First Quarter Report

Hey guys,

So I didn't do a review thing for the SuperLite video, and that's because I get lost in my own head and have had a lot of things to do in a creative sense. 

But yes I did get the 2021 predictions video done as well as the SuperLite video, so I'm happy with Supercars Mabeanie for the time being. I do intend to make some more Supercars videos later this year, but not theory videos. I'm going to do simpler, fun videos that may end up being harder to make than coming up with theories or expanding on ones that I already have. 

Anyway, I have also been doing a fair few Friday Night Funs on Mabeanie Games and I've been enjoying that a lot, especially with my recent one on Game Dev Tycoon. I intentionally missed last Friday and will miss this Friday because I want to work on other projects and just finish lots of things off before I start more things. 

Mainly I've been working on Mab and Tom for Mabeanie Talks. This week I've cut up the 2019 recording and separated all of the different moments into 5-10 minute episodes and also cutting out anything that's a bit boring. So that's got me excited to start work on the 2021 recording, which will be very different because it was done in person and also because I filmed it with my video camera, so you will get a silhouette of what I look like, but mainly the dark room with the big window in which we recorded. I will also carry over the renewed format and adapt it with the differences of the 2021 session in mind.

This year start off really exciting and then sharply declined from mid-January until the last week or so. The recent upturn is largely because I've been pushing hard to make sure that I'm happy. A big part of that is writing a to-do list with priorities and back-burner ideas. It's made a big difference to how I've been feeling lately, which has also cleared my mind and is possibly the reason for me coming up with more ideas for fun projects in the future.

So yeah that's the update.

See Ya!

Supercars - SuperLite entry

New Year, New Goals

Hey welcome to 2021,

2020 was a pretty crummy year for me. Personally, on YouTube, and in almost every way really. I haven't got around to going through the YouTube data yet because I've been working on some Supercars stuff. It's not a video, at least not yet! But it might not go on YouTube. I'm just recording footage from the website and also from the Supercars YouTube channel.Anyway, I'm back to work tomorrow, so who knows how things are going to pan out. I'm planning better. I'm going to be more focused on making comics, games, and YouTube videos than I was last year. Here's how:

1. Comics

I'm going to focus on each character in Hale Kane #18 and beyond, drawing scenes that are relevant to each character and make it so that the world of Hale Kane feels dynamic and fleshed out. This means that I will be able to put #18 together better and will actually enjoy making the thing. It will probably end up piecing #19 and #20 together in process, too. My goal for 2021 is to make all three comics, then I will commission artists to draw pictures of KJ. That was my idea for a reward a while back, and I'm still kinda interested to going with it.

2. Games

I had to rush to finish my goal at the end of 2020. I made three games in one day, and they were pretty disappointing, especially as I tried to go outside the confines of the guide book that I was using. The goal this year, like with Hale Kane, is to go bigger and better. I will try to make 15 games, they will have more purpose, be designed better, and will hopefully make it easier for me to learn how to program just by doing it. 

3. YouTube videos

So I have 5 different channels and all of them posted something in 2020. Let's start with Supercars Mabeanie. 

I did not post or even make the SuperLite video. So that will be my first goal for YouTube as far as my personal channels are concerned. I also want to do some sort of series that will allow me to make more Supercars videos for a bit. I'm thinking spotlight videos on certain drivers. I've also done some thinking about how to make my Supercars videos better so that people watch them longer. I have already come up with some ideas on what to do differently.

Mabeanie Games is a bit different. I posted Friday Night Fun, and bits of my separate V8 Supercars championships. For 2021 Friday Night Fun, I am going to have every video have different games. I will not make multiple videos with the same game. I have lots of games that I enjoy, but a small handful that I think make good content and that I specifically prefer to play on a regular basis. I'm not super keen on the Holdens Only and 2001 championships, but I think that they will make good content anyway. I do like to go back to my V8 videos occasionally and watch a whole race. The goal will be do commit and successfully execute the Friday Night Fun plan. It should be pretty easy. Just don't do the same game again.

