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  • YouTube and Twitch work continues

    Hello all – long time, no post.

    I’ve been heads’ down lately to focus on job hunting and my YouTube and Twitch stuff.

    First – the job hunt – it’s dismal. I don’t have a car, so I need a remote job. All jobs I find online are hybrid, or the ones that are actually remote – I’m not qualified for. (Think marketing requiring degrees, or sales requiring degrees and experience, or technical that requires certs and knowledge I do not have,) I keep looking every day or two, but it’s just disappointing. Every recruiter that contacts me based off of my profile on one of the sites also doesn’t get the remote part – so I’ve had to politely decline jobs in other cities or even other states because they have an in-office requirement. The search continues for that.

    Regarding local jobs – I’ve applied at all the places locally/within a mile, and it has been radio silence for months. Other than two, one told me I’m too qualified for the position that I applied for, the other hired someone else. I did follow up on a few, and I was told “No jobs yet, sorry.”

    Regarding streaming/posting videos/posting podcast type things – I’m working on it. My YouTube channel has almost 50 videos available now, with more being posted almost every day. My Twitch has a new video every weekday, sometimes on weekends, and those videos are being copied over to YouTube after 20 days. I’m finalizing a Discord Server, and should be ready to open the doors next week. I’m still working out how to manage posting notifications to social media sites.

    But the streaming and videos are not monetized yet, and once they do monetize it’ll take a while for them to cover anything. I have a Ko-Fi and a Patreon, but they’re pretty quiet right now.

    And the end of month is looming. More bills will be coming.

    So, yeah, I could complain more, but I think I’ll get back to work on everything. Maybe I can get some sort of income soon, and take all the responsibility off of my brother’s shoulders.

    If you’re reading this and can help, please check out my channels (or the separate website devoted to them – HalfAPoundOfPixels.com) and my Ko-Fi or Patreon. I would really appreciate it.

    I have big ideas, but continuing habitation in a place I have Internet is pretty bedrock-level important in my version of Maslow’s pyramid.

    Thanks for reading.

    Skåll!!!

  • I am now streaming and posting videos regularly

    I have finally gotten most things figured out for streaming on Twitch and posting videos on YouTube, and am posting/streaming regularly. Please check out the site https://halfapoundofpixels.com for more details regarding the types of games I’m recording, streaming, and my schedules.

    If you’re reading this, I have been job-hunting for a couple of months now and things are getting desperate. I have been fighting with unemployment for months, I have been exhausting my savings and reserves, and things are almost all gone. I have never asked for help publicly, mostly due to self esteem issues. Please check out the site above, watch a few of my videos, and Like, Follow, Subscribe if you can and wish to help out.

    I am continuing to look for employment via normal routes, and trying to stream/post videos – I really need help in gaining followers on both YouTube and Twitch so I can start earning through them.

    Thank you for reading.

    Skåll!!!

  • What happened

    So, my position at my previous employer was eliminated on March 1st, 2024.

    And after working in technology for about 25 years, everything is pivoting to AI. My 20 years of doing techsupport is being subsumed into AI chatbots. My 10 years of engineering workflows based on custom needs is being subsumed into AI design.

    So I started working on becoming a podcaster, but I discovered that I have trouble performing the reading/recording to create the stuff to edit into the audio for a podcast. I re-recorded the same bit of reading some twenty times before trying to move on.

    Concurrently I’ve reactivated my online profiles on various job board sites, but they’re now run by AI and keep mismatching my skills with “Sales rep” and/or “Marketing President” and/or “Medical Service” – or the worst, a Frankenstein combination of the three examples. Add to that companies don’t want to hire remote workers that can’t do hybrid work – and I haven’t had a car since before COVID, so I can’t go into a workplace. Every response I get to online job postings either mismatches my skills or requires in-office time, sometimes in other states or time zones.

    So I pivoted to possibly doing videos of me playing games with commentary, but I don’t expect that to start earning any money anytime soon. I’m hoping recording off-the-cuff videos will help alleviate the stress and difficulty in recording the materials for the podcast.

