Tag: twitch

Ska Festivals & Shenanigans

Hello friends! It’s been awhile and I have so many things I want to share with you.

What have you been up to?

Well…. there’s the health stuff, for starters. Migraines are still being a (literal) pain, but I’m currently doing Botox treatments and am playing the waiting game to see how they respond to that. In more fun news, I went to a ska festival last weekend! It was 3 days of music and catching up with friends, and I had an absolute blast. For those not in the know, Supernova Ska Fest takes place in Hampton, VA. It’s usually a cross between bands I love, bands on my bucket list, and bands I never heard of before. There’s acts from all over the world who come to participate. This year they had Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, Bad Manners, Out of Control Army, Adhesivo, Stranger Cole, Hollie Cook, and Sister Nancy – and that’s just the international acts. I cannot properly convey how much fun I had. It was even worth feeling buried in things to do for the next week after I got back. 

Am I a music blog again?

Maybe! I at least want to dip my toe back into it. I used to do way more writing about music on this site, and Supernova inspired me to try to get back to those roots. Maybe next year I’ll try doing write-ups on the bands as they’re announced. 

What games have you been playing?

I’ve actually been doing a ton of gaming lately. My ADHD doesn’t hold focus on any one thing, but I started FFXV and even posted some short clips on TikTok. I also bounce between being obsessed with FFXIV and dropping completely off it. Lately I’ve been focusing on Baldur’s Gate 3 (like a lot of us I am obsessed, although still in Act 1) and Palia, a cozy online game currently still in beta. I also recently downloaded Marvel Snap on Steam and really like it. The dailies give you a reason to do a few matches in a row, but don’t feel too demanding. And finally, I’m getting back on an Idle Champions kick. They added a couple characters from BG3 and sucked me back in. Maybe I’ll do some individual posts of these games if the mood hits me.

What about streaming? Still doing that at all?

I’ve been on a very long hiatus due to both health and other life stuff. I tried to come back for my affiliate anniversary Sept 20th and had major tech issues. Still, it was nice catching up with everyone before things imploded. I’m hoping I’ll be able to find time to fix whatever the problem was, but I also might need to wait till I get a new headset. The other one gets really uncomfortable. Even after only 2 hours I had a little migraine forming. I currently have a kofi goal to get some stream upgrades. I also have a birthday and Christmas to look forward to. Maybe a guardian angel will smile on me for the holidays.

It’s too soon for Christmas! Don’t skip Halloween!

You’re right, we cannot forget the best month of the year – Spooky Month! I’m building a list of new horror movies to check out and have actual plans on Halloween night. Bringing it back around, it happens to be a ska show. I’m really hyped to get into some good spooky fun this year 

Well, that’s all from me for now. I’m gonna try to get back into the swing of things again, but I’m not forcing myself to write every week like I had been. I’d like to be consistent, but I also have to accept that my body might not always cooperate with me. Now, share your favorite horror movies in the comments and pass the pumpkin coffee over.

Monday Musings: Welcome Back Munchkin

Hi fam! You may have noticed I’ve been pretty absent the past few months. I had a lot of plans for this year, but then quickly approached burnout and had to take a break. I was going to have YouTube focus on game reviews and my 100 book reading challenge. I was going to collaborate with friends on Twitch, start a Storyteller Saturday series, and continue my canon DA run with my favorite game in the series – Dragon Age 2. Instead I dropped off the internet to focus on getting through a pretty hectic work schedule while still dealing with health stuff. 

You may also be aware that here in the U S of A we’re facing some pretty dark times. I was originally going to break my hiatus for Pride, but I’m coming back early to do some fundraising relevant to the pending Supreme Court ruling. I’m also going to try to bring back Monday Musings, and even try to not make every one of them be about politics. I wanna focus on the good in an otherwise dreary timeline. 

So here’s the plan: the Dragon Age VODs I still owe you are getting edited and thrown on YouTube (one is all ready and releasing tomorrow), and I’m starting streaming again Wednesday. I had a poll going with two options and a third that said “why not both?”. Of course the chaos gremlins who follow me voted for that, so we will be splitting our time with an old classic – Civ V – and a new game to the lineup: Dorfromantik. That’s gonna start at 4pm my time. And I’ll be aiming to stream at least once a week, although not always the same day. 

