Something Exciting is happening.

Well, two things are happening. One of my videos is being pushed by YouTube, and I'm trying to get a mortgage. Let's start with the fun topic. Everyone's favorite grumpy old dwarf, "Cog," was the main feature of a video I released a few weeks ago. We followed him for 10 years and watched as he and his life evolved.

In the first 24 hours the video was out, it gained a whopping 14k views. While that might sound great, out of the three large videos I've released, this is the slowest start one of them has had. I wasn’t too bothered, though, as every video release is different. A week went by, and numbers began to drop a bit, and the video almost completely fell off. These types of videos have a long tail. Frequently, they keep getting recommended due to viewers returning to continue watching, as well as the large volume of comments and interactions they tend to attract. When a video falls off, that’s when the graph below flattens out.

As you can tell, that has begun to change, slowly. It’s not getting suggested much, but it is starting to pull a lot of views from YouTube's homepage. Initially, it was from people who were subscribed to my channel. As time went on, it started attracting viewers who weren’t subscribed. That’s a really good thing; it means YouTube is beginning to push the video. In the graph above, at the middle point, the video was pulling roughly 1,500 views every 48 hours. At the time of writing, we are above 10,000.

The main thing you want to see in a video is growth. New viewers are the optimal outcome of a video release. This means a higher likelihood of new subscriber conversions. It also means YouTube has found new audiences to push my content toward. This is a net positive for me and the video.

This is important because YouTube works in bubbles. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not; you are in a bubble. YouTube recommends content to you based on what you click on and what others in your bubble click on. When a video gets a "bump" of new viewers, it means it has entered a new bubble. If it does well with that newly found audience, then the next major release that jives well with the main bubbles the channel associates with will boost it further.

At the time of writing, "Cog's" video is sitting at 84,200 views. I’m totally happy with this stat. My goal for these videos is for them to match my subscriber count, and it has surpassed that.

While I was on "vacation," I had a second motive. I went and looked at a number of condos and apartments in a neighboring city, and I also met with mortgage lenders. The reason I’ve suddenly set my mind on wanting to buy and move is that this apartment is killing me. The following blog post will contain some sensitive statements about mental health, so consider this a trigger warning.

I’ve lived in the same 424 sqft box for a decade. I moved in on August 29th, 2014. When I moved in, it was me and my now ex. We intended to only live here for a year. The rent was affordable, and the building was new. That made the choice to stay a second year quite easy when we realized rent was starting to go up. I wanted to save so I could try and make streaming a career. My ex could not keep a job, so I stayed. When she moved out in 2019, this place became a bit of a tomb. At the time, I could barely afford the rent here and had a modest amount of savings. I was lucky; folks stepped up and heavily supported the stream, and while times weren’t easy, I was able to get by until December 2022. To be honest, I’ve been living comfortably since then, but I have never been happy—to the point where I’d forgotten what that feeling was.

I went to therapy last year, and it helped a bit. I saw a psychologist and got a bunch of pills. While these were something I’d suspected for a while, they weren’t a solution and didn’t fix much. After going on this last trip and spending 11 whole days away from work, I had time to travel, spend time with friends, and then look at places that I could, in theory, afford to buy. When I got home from that trip, it was like walking into a thick, dense fog. I was stuck back in a place where I had a lot of success and incredible memories, but also a lot of soul-crushing pain. I don’t think I can properly explain it, but I think this apartment is slowly killing me.

To be clear, I’m extremely lucky. I have an amazing following, and I’m lucky to be supported by so many wonderful individuals. The YouTube channel is growing, and the Twitch streams are steady. The only thing left for me to do now is to try and fix me. The problem is, in order for me to mend, I need to move forward and escape this place that actively feels like a prison. In the next few months, I’m going to be taking days off and vanishing periodically. I am working with a realtor and seeking advice from friends and family. I want to buy a place where I can have a social life and move on. The last 12 years of my life have been dominated by my slow pursuit of making a living through the internet. I’ve done that; I’ve achieved what I set out to do. In the next 10 years, I want to fix me. Getting away from this apartment is step one.

If you are reading this and wondering if renting is an option, well, sure, I could do that. There is an issue, though. My rent in this apartment is low—like, really low. I could afford to move and pay the rental insanity that is BC at the moment. However, for roughly the same price monthly, I can buy. Because I don’t own a car and have very low living expenses, I’ve been able to afford a significant down payment in the last two years. This vacation made it clear that there is one option: to buy a condo and move to a new city. Wish me luck, and I hope you stick with me as I move forward into the next major portion of my life.

Stats! As I said YouTube is popping right now, 121,266 views in the last 7 days. Twitch stats are going to be a bit.. weird for awhile because I was on the front page of Twitch today.

Let's just say that Twitch averages are much higher then normal. Front page promotions are always a good time.

I'm going to get back to working on the Future of the fortress video. But till then, if you somehow missed it. Here is Cog's story. My next video will be recovering the blockades shield. Then I have something exciting planned.