February 2023 Report (Patreon)

Haha, welcome to the first monthly report of the year! I totally didn't almost forget to write this one. Also, happy Mario Day!

I originally planned not to put out a report for January because I figured what I wanted to say there would be covered in the 2022 Year in Review post over on Tumblr. But now that we're here in March, a bunch of things have happened around here once again, some good, some bad. So let's go over them!

Cough go brrrrrr

If you've been in a Chill Lounge VC with me recently you've probably well known this by now, but throughout most of February I have been suddenly plagued by random coughing that I suspect might have been a long COVID symptom from my illness in December, but I can't really be 100% sure about that.

It was mostly prevalent during night hours, which is totally a perfect arrangement because it usually happens after I leave work and have spare time to record and work on things! So yeah, a bunch of my previous short-term plans that I laid out in January, including recording new Plus channel videos, haven't really had their chance to shine in February. However, as of writing this video, while the occasional cough is still there, it has gotten substantially better, and with the other things I've already been working on throughout the past weeks, I should hopefully be able to get back on track soon!

Patreon tier updates

I'm sure you guys have already caught the memo, but just in case you haven't, I've updated the Patreon tiers, including changing the original $2 Sneak Peeker tier into the $5 Expansion Pack tier. This change was made to give more potential for the Patreon to grow, but any of you currently on the $2 tier will still remain in it while receiving the benefits of the new $5 tier. Going forward, new perks I want to include in this tier include additional bonus material for videos and occasional doodle request sessions, and you're always welcome to provide feedback for what I do. Of course, the $1 tier isn't going anywhere, and bonus videos on the Plus channel will continue to be available to all patrons!

An update video will be made for YouTube where I cover this new selection of tiers. More on that later!

A Trip to the Hong Kong Kirby Pop-up Store 

A few weeks ago I made a trip to the Hong Kong Kirby Pop-up Store and documented what was there! I hope you enjoyed this quick look at the store. Side note, I paid the store a second visit on March 6, and while a lot of the stock has rotated out (couldn't find the Magolor keychain plush again sadly...), there were a handful of new things that I didn't see in my first visit, including some mugs and new plushes! The line is no longer there, but seems like waiting 1.5 hours on my first visit was at least not a wasted choice lol

This also continues my intent to perhaps throw some more smaller video topics on my main channel! This wasn't posted on the Plus channel as it technically counted as scripted content and I wanted it to reach a wider audience, but I was happy with the reception, and I hope future small scale videos can also help alleviate the wait between larger/stuck-in-limbo projects.

Lastly, for those who can't get enough Kirby Pop-up Store footage, I've compiled 24 minutes of raw footage from my first visit as bonus material for the Expansion Pack patrons that you can view at this link! There'll hopefully be more stuff like this released for future videos, now filed under the new "Bonus Material" tag on Patreon if you want a handy place to view them all!

A quick Mario Day short!

I haven't made a separate early access post for this as by the time this post goes up it'll be live on YouTube in several hours, but I did take the time to do a little something stupid for MAR10 Day! The link is below if you'd like to watch it early, still.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw1jKos-pRw 

It's pretty self-explanatory.

This video will also be made available as a YouTube Short as an experiment! Shorts are a thing I've discussed with others in my Discord server once or twice, but I'm still on the fence about whether or not I would make exclusive short videos using it. I personally rarely watch Shorts myself, even, but I can see the appeal of the format for perhaps hosting super short bits of trivia. (I mean, some YouTubers are literally already doing that. But maybe something that's also...let's clickbaity or obvious was what I had in mind.) We'll see!

So, what's next?

Alright, so plenty of other projects I've previously said I was doing have ended up on the backburner or in creative burnout mode. So for once, I'm gonna try and lay out what I'll be working on for the next few months starting from the stuff in the works right now.

• By the time this post goes live, that Mario Day short I mentioned above will be going up on YouTube!
• Next, I'll be sharing an update video on YouTube about the new Patreon tiers and perks. I've never actually made a YouTube video specifically advertising my Patreon, so I'm looking to rectify that! The voice recording for this update video is already done, I just need to put it together.
• Don't forget April 1st. I do continue to have something planned for that.
• While both that and the Patreon update video are being worked on, I'll try and make some overdue Plus channel videos when I'm able to, including the promised 2023 room tour video! (stuff HAS definitely changed since the last one)
• What's left on the schedule are all of the previously announced upcoming videos, out of which the Things of Interest video about the GBA TV Tuner is something that I am confident I'll be able to complete. After all, that whole thing started out with the intention of being a side diversion video but ended up being delayed due to technical issues!
• There are other fresh small-scale video ideas on my mind, including a new review offer I received in my emails recently that I'm considering! (Haven't done one of those since I was approached by Super Rare Games, wew) But I don't want to dive into other ideas too deep here, I do want to focus on that TOI video first before anything else. I have a solid idea of how that video should go in my mind now, so I hopefully won't get caught up in the making of it.

Aaaand that's it! Once again, please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and I'm always reachable in my Discord server! Let's try getting this show back on the road.