Greetings. Welcome to an LGR thing that is probably shoddily made and not really edited, but that's gunna be what this is.
This is just sort of an impromptu Q&A session of sorts because you've asked a lot of Q's
and I have some A's. This is stemming
directly from the comments in a recent
video where I showed my storage solution for LGR and
kind of how that works, and I thought it was a pretty
simple premise. Maybe it was a little too simple though.
because it seemed to bring up more questions
than it did answers for some of you, so
let's try and make it more clear.
So I, in that video, showed this room here
which is where I store a lot of the stuff that I have for LGR
that are ongoing projects, things that I have worked on,
things that I hope to work on, stuff that isn't working,
that I'm trying to fix, things that people put in storage.
And I thought that was pretty simple.
But then I also showed that I have another room, which is where I do a lot of my filming.
And it's also in storage, and that's
apparently a huge revelation that I don't film in my house, but
you know some people were saying, "Oh, the illusion is broken!"
but I don't know where that illusion came from
it must be a self-imposed one, because I never said
that I film in my house. Although I am doing that right at this moment.
This room is in my house, so if you've ever seen, you know, the white shelves and things like
that then this is in my home office.
And then I also have a capture computer over there
which I've kind of shown a little bit before, and my editing station is over there too.
So this is just a little 10x10' room that I do a lot of my work in
You know, mostly editing and capturing
Um, when I'm scripting, I tend to go out, like honestly even to a coffee shop
Or, ya know, mostly coffee shops. [laughs]
And do a lot of research and editing, and er, not editing.
Research and scripting.
Editing scripts... on my laptop.
And that... is something that stemmed directly from...
...having a lot of trouble keeping work and home life separate,
and that's the entire reason, well, the biggest reason,
that I have this separation between my storage... and my home.
Um, this is a dedicated home office space that I'm in right now
This little room, uh, this is all I have, uh, to do my work in...
...in my house, its a small house, it's like 850 sq ft
and uhm, ya know, I've got a bedroom, I got this office, my living room and a kitchen
Now there's a bathroom in there somewhere, [chuckles] but they're all pretty small
so I keep everything in here and it's also good for tax purposes
because here in the U.S, if you're self-employed,
you know, you claim your work and a business,
you have an area that you work in that has to be strictly for work
and, so, you know, that's claimed on your taxes.
So that's what this is, this is a dedicated room
The thing is I just don't have a big enough house to have other dedicated rooms
for like, my collection and stuff, and yeah I know it sounds a little cynical...
or... or greedy or something to refer to my collection as part of my business,
but that's just the fact of the matter of it these days
Um, Youtube is all I do, this is my job.
so everything that's related to as far as the collection, and
Ya know, making all those videos on vintage computers and games and stuff
It's all part of the business, and it's been that way for years.
This is nothing really new, but maybe to some of you that's a weird revelation or something
cuz you thought, "Oh I'm just a guy that has a cool house full of stuff"
and, um, I used to, but it drove me crazy.
It absolutely drove me crazy.
and not because I'm, uh, losing a passion for collecting, or it doesn't mean the same
W-well it doesn't mean the same anymore, but that's just a fact of, um,
[tsks]
Things got weird in my head
So basically a couple years ago, I was not doing well.
And honestly, if you look at the videos from that time, you can kinda tell.
You know, nothing, like, really serious. It's just that I was just working so much at making this happen.
so that I could get financially stable
And, you know, I started Patreon, which helped a lot.
And um... But you know, advertising revenue and all these things on Youtube are always so weird,
so I was working so much starting at only 2 videos a week.
And um, it was kind of an adjustment period
because before that I had worked, you know, other, "normal" jobs, retail and stuff like that... for years!
And... You know it's different. Like when you're working in retail, and you're done for the day, you go home, right?
You don't stay in the store? Well, like, for me, I felt like I was staying in the store 24/7.
And I was working from, you know, 8AM to 2AM. Like, it was not good.
And uh... Even if iwas away from work, like I'd go away just out for groceries,
and I'd be there with my phone the whole time, barely paying any attention to what I'm doing
Checking comments, reading emails, doing research... thinking, thinking, thinking.
