TL;DR : I’m very sorry for missing the streams last week, please read the post for more details. I’m taking a break from scheduling streams until I’m done moving my stream setup. Oh, and Happy Chinese / Lunar New Year!
Regarding the missed and rescheduled night streams
First, I owe those who were following my streams on Twitch and Youtube an apology for the streams I missed last week. I’m truly very sorry for missing those scheduled streams and also for not giving notice before or after.
This comes after a string of rescheduled streams as well.
The explanation for why I keep missing and rescheduling the night streams is because I often fall asleep when trying to get my toddler to sleep, and I have a hard time waking up for streams after that. I used to avoid it entirely by not being on bedtime duty when I have streams, but I don’t think that is a good long-term solution.
Possible solution going forward
I’m planning to have a flexible schedule for my night streams so that I’ll still be able to do bedtime routine with my kid and if I fell asleep, I don’t have to keep rescheduling each stream.
So this is how it will work:
In my future weekly schedules, I’ll list the nights that ideally I would like to stream on and add some time-slots for substitute streams.
If I don’t appear within 30 mins of the stated start time (usually 10pm, so probably by 10.30pm), then I will not be streaming for that night, but instead during the next substitute stream slot. Substitute stream time-slot could be during the day or night.
This allows me some flexibility and reduce the amount of rescheduling. On the bright-side, it’ll also force me to work on my punctuality as well, since starting streams late was also one of my issues. And if I’m already on a substitute night slot, then I will make sure I stay awake even if I have to miss the bedtime duty, so this way I can get all my planned streams in.
The alternative is just not having a schedule completely, but I quite like using the schedule as a way to plan for the week and inform people what I’m going to be doing.
But what about the missed day streams last week?
Last week, I also missed some of the daytime Co-Working streams, which were definitely not affected by me falling asleep.
The reason for missing them is a bit embarrassing. When I overslept past a night stream once again, the amount of missed streams and the thought of needing to reschedule yet another stream triggered task paralysis.
Basically, I built a mental hurdle so great that the thought of streaming filled me with so much dread, I can sit there with my streaming programs and OBS launched and I can’t get myself to go live.
I also couldn’t get myself to just post a quick apology. In my head I felt that I have to address the issues and fix the problems, and that in turn caused another bundle of stress and a second task paralysis.
It sounds super dumb but this is apparently how my brain functions, I can only try to problem-solve it as much as I can.
In any case, I managed to sort out the mess in my head enough that I could write this post to explain everything. It unfortunately took more than a week, but I took the opportunity to clear some work.
Hopefully after this post goes live, some of the initial task paralysis will go away. Hopefully.
So, about the long stream break?
There are a few reasons for taking this break actually.
The first is that because of the mental hurdle, I actually can’t stream just yet.
The second is that it is Chinese New Year period now and my family is going on a small trip overseas.
The third is actually the main reason why the break is so long though. I’m in the process of moving my stream setup to my new computer and it’ll take a while. I’m actually quite excited about this upgrade, particularly since I’ll be playing Monster Hunter Wilds on PC.
There may be some surprise streams in the meantime, particularly when I’m testing things, but I won’t schedule anything.
My heartfelt thanks
Again, I want to apologize for this major screw up that has occurred. I cannot promise that it won’t happen again, but I’ll try my best to minimize the chances of it happening.
I want to also state that this situation is entirely of my own doing, and was not caused by any interaction with anyone else. Me, myself and my own flaws did this, nobody else.
I really appreciate everyone who drops by my stream, chat with me, interact with my social media posts, and share in this streaming journey of mine in some way.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you everyone for your support, kindness and understanding. Love you guys.
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