ve also been doing some other miscellaneous stuff! Still working on game dev ideas, and I’m also taking some time to get outside and enjoy this nice weather a bit more. It’s been good! I’ve actually got an idea for an outdoors-y video for moose2 that I want to film once I get over the brand deal hump.

Also I finished all of Ozark on Netflix and I have not stopped thinking/talking about it. Very excited for the final season.

How are you guys doing? Watch anything good?

After much delay I’m finally ready to stream Fatty Bear!

Cards on the table I’ve been ready for the past few days, but honestly I’ve been a little anxious about going live again. I’m sure it’s going to be a blast to be back and I’m super excited to chat it up with everybody, I’m just not used to dealing with the pre-show jitters after such a long break. That’ll be easier for me once I get the ball rolling again!

I don’t have a specific time or anything, but tomorrow it is. Hope to see you there, but if you can’t make it the VOD will be posted on moose2 the day after as per usual!

Can you believe it? Two uploads in under a week? If you’ve been reading my posts here, then… I dunno, yeah you probably can believe it, I’m pretty sure I’ve been talking about it. Still! I’m happy to have uploaded back to back like that.

This video is definitely a little different than my previous food videos! A lot more pre-planning, no live tasting segments or online review segments. Although it’s presented as volume one, I’m not sure if a sequel is in the cards just yet, I just wanted to leave the door open. I think it came out alright, but it’ll be interesting to see how it goes over with the brutalfoods crowd. Are people interested in low-chaos brutalfoods occasionals? Only time will tell!

Up next is Fatty Bear stream! I’m still not 100% sure when that’s happening but it is next up on my list. If I were a betting man (which we all know that I am), I’d actually bet on July 1st. Just outside that June target I was trying to hit. I was considering doing it tomorrow, but there’s currently a heatwave in the pacific northwest and tomorrow is supposed to be the hottest day. Streaming in 110+ degree heat is a no-go from me, even with a little AC unit in my office, so I’m going to wait for it to cool down a little bit.

Hope you guys are doing well, and I hope my heatwave friends are keeping cool!

Hey guys!

I just wanted to make sure you’re all aware of a Televoid fan game that came out recently (on my birthday, actually!)

I haven’t had a chance to stop and play it myself just yet but I know there are Televoid fans out there that are gonna eat this right up! Seems like the references are plentiful. I’ll be able to play it within the next couple of days but I had to pass it along to you guys now anyway because it just looks too cool to keep to myself.

The fact that a team of people worked for years to put this together is seriously mind-boggling to me and I cannot WAIT to see what they came up with. It seriously looks awesome.

Hey there!

I realize now that when I post a new video here, there’s usually no clear place on my website to comment about it. Your options are either the latest blog or the guestbook, neither of which are ideal. I’ll try to start making blog posts alongside new video uploads, that way it’s more like “okay, I can talk about that video here,” you know?

Anyway I know that my movie reviews appeal to a smaller crowd than my food videos, but I hope the smaller crowd enjoyed the Pop Star review! I’ve seriously been wanting to talk about this movie for years, but when I first discovered the film it was at the same time that Aaron Carter was going through some of his public meltdown-ing. It just felt a little tacky at the time. Now that he’s in the boxing ring, though, I felt cleared for takeoff. Pop Star really is one of my favorite bad movies, and it’s held up on repeat watches which is pretty incredible. It’s just so roast-able, it’s great to talk over the entire way through.

Next up, very very soon, is a food video! It’s definitely different than any other food video that I’ve done so far. In a lot of ways it’s the polar opposite of the Snackables video. Where the Snackables video was an over-the-top VFX fiasco, this video is more stripped down, simple, and actually focuses on the food a little bit more. It’s not a matter of ‘which style is better’, really, I’m just wondering if this is a style that I could also do from time to time. Just trying things out, basically, and seeing what works. So look forward to that here real soon!

And then after that food video emerges, I’ll start planning for the Fatty Bear stream! Exciting shit.

Okay that’s all the time I’ve got for now, back to food video editing.