And um, I realized by talking to some Youtube friends and just researching and thinking about it for a while myself
that I needed some real separation between work and home life
because it wasn't working, and I was.. I was working myself silly.
And um, ya know that was partly, partly my own fault
I just-I like to work when the work is good.
This is my favorite thing in the world, honestly.
Doing this stuff, playing with old computers, playing old games, doing research, history, making videos, sharing it with people
That is my favorite thing.
So I figured, "You know what, if I'm going to keep doing this and make this work for my life, like my career, or at least this point in my life,
then I've gotta make some changes. So I did.
I moved out. I got this place, which is smaller
And then um...
But before that even, I ended up, uh, getting those storage areas over there
and that is a business storage solution, and there were some people asking about like
"how does he have power and what do you do about humidity?" and all that stuff.
Well it's climate controlled, it's got electricity, it's got 24/7 security
It's got all sorts of things because it is a business storage unit, and it is made for professionals and small business owners
So that's why I sought it out
And um, I had some other people being like, "Oh it's a shame to have such a collection over there
and it's just locked away and you never see it," but that's not the case.
I'm over there... every single day almost.
Um, at least every couple of days
It depends on what I'm working on. [chuckles]
You know, obviously I have some things here but most of my collection's over there!
So I go over there to play the games. I go over there to film the games.
I go over there to do intros and outros.
Um, do things like Oddware, is almost completely over there, but other things I'm doing here at home.
Or out somewhere else just to sort of get in my head that "ok I'm in work mode now."
You know if I'm in this office, if I'm over in my storage or I'm out at a coffee shop with my work laptop--
that's all that laptop is for--
then that's when I'm in work mode, and it helps so much
to be able to come home and be like "I'm home now!" [laughs]
Which is still the same building in this case, but
the living room, ya know, my bedroom, the kitchen, a dining room for the most part I do LGR foods in the kitchen, but
um... I have a food channel by the way, did you not know that? [laughs]
I do. Started that not long ago, just somethin' kinda fun, it's not making any money, it's just fun.
Um, but yeah! So if I'm doing something outside of these rooms, then it's like:
I'm not working, I can- I feel my head clear and maybe that's just weird, but it works for me.
And, you know, if I had a really big house, I would love to have my collection nearby because
you know, as it is now, it's not far, it's like half a mile away
I'm really close to the storage units, which is why I chose them.
Um [chuckles] and also partly why I chose this house
But uh, yeah, I'm trying to make my life work as good as I can
while keeping the passion going
and honestly, this has helped!
Um I think my videos in the past couple years, I've found the excitement again
I've found all the cool- you know the happiness and the joy of old computers and technology and history
and nostalgia and all these cool things that I want to turn into videos that are exciting and fun to watch
and hopefully entertaining and educational and all that
So this is all part of an ongoing process, I'm still figuring it out. But!
That's why I have storage and the long and short of it, I guess.
Oh there are also some people asking, because I mentioned that I was giving away,
or you know that I had just gotten rid of a bunch of stuff in storage and sent it to goodwill
They're like "Why aren't you giving it to mee?"
[chuckles]
Well besides the fact that there's like 8 million people that watch me every month now
Uh it'd be hard to single out individual folks
even with a giveaway. Giveaways are tough, man.
You got more tax things to worry about and legal stuff
that, I don't know, I'm not keen on giveaways yet
I'd like to do em, at some point
But even then, this is not stuff I'm going to give away, it's not even stuff that's valuable to me, that's why I'm giving it to Goodwill
You know, I buy so much stuff there, it's like, may as well give it back.
So I gave away some lamps, I gave away some jewel cases without any artwork in them.
Some PCI cards nobody wants from, like, 2003, you know, modems and stuff.
and uh some clothes, a whole lot of clothes.
And oh yeah some old car magazines from the past few years, cuz I have a bunch of subscriptions to magazines
and I don't keep them typically, because you know whatever the stuff is online now.
