BlazeHedgehog

Update time!

It's been a busy month! Unfortunately quite a lot of it wasn't on the computer. I actually talked to one of the agencies that's supposed to be helping me find a job a couple weeks ago, and after telling them everything that was going on with me right now, they were like "yeah maybe you should hold off on looking for a job until things normalize for you."

Fortunately, that's going to be soon. I just got approval from my medicaid insurance for my partial denture. They don't want to pay for teeth cleaning, but I'm actually going to the dentist tomorrow (Saturday) so I'll ask them what's up about that. I, uh, don't think I can pay for it on my own right now

I saw a doctor about anxiety medication and was prescribed Effexor. I've been on it about a couple weeks now, which means I might be starting to feel some changes in my mood and disposition. I was told it usually takes 3-5 weeks for it to really start to be noticeable. I can't say I feel especially different, but I *have* been a little more social in ways I'm not normally. I meet back up with the doc on the 29th to check in and see how I'm feeling. The one downside is that I think it might be increasing my susceptibility to heartburn. Maybe she'll suggest something else.

The good news is it was my birthday this month, and family sent me some money. Rather than spend it on myself, I'm pooling it together with my other earnings, so that I'm not as behind on rent as I was last month. I still can't make the entire rent amount for August by myself right now, though, so if you're able to, I do actually really, really need the help still. Even small amounts still move the needle. Hopefully in the next couple weeks I'll be done with the dentist for a while and can redouble my efforts on the job hunt instead of just picking at one or two listings here and there.

ko-fi.com/blazehgehg/goal?g=57

That doesn't mean I'll instantly secure a job mind you, but I'll feel better about my chances after the last bits of dental stuff is complete and I can smile again without traumatizing children.

--- UPCOMING VIDEOS
As for the Shadow Generations video, it's coming along, bit by bit. Like I said last month, it's a long video. It might end up being the new longest video I've ever edited for this channel. Final run time will probably be in the range of an hour and 20 minutes, give or take. I've edited somewhere close to 35 minutes, so I'm around the halfway point (I previously told my discord I was halfway a couple weeks ago, but that's because I forgot just how long this video will end up being). It's a gigantic video and I'm trying to juggle taking care of my own health with actually getting the work done. I not only want to finish it, I NEED to finish it, because it's taking up most of my remaining HDD space and I can't do much else until I can clear out the 350gb+ of video capture. Really, I need more storage period, but now is not the time to talk about that.

But, needless to say, I don't really have any HDD space left to work on anything else right now! I can't start capturing footage for the next "Definitive Sonic Adventure 2" video, nor can I do anything like that for the NiGHTS documentary, either. I only have about 30gb free, and compared to what I need, that's basically nothing. And that's even *after* multiple rounds of cleaning up free space.

So really, that's about it then. Things are looking up, but I'm not out of the woods yet. I just keep my nose to the grindstone and wait until I'm in the clear.

--- IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Throwback Thursday: I Still Hate Twilight Princess (FREE) www.patreon.com/posts/161704838?collection=1952317
- Throwback Thursday: Breath of the Wild Review (FREE) www.patreon.com/posts/161714882?collection=1952317
- Shadow Generations Review, The First Five Minutes (Early Access Tier): youtube.com/post/UgkxsyDcyVuUgO4wYErTlFSHk76jvc7Fc… / www.patreon.com/posts/160789216
- Daily ask blog is still ongoing: blazehedgehog.tumblr.com/

5 days ago | [YT] | 35

BlazeHedgehog

Update time!

This time, I'm going to lead with the plea, because the situation is really bad this month. I explain why below, but this is a particularly nasty month for me to be out of work. If you can spare even a dollar, I really, really, really need to make my share of the rent. This is the absolute bare minimum I need for survival here.

ko-fi.com/blazehgehg/goal?g=10

Mostly, this has been a month of recovery. As you may know, I had my dental surgery just over a month ago, and I knew there would be some recovery time. What I did not expect is that the surgeon said I would need two full weeks of bed rest. Yes, bed rest for my mouth. They literally told me that if I worked, I would even have to request the two weeks off. And he wasn't kidding. The two weeks following surgery were genuinely exhausting.

I've thought about doing sort of a vlog about it, just to document what I currently sound like and to tell the complete story, but the cliffnotes version is that after the surgery I spent a lot of time sleeping, whether I wanted to or not. I was not prepared for how much it took out of me. I'd often just wake up not even remembering falling asleep like I had narcolepsy. My body was in recovery mode while my mouth healed.

Worse, going to my follow-up appointment a week later, he said I should really wait an entire month before progressing forward. That's largely to give the swelling a chance to completely go away, because once I get fitted for the partial, we need to make sure it's going to fit and stay in there.

So it's kind of put certain things in my life on pause. Not much I can do except follow the surgeon's orders, even if it sounds ridiculous. I want to do this right, because the last thing I want is to have to go back to the dentist for repeated adjustments.

But that means the job hunt is the slowest its ever been. Doctor's orders and all.

