Finding the Time

As I start my new content schedule, I wanted to change up the newsletter a bit. Instead of providing only fundraising updates, I wanted the newsletter to provide additional content as well.

I’ll write about gaming and gaming adjacent topics before diving into any Extra Life updates. If you’ve followed my writing at Her Loyal Sons back in the day, you might remember something called the Friday Roundup that had a similar structure.

With all that said, I figured the best topic to kick off the new content schedule is the matter of time itself. The older I get, the more I find that time management becomes something more of an hourly triage. The hours available outside of work are few and mostly devoted to my family.

Thankfully, my two boys both love gaming, whether of the video game or tabletop variety. However, I decided that part of responsible parenting was also limiting video game time: an hour during the weekends, with some potential to earn 30 minutes extra through school. While some of these periods allow me some gaming time of my own, much like their sporting endeavors, gaming at their age involves both coaching and spectating. Those hours aren’t mine.

The reality is that the only hours I have some level of control over are the early morning and later night when the boys are asleep. Those hours aren’t all filled with gaming. If they were, I wouldn’t still be married.

The end result is that I, a college-educated man nearing 40, and supporting my family with a full-time job, find myself literally scheduling small sessions of gaming within my day like I would a workout or round of golf.

Note: that scheduling doesn’t include streaming. One mistake that I’ve made is the idea that “if I’m gaming, I should be streaming for Extra Life.” A well-intentioned thought for sure, but I discovered it’s a horribly dumb idea.

Gaming while streaming is a whole different ballgame than just gaming on my own or even with my kids. Both are fun, but one definitely requires more effort and work while I can unplug my brain and completely relax for the other. It’s far easier to eject when I’m not having much fun when I’m playing on my own too (I’m looking at you, Mass Effect: Andromeda).

So I look for those smaller slots to squeeze in a Final Fantasy XIV or Diablo IV dungeon run. Perhaps I can stage something in Satisfactory to then run in the background before I come back to it. All else fails, I pick my spots to have my Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch out while watching TV with Mrs. Tex when the kids are in bed.

I don’t have this practice down by any means (see: this newsletter hitting at lunch hour instead of first thing in the morning…because I had to finish everything in the morning). I’d like to believe I’m getting better at it and feeling like I’m sacrificing less of my sleep and sanity to do so.

Please note that I said this when I complain later that I have zero handle or control on any of this!

Weekly Schedule

As promised, every week I’ll have a shareable graphic for this week’s schedule. Please use this all over (and you’ll see it on my socials as well).

$75K Celebration & Maui Aid

I’ll have another, special newsletter out on Friday to detail the cocktails that I come up with (read: still working on them); however, I want to talk a bit about Crowd Control and the changes made on the platform and why you won’t see Crowd Control’s Charity Mode on the Friday night stream.

Before that, I want to note that this stream will also raise money for the victims of the Maui wildfires. It hasn’t even been a full month since I departed that island. My heart has absolutely broken for the locals there. If you consider the history of Hawai’i, I would forgive every single local and native to the islands for hating tourists that flood their home. They don’t and not only that, a large part of the culture and even the tourist economy itself hopes that you depart with a better appreciation of caring for their home and yours.

So here’s what I’m doing: every purchase made through Crowd Control will be matched from my own pocket, up to $250, and donated to the Maui Strong Fund. That donation, in turn will be matched by my company.

Should I hit the $250 goal, that’s $1,000 in charitable good done: $500 to Extra Life (Crowd Control revenue + company match) and $500 to Maui Strong (my Crowd Control match + company match). Let’s knock it out of the part.

Now, for the Crowd Control changes!

Last stream, I beta tested Crown Control 2.0 and I’m happy to say that’s in full release. The biggest news is that anyone with coins purchased previously on my 1.0 streams, will have those coins imported into the new version! Also, with the update, a lot more tools are available and I’ve decided to make a few changes.

First, is that I won’t be using Charity Mode for a few reasons. The primary one is that, when I donate the revenue, instead of the direct to charity option, I can use my company match. That match makes up for the cut Crowd Control takes and then some. This lets me support the dev team there while having a larger charitable impact for Extra Life.

By not using Charity Mode, I can grant bonus coins to Twitch Subs and also allow for Channel Point redemption for coins as well. Remember, all Twitch Revenue goes to Extra Life as well and I want to incentivize folks to subscribe. That could be a consistent, monthly $100 minimum donation to Extra Life every month with my company match (Twitch payout minimum is $50).

Finally, I won’t be using any Twitch extension this time around. You can purchase coins via this link as well as check your current balance. You get more bang for your buck through this method plus, the coins you buy through that link are good for any Crowd Control stream as well.

New Discord

As promised, you can find the new Gamin’ 4 Aven Discord server here. This server is far better set up for alerts and hopefully will serve as a discussion platform for this community going forward!

The Extra Life sections of the HLS server will be sunset at the end of this week.