So yeah it's not like I was giving away stuff that you donated to me, I would not do that. [laughs]
If I'm gonna like come to a point where I have been donated something and I don't want it anymore
I'm gonna... probably ask the person, you know, if they want it back or if it's ok if I give it away to somebody else,
like another Youtuber or something. I've done that before.
Um but yeah I'm not just taking in your stuff and then giving it back to Goodwill
or putting my stuff in Goodwill and then going and thrifting it back [laughs]
There's a lot of people that made that accusation.
Like "Oh no wonder you're finding so much good stuff there. You're putting it there yourself!"
That makes no sense, but thanks for the conspiracy anyway, it kinda cracked me up. [laughs]
No, I'm giving away stuff I don't want, so I'm not gonna go back and, like, buy it again.
Um, yeah.
Well anyway I hope this clears up some of the uh confusion if there even was confusion for you.
If not, then maybe this is just another insight into how I work
But yeah, I mean this is- this is pretty much my process:
I wake up, usually around 8 or 9 in the morning
I get my coffee, I come in here and check out all my emails and comments and stuff from the night before
which is a lot!
So that's a few hours, and then I'll go out, usually to get coffee or a lunch or something
and I'll bring my laptop and ya know start checking out the new- ya know the news!
or like something I can talk about.
Researching. A lot of research goes into this.
In fact, most of what I do is research.
Um but when I'm not doing that I come back home or I go over to my storage after that.
And start doing like the nitty-gritty filming and setting up and
ya know all the stuff! Game capture. I do a lot of game capture just sitting right here.
But I like to spread out my life just a little bit so I don't go crazy? And...
ya know I was starting to get there. And I've known some other producers that burned out.
And I don't wanna do that, man. It's just not a cool feeling.
To feel trapped by your own work, which was so fun at one point and then it starts to get really crappy
because that's all you do!
That's all you do! It can turn into some really crippling loneliness and also some really crippling, like, self-hate.
And self-doubt, and a lot of other things where, you know me I was doing things and
and having nights that weren't good. And so yeah.
I made it happen to where that uhm, thankfully I'm fortunate enough that I can afford to have a business storage area.
And sure I could invest in a bigger house, and maybe if I get the money I will do that someday, but
you know, that's why I have Patreon
and Patreon pays for all of that storage.
I mean it pays for really what is effectively my studio over there because I have my lights and my setup
and you know the hardware and it's part of my schtick!
It all counts as part of a business, and it's also, you know, some of it, is a tax write-off as well, like this office.
So it makes sense, and um, you know, self employment is weird sometimes?
And expensive because 30% of all that I make goes to the government [pained laughter]
More or less!
Just to taxes. So that's heavily weighing on my mind. Good grief!
That was interesting
[tsks]
I didn't even know about quarterly taxes when I started this thing when I started this a few years ago
That was a rude awakening, man, lemme tell ya.
But uh, yeah I dunno, I guess I'm just rambling now
But anyway I hope that this proved interesting and uhm that the illusion is not so broken
that you can't watch anymore! [laughs]
Because I really like what I'm doing, and I have a lot of fun doing it, and uhm... yeah!
There were even some people asking too "Do you even play any games for fun anymore?"
You know, not as much. Because usually, if I'm playing something, it's for a video simply because that's the reality of this.
Uhm but that's also why I don't cover as many games anymore too
Well one reason anyway. The other reason is that a lot of people don't watch them.
I'm trying to pick the games that I cover more carefully these days because
theres, uh, some games that are just going to do really, really well
and others that are not. [laugs]
Edutainment month is sort of an exception
I just like covering edutainment, whether or not people watch or not
Thankfully this year, I think I picked some good games.
Mavis Beacon did well. Got picked up by some websites.
Uh so that was cool.
But yeah I mean it's not just all business to me.
It's not just all about money or all about having stuff
like that's just been a side effect of all these things that have snowballed before I even realized it
I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just going to put that out there. I don't know what I'm doing!
But I'm trying to be professional...ish and I'm trying to make things work
so that uh, life uh finds a way? [chuckles]
So... Cool... Yeah!
Somethin'... Somethin' somethin'
Uh thanks for watchin!
Where's the camera? There it is. Bye!