The only way we survive is together. I’ll see you around the internet.

New Year, New Chaos!

Happy new year, everyone!

It’s that time where we set goals for ourselves that we may or may not reach. This year I have a few new things I’m excited about here at Camp Chaos. The biggest thing is my reading challenge. Every year I slowly have increased my reading goals, and I’m finally making an attempt at 100 books in a year. I plan on documenting this on the YouTubes, although I may also share some notes here on the blog.

“What counts as a ‘book’?” you might ask. 

For the purposes of this, I am counting pretty much anything I can mark on Goodreads. That means books, graphic novels, and single issue comics are all fair game. In the past I did not count single issues, but I’m realizing how many hours I collectively spend reading them, and it’s keeping me from reading more long form content. First up has been Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin, a book that has been sitting on my shelf since I ordered it when it first came out. I’m about 60% of the way done with it as of the time I’m recording this. It’s been a good read but dense at times, so I have been going at a slower pace than I originally anticipated. I’ll catch back up on my goal the first day I sit for an hour or two catching up on comics, though.

In addition to my reading challenge, I also have some new and exciting things coming to the Twitch channel. The first thing is the introduction of Storyteller Saturday, which will be premiering this Saturday at 2pm ET. I have a bunch of visual novels and other story heavy games I’d like to share with you over the course of the year. First up is First Bite, a very thirsty game revolving around three vampires whose lair we discover. (I say that, but there are routes you can take that are not overtly sexual, which I like to see more games giving that as an option.)

The other big goal I have this year is I want to collaborate with more of my twitch friends. This will include discussion type streams where we talk about some of our favorite topics, as well as some multiplayer shenanigans. First of these streams will be later in the month, when I dive into some Dragon Age Inquisition multiplayer with a group of friends I will announce at a later date.

I’m trying a lot of new things this year that I’m rally excited about. Some of them might not last the whole year, others might. You never know what you’re capable of until you try though, right?

What are some of your goals for the new year? Have any collaborative streams you’d like to see? Visual novels you’d like me to tackle? Let me know in the comments. 

Goodbye 2020

(cw: topics include unemployment and COVID; there’s a positive message at the end though, if you can stick it out)

Well, we’ve finally come to the end of the year that didn’t exist. It would be easy to say it was awful and we’re glad it’s over, but 2020 was a life changer for me. 

In March of this year we hit Depression level unemployment rates as the country shutdown to try to keep COVID rates down. I, being in the entertainment industry, was one of those people (and probably won’t go back to work until spring or summer of this year after the vaccine is more wildly distributed). With an unknown amount of free time ahead of me, I did what I always do…. found a new project to keep myself occupied. 

It started by resurrecting my YouTube channel. It had previously been a place to showcase live music videos, but had been collecting dust for 5 years. I figured I would find things to talk about amongst my many hobbies. Eventually I settled on doing recaps of the d&d games my boyfriend would run for myself and some friends via Facebook Messenger. Over time it would also include react videos to certain moments on Critical Role and shouting about Dragon Age. 

While I was slowly building my YouTube empire, I had also been watching a friend stream on Twitch. We’d talk about how I should stream too, and after a couple months I finally got myself a headset and had my first stream: playing Civ 5 for what I assume was one or two people. I never imagined it would become my whole life for the rest of the year.

I have now been streaming for 6 months, made affiliate after 3 months, and have more of a community than I ever imagined I would. I found some great streamers who helped me get where I am (and will list some of them at the end of this post so you can go check them out). Beyond that, I made lasting friendships with random people on the internet who, in some ways, I’m closer with than my IRL friends now. What was meant to be a way to fill time and maybe make a few dollars while out of work turned into an important part of my life that I plan on keeping even when things “go back to normal”. I even got to participate in Stream Around the World for Dragon Age Day this year, and became part of the DA streaming community. So, as much as I understand wishing this year never existed, I can’t help but be grateful that it did. I hope you can also find a little joy in this darkest of years, and that we all have a much better go of it in 2021. 

There are too many great, supportive people I have met on this journey, but these folks helped me the most to make affiliate: wordfangirl (and the humans at Jabroni TV), Cafe 3G, SmexyBuu & the Gaming Fool crew; special shoutout to NerdiNik, who is one of the first DA streamers I ever followed and introduced me to a great community of humans.