Mabeanie Talks has a bunch of stuff recorded for more Mab and Tom, but I haven't worked on it in a while. The Christmas video got me a bit pumped for it, so more could come in the first half of this year. Apart from that I'm not fussed. There is also the 10 years anniversary series, but I've done very little since May or something. I have five or six individual years to go through, and there's heaps of content to think about when it comes to reflecting deeply on my YouTube career. Who knows if I'll get it done this year, but really I should get it done to keep it relevant. The goal for Talks will be to finish making and post all of the current Mab and Tom content.

Okay now to my collab channels. SAIM Industries did pretty well. We did manage to make content, and we chose not to get back to IM stuff because I felt that doing AM was of good value for the channel as a whole rather than in terms of views or the amount of videos made. We will probably get back to the IM stuff on Australia Day, as we have done from time to time. Still, there is another session of AM to be edited and another to be recorded, so we have our work cut out for us. As a specific goal, I would like to focus on drawing attention to our 10 years celebrations. I want to do a podcast, order celebratory shirts, hoodies, and hats, do at least one skit, and at least one series with all of us in it.

Pickle-Shaped Peanuts has a tendency to get neglected, but we are looking to be in a position to be performing better than ever in 2021. There is a little bit of V8 Supercars stuff to come out, and after that we may return to Crash Bandicoot, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 4, or start something new. They guys are probably not excited about doing more V8s, but it has been something like two years since we did it so maybe they don't mind. As a specific goal, I want to do two recording sessions, so we should get talking about that soon.

Okay that's everything for now. Shame I didn't get Hale Kane #18 done, but I am taking it very seriously and so I'm being careful with it.

See Ya!

My 10-Year Milestones

Hey guys,

When you read this it will have been 10 years since the 14th of April 2010, when I first made The Mabeanie Blog. It was a long time ago in a few ways. Obviously 10 years is a good chunk of time, but sometimes it feels like it isn't.

I started this blog because I wanted to document, and to be honest I'm guessing because I didn't do a good job of explaining myself, my progress towards creating Our House. This was a Garry's Mod show that I wanted to make. I was inspired by the Gmod Idiot Box by DasBoSchitt, the Adventures of Coach by Dizztah, and the Gmod Idiot Show by Ihasnotomato. The key part for me was obviously Ihasnotomato's efforts because we'd been friends for many years, and that continues to this day. But I didn't have the game when I started the blog, and I didn't have a strong idea of what I wanted to do, not to mention I didn't know how to make a Gmod show. I knew that I would have to wait a year before I could play Gmod because I was 14 in 2010, and so in 2011 I got the game and started making little skits to get some practice in. I also wrote a script for the show, but really I just didn't have the motivation to actually do it. I threw myself in the deep end and couldn't swim.

Our House feels like yesterday. It feels like I have only just made the decision and am still reluctant to commit to it. My last efforts for the show were in 2013 I think. I got Ihasnotomato to voice one of the characters and managed to make the first scene, but my efforts were few and far between. So that's the story of the blog and why I started it.

From Our House I simply wrote about my efforts on YouTube, and this has evolved into my efforts online in general. I currently blog about my five YouTube channels: Supercars Mabeanie, Mabeanie Games, Mabeanie Talks, SAIM Industries, and Pickle-Shaped Peanuts; that is additional to my comic book series Hale Kane that I post on DeviantART.

April 14th, 2010 feels like a long time ago because I can't remember what it was like to be me back then. I have a vague idea because key elements of who I am existed back then. But I have to think about what sort of things I used to do. I will elaborate on this sort of thing in a year-by-year discussion series that will go on Mabeanie Talks and which is specifically about my YouTube career.

So the 14th is the blog's anniversary, and then the 17th is Supercars Mabeanie's anniversary, and the 21st is Mabeanie Games' anniversary. Lastly is a film series that I have made occasionally and which is not viewable online. It will be 10 years old on the 4th of October.

