August Care Packs FINALLY Sent - Sep/Oct/Nov Pack Updates (Patreon)

I know this isn't relevant to very many of my patrons, but I'm posting this to all patrons because a handful of people have transferred in and out of this tier over the course of the relevant months, and posting only to that tier wouldn't reach all of them. It also might be interesting as an update just to anyone curious about the tier I guess.

The August care packs were initially delayed because of the fact that I had spent so much of the month both catching up on the July rants which had been pushed back because of Otakon, and then doing all the August rants in the last few days of that month.

For anyone not familiar with how the packs work: when you pay me at the start of a month, you are buying that month's pack. I usually don't get the packs done until the very end of the month, and I usually ship them on the very last day  of the month, meaning that they are received around 2 weeks into the following month.

So, care pack recipients most likely be anticipating receiving the August pack in late September--ergo, I thought I could close the gap so long as I got that pack done early into Septaember. Of course, it ended up taking longer to make, and by the time it was done, I was already running up on the time when the September pack would need to be done.

Ultimately, I had pretty much finished the pack in late September, but I hit a snag in that I really felt no inspiration whatsoever to write the poems on the back of the art cards, even though May's illustrations were some of my favorite yet. I was just really bored of the gimmick and I don't know if the cards are as much fun if I don't try to make them resemble actual structured poems (longtime recipients may have noticed the more blunt and experimental writing style in later packs).

So the nearly-complete packs have just been sitting on my desk for months--and meanwhile, when the September and October rants also inevitably went over-schedule, on top of taking some really bizarre routes with my career, doing things like writing a light novel, taking guests at my house several times to do a bunch of discussion videos, and now starting a whole new channel with Best Guy Ever with ambitions of it leading to his ability to move down and work with me more seriously, the September and now October care packs have also been continually pushed back--while the August one still sat.

I finally found a chance after all the guests were gone and the videos were rendering to plow through all the goddamn poems. Of course UPS was actually closed the next day, so I went out and mailed them today. 

Now, I'm not too concerned about the November care pack getting done, even if I won't be able to even edit or send out the videos till December 3rd, because May and I will be going to Rochester from the day before Thanksgicing thru the 3rd. While we're there, I'm going to do an in-studio recording of an episode of Who Are These Podcasts. I'm definitely going to be vlogging all through this trip cause I'll have fuck else to do and we might end up having a hotel for a couple days or something?? Probably right next to the one we went to when we first met lol. Anyways, that care pack will be full of all that fun stuff--but it will also not be the same as the old ones becauuuuseee---

As stated earlier, I've gotten bored with elements of the care pack. I love the idea of the art cards, but they're not really something you can display or do anything with, and no one seems super excited about them--I think the favorite part for almost everyone is the vlog segment (at least it's definitely mine) and maybe the commentary. The let's plays have become increasingly podcasty so hopefully those are entertaining. I usually also throw in some kind of video I either forgot to release or decided not to, which are probably usually the closest things to my regular content, and maybe the best.

I want to pump up the care packs and make them more special and attractive. I'd like to include a more versatile physical product--maybe I'll get a sticker maker or something and create original sticker designs every month. At least you can potentially put the stickers on things! Tom Oliver has a pretty sick variant on my care pack idea which I might also try to cop some ideas from.

Rather than creating separate September/October care packs, what I want to do is create one super-pack. Most of the same people paid for this tier over the course of these two months, and the couple who only paid for one or the other will just get a very special bonus as an apology for being so late. After that point, I will continue with a similar kind of pack from that point forward, depending on what were the best ideas from the Sep/Oct pack.

IF YOU BOUGHT A SEP OR OCT PACK AND THEN LOWERED YOUR PLEDGE, PLEASE SEND ME YOUR ADDRESS VIA PM. I can still tell what you paid each month if I look at your page, but I can't see your address anymore if you aren't on that tier for this month.

The vlogs are definitely going to stay, especially since I might be able to start traveling again soon or doing things with people that I could get behind-the-scenes footage for. I will probably try to include somewhat artsier, more experimental, or shitposty videos in addition to the usual film commentary. I might cut the let's play since May and I are already doing Podcasting Over PSP very regularly (I have 3 unreleased episodes to edit hopefully across this week). There will also be a sticker or some kind of physical product based on what seems practical after I research it. I'll comment on this post later with what I decide on.

Look forward to my attempts to get all this goddsmn shit back under control by the end of the year!