    This is concurrent to applying to every business within walking distance of where I live. I’ve only had two interviews.

    Just a few days ago I’ve started streaming.

    It’s so stressful. I’ve been working on multiple efforts for months, and now I’m reaching the end of my rope. I’m over 40. And everyone goes on about how I just need to reinvent myself, and I’m trying.

    I keep trying to blog, but I’m just not interesting anymore. Maybe because I don’t want to just promote hot takes anymore – all the takes out there are already hot enough to cook with.

    So, yeah. That’s what’s gone on.

    And I’m trying to improve the websites.

    Hope life is treating you well, reader.

    Edit: Oh, yeah, and the ceiling collapsed in yesterday in our kitchen. We rent, so the landlord came out and handled the emergency stuff, but the A/C guy is coming out to handle the condensation from one of the lines on Friday, and then if that dries out then the drywall person will be coming out to repair the ceiling in the kitchen. Not a quick fix, and definitely stressful the entire time.

    There’s probably more I’m forgetting, but I just gotta get back to it.

    Skåll!!!

  • More is happening

    Well, I just did my first real Twitch stream in the wee hours of this morning. (I took a nap yesterday afternoon that barely stayed in the nap category, so I just wasn’t tired.)

    My main focus was getting audio and video confirmed working and good for viewers, but none of the expected alerts were running. So, that’s been my focus after I reviewed the VOD and confirmed no eyes or ears were bleeding.

    Ya don’t really think about it while you’re watching a stream, but when you’re setting one up there are eleventy bajillion alerts for different situations, (So-and-so just subscribed! So-and-so just cheered! So-and-so did a bajillion other things!) and then there are things to connect to other things and authorizations to authorize, and confirmations to confirm, and just, yeah.

    My brain resembles applesauce right now. And I don’t think that’s because I did the night-owl thing.

    I mean, I’m still working on a logo for banners and the website and stuff – so I don’t even have an official “Stream Starting” or “Stream Ended” screen yet.

    I’m not even sure I picked the Quirky Text-To-Speech voice that I like, but I picked one! And I do know it’s gotta be British English. Since I changed Siri to British English, I just can’t NOT select British English. If only for when it says “ma’am”. Or tries to pronounce American placenames based on an Algonquin or Iroquoian languages. Or reads aloud something NOT prim and proper.

    Okay, I better get back to it.

    An upcoming post will reveal why I’m doing all this, or just confirm it if you, dear reader, have already guessed why I’m doing all of this.

    Thanks for reading. Hope you day treats you well!

    Skåll!!!

  • It’s happening

    Well, I’m going full-on with my YouTube channel, and I’m planning on starting streaming soon – and even later a podcast.

    You can read here to see the previous post where I whined about some of my misgivings, but now I’m just going at it.

    I’m also making updates regarding the videos, streams, and potential podcast at the dedicated website: https://halfapoundofpixels.com. I don’t plan on making dual announcements unless I’m really excited and can’t contain myself, so please check there for updates.

    Short post today, as I’m still working on this website and the other website and the themes, as well as videos – and experimenting with streaming this weekend.

    Thanks for reading, and I hope you’re finding some fun or relaxation where you can!

    Skåll!!!

  • I’ve Gone Ahead and Done It

    I’ve hinted before, but not really defined what I’ve got going on – and this past week it’s been driven home that I’m not elaborating because I’m too much of a perfectionist.

    So, I’ve started it now. I’m a YouTuber. You can find me here: https://www.youtube.com/@ennhuite

    I’m starting with Let’s Plays of small indie games that really rock, but I have plans to expand it to other things, like Twitch, a podcast, and possibly game development. And I’m not being vague about that for any reason other than I’m learning things to DO those things. I thought I had it figured out, but it turned out I didn’t, and that kept me from actually getting anywhere. And my perfectionism kept me from putting anything out there until I knew everything about all of it.

    Well, that thinking is gone now.

    To keep that separate from this drivel, I’ve set up the website https://halfapoundofpixels.com – but don’t be dismayed by it’s teensy-weensiness. It was just born today, and needs time to grow up big and strong.