Do milestones matter? Yes, to some extent it is important to look back at what you've done and be glad that you made the commitment in the first place. Few people do, and when you do it yourself you should congratulate yourself for trying at all. On the other hand, it is also important to move forward and think about what you are doing right now and what you might do in the future.

If you dwell on the past, you might forget about what you are doing in the present. Right now I have quite a few plans for the future of my five YouTube channels, have been working on the next three Hale Kane Comics after a long period of retconning the series, and am also working on the 2020 edition of my film project. It will be the last of that project, and I also very much look forward to what I am able to produce beyond Hale Kane and the film project. Committing to one thing for a long time makes it hard to come up with new ideas, and I look forward to that challenge. I am a creative person and it is very important for me to maximise that when I can.

I am thankful for 10 years. I know that I wanted to do this for a long time when I started, and 10 years is certainly a long time. Let's go another 10! Wouldn't that be awesome? I think that it will be, but of course I am also looking forward to whatever comes next. One day I will be too busy to keep this up and will have to make difficult choices like call an end to the blog. But at the same time I have always found time to make things and so I will probably be able to make at least one post per year anyway. But yeah, let's keep going!

See Ya!

Looking for the bright light

Hey guys,

I'm sure everybody is trying to find their feet at the moment with Coronavirus measures in place.

The effects on my life are somewhat concerning, but for me the biggest bummers are about sports. 

AFL is kinda continuing, but man it's just not the same. You can actually hear what the players are saying and it just feels ghostly and pointless.

Supercars will launch its e-series at the end of the month, and I am very happy with Sean Seamer's response. He led the way for world motorsport categories by announcing the e-series, and I was shocked by how slowly Formula One responded. God knows what's happening with Moto GP. So I have fired up the PlayStation 2 again and recorded some races of V8 Supercars 3. I was going to record a third round tonight, but I have a cold. Hopefully it's not stage 1 of COVID-19. 

Anyway, the Adelaide round is on my Mabeanie Games channel and my god it's 2 hours long. Still, it was an intense round and it looks like my Holden championship is going to be every bit as exciting and challenging as the Ford one was. Bear in mind that I hadn't played the game since April 2019, so almost a year.

I'm thinking about getting back into making Mabeanie Talks videos, but we'll see.

At the moment, I'm trying to fill my life with as much positivity and happiness as possible and people being bummers are pissing me off.

Let's be positive and find the happiness!!!

See Ya!

Lots of good stuff

Hey guys,

Been a rough week at work. Had to come early yesterday after my arms started to get sore and so it's been tough on that end of things.

Meanwhile, Hale Kane Comics is now in a truly exciting position. I made a big decision with Ihasnotomato and have also begun writing Hale Kane #18. I have a draft from 2016, but it isn't what I want. I did a DeviantART journal that goes into a bit more detail. 

On the video side of things, SAIM is doing it tough with views around zero, Pickle-Shaped Peanuts doing worse but I missed an upload day, and neither Mabeanie Games nor Mabeanie Talks have received videos in the last few weeks because I've been busy. One the other hand, I have 3 Supercars videos to do. I have my SuperLite video, 2020 predictions video now that the pre-season test is over, and just now I had an idea for another video about how drivers get good through experience in the category or experience in other categories. Just have to find a moment to record the audio for the first two. The third one will require lots of work.

Anyway, the Resurrect a Race Team video is about to pass 1000 views, so that's nice. Enjoy generally.

See Ya!

Elaborating on my goals for 2030

Hey guys,

yes you read that correctly. My goals for the end of this brand spanking new decade are up for discussion here.

I talk about them in this Friday Night Fun episode:

I wish I did this years ago. I keep wondering what I would have wanted to have achieved by now, but I know that it would be more than I have achieved. I disappoint myself, but the best thing to do is press on and keep working away at what you want to do.

Anyway, I said in my FNF episode that I wanted to have made some sort of organisation for my video games business, had a kid, and still be doing my hobby stuff. Well here I'm going to elaborate on the hobby stuff.