    So, thanks for stopping by. Work will continue on this website, the other one, my channel, and everything else I just keep piling on.

    If you’d like to help, please click my Ko-Fi button below.

    Skåll!!!

  • I Think It’s Settled Down…

    And, as I type that, I figure it’ll all just fire up again.

    But I’m going to take that chance, hoping it’s fixed now.

    I’m still working on the theme – this one is minimal, but it’s also stubborn. So, we’ll see how long I stick with this, or if I’ll swap to another one.

    Hope you’re having fun out there, reader. I am, for sure. Completely and utterly. No piles of used swear words heaped around my computer desk and chair, rustling as I roll my chair back and bang my head against the keyboard, trying to put myself into a logic I am sure exists, but science still hasn’t found a whiff of.

    Skåll!!!

  • Changing Themes

    I think the thing that gets me the most about themes is how they’ve completely broken with the “style separate from structure” function.

    Now you have HTML files that call PHP functions, you have PHP files that have inline CSS declarations, and you have JSON files that store CSS and structure information (both) in one place.

    So, reverse engineering a single theme is an exercise in using your crystal ball, changing something, and checking to see if something breaks.

    Which doesn’t work on this site just yet, because it takes an hour to reflect changes on the live site, and trying to peek out how things will look in the theme preview doesn’t actually preview the pages, it previews what it THINKS the pages will look like.

    Swearwords are abound, readers. Very abound. My apologies as things start to change, visually, as I fight through this.

    Edit: I’ve made a few more changes on the back end that should speed up updates and visibility of new posts. I really hope this works, because these attacks are jumping around, and are now limiting themselves to countries I don’t want to block.

    Edit 2: The change appears to have stopped the hammering, at least so far. Gotta keep monitoring.

    Skåll!!!

  • I’ve aged 80 years in the last two weeks

    I’m going to avoid politics on this blog, but I really want to say that the title is 580% true.

    And while you try to hide in a cave* and work on things, like a website or one of four other projects, it just keeps reaching in and dragging you out by the foot.

    But I’ve made progress, and become bewildered.

    Progress – I’ve identified twenty five countries that have sourced login attacks to this website, and I’ve blocked the three worst, and attacks have dropped by half.

    But posting things still appears to have a delay, so I’m continuing to track and adjust my blocking settings.

    Bewildered – this theme is a block theme, and it just seems like they started making a theme and then just stopped.

    And they made it according to some strange “best practices” that aren’t really best practices, and reverse engineering and changing it is just proving to be a rabbit hole I shouldn’t dive down.

    Which means I should probably abandon it. So I’m mulling it over how to proceed, since I really don’t yet know block themes.

    Welp, back to it. Thanks for reading.

    Skåll!!!

    *A cave that you’ve wired with electricity and Internet, which technically defeats the reason you moved to a cave to get away from everything in the first place, but you have to have electricity and Internet because the things you’re working on are on the Internet and, so, yeah, you try to think around it and you can’t so you just give up and hunker down in your upgraded cave.

  • More working on the site

    So, work continues, slowly, on the website. But in making multiple tweaks a day and working on the backend, I’ve been able to notice some trends.

    I’m getting hammered with login attempts. This appears to coincide with the delays between publishing posts or updating information/pages/links.

    I’m still working on it, but having more understanding about what’s happening means I may have a better chance of resolving it.

    Please keep your eyes on the “Links” page – I’m currently going through my archives of saved bookmarks, testing them, and then putting them in. The page kinda looks like crap, but not in an unusable way.

    Making it look better is in the “this theme must go” category of work to do.

    Thanks for checking in, hope life is treating you better than the news implies you’re being treated. (I hate the news.)

    Edit: 2024 July 12 23:19 – I’ve found a way to reduce the attacks and the site does seem better. But now that I’ve typed that, I’m fully prepared for it to get bad again, and then worse.

    I’m still digging into theme files, and the slowdown in attacks means I might be able to see changes closer to real time…?

    Maybe?

    Back to it.

    Skåll!!!