But part of the reason things are so dire is also due to my Playstation 5 controller breaking. Back in March, the controller I had started developing very nasty analog drift. The console quickly became unusable, and if I can't use that console, I can't finish certain videos. I tried to fix it myself, accidentally broke the analog potentiometer, and had to buy a refurbished one on discount. Now that one's also experiencing the exact same problem. And it developed this problem literally the week after the refurb warranty ended. So I've had to pay to get it repaired, which basically ended up costing just as much as buying a whole new controller. I'm pretty upset about it. I have a whole thread about it on my Bluesky:

bsky.app/profile/blazehedgehog.bltn.net/post/3mo3t…

It's just been a rough time over here. I knew it would be challenging, but it's more than I expected! I am more desperate now to make rent than I ever have been before.

ko-fi.com/blazehgehg/goal?g=10

But enough of that. I said I needed to stop being a bummer in these. Here's some positives: I've finally scheduled an appointment to see about getting medicated for my anxiety and potential ADHD. I'll be speaking to a psychiatrist/nurse practitioner on Wednesday of next week and my therapist thinks it's possible I could be starting medication by this time next week. It's a little scary, but it's a little exciting, too. I've lived with these issues for most of my life, and the thought of saying goodbye to them will be... interesting, at the bare minimum. Onwards and upwards.

Let's talk about what's coming next.

--- UPCOMING VIDEOS
Since it's the closest to being finished, I've been almost exclusively focusing on getting the Shadow Generations review done, finally. It'll be over an hour long, so it's taking me a while to get everything correctly assembled and cut together. If you're paying for the Early Access tier on Patreon or Youtube, you can already watch a preview. I would have really liked to have it ready to post before Sonic's 35th Anniversary on June 23rd, but the video is just too big and long for me to make that deadline. I even had to go back and redo a couple of voice over lines post-surgery, so see if you can spot the rare few places where I suddenly develop a lisp in the finished video.

I mentioned last month I was hoping to maybe record voice over for the "Definitive Way to Play Sonic Adventure 2 Part 2" before my surgery happened, and unfortunately I didn't get a chance to. Instead, I was coordinating some things with that sponsor deal I mentioned, and that will be showing up in the Shadow Generations video. That's also why it's kind of imperative I get that video out as soon as possible, because that usually means a little bit of extra money on top of whatever the video itself earns.

Beyond that, I've mostly been writing. Structuring rough drafts of scripts that need to be fleshed out, things like that. I can't really move forward with certain projects because I'm not in a state to provide them the voice over they need, unfortunately. It's just the nature of everything around my surgery. It's even going to impact my birthday (July 6th). I've always asked for your patience, and now is one of those times I really need it.

--- IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Throwback Thursday: Super Mario Sunshine Review (FREE) www.patreon.com/posts/148657250?collection=1952317
- Throwback Thursday: GRIP Combat Racing Review (FREE) www.patreon.com/posts/154738129?collection=1952317
- What to do about future throwback articles? (FREE) www.patreon.com/posts/161662975
- Shadow Generations Review, The First Five Minutes (Early Access Tier): youtube.com/post/UgkxsyDcyVuUgO4wYErTlFSHk76jvc7Fc… / www.patreon.com/posts/160789216
- Daily ask blog is still ongoing: blazehedgehog.tumblr.com/

1 month ago | [YT] | 23

BlazeHedgehog

Update time!

Since I was late last time, it's barely been three weeks, and it's kind of been a chaotic three weeks, if I'm being honest. You may remember that I am due for oral surgery soon! I've been spending over a week now preparing for it, as I have specific prescription medication that's required to prep my mouth.

I was actually supposed to go in on Friday for the first round of surgery, but after driving all the way up to the surgeon's office, it turns out there was an error and they didn't have me on the schedule at all. I made that appointment almost two months ago! I bought all this soft food to eat while I recovered! So I had to reschedule, and they originally wanted to schedule me for surgery at the end of June.


Thankfully, somebody canceled, and they can get me in on this coming Thursday. All it really means is that I have to keep taking this mouthwash they gave me, and to stop taking the antibiotics. They didn't really give me instructions on what to take when, and I've had mouthwashes aggravate bad teeth before, so I figured the antibiotics and the mouthwash went together. They apparently do not!

Speaking of that mouthwash, it's an extremely powerful antiseptic that's supposed to prep my mouth and clean out any lingering bacteria my toothbrush can't reach. It just tastes like weak Listerine, but it leaves an aftertaste that lasts all day. It's been ruining the taste of food for going on two weeks now. I'll be glad when its gone.

Job-wise, I've slowed down on applications a bit. Given that my mouth is going to be a big mess very soon, it won't do me any favors to show up to job interviews looking and sounding like I lost a fight with the tooth fairy, and I've heard stories how the appearance of one's teeth especially matter during job interviews. I haven't completely stopped, I literally just sent another application in last night for a remote video editing job, but I'm waiting to see how I look after the surgery. I also haven't had any bites on my pet sitting gig job, either.

Which means I need to fill in the gap again this month. I'm about $400 short on June's rent, so if you can pitch in a few bucks, I really need it. Even small amounts add up if a lot of different people chip in, you know? And I'd really like to not get evicted.

ko-fi.com/blazehgehg/goal?g=42


--- UPCOMING VIDEOS
So I've mentioned I've been trying to get things aligned so that I don't have to do a lot of voice over work while my mouth recovers, because I'll be missing enough teeth that it might make me sound a little different until I can get fitted for my partial. One thing I've been trying to focus on these last couple weeks is filming some sponsor segments. I'm signed with a sponsor again, but since they ask that I be on camera, I need to get things shot before my surgery. That's been a little difficult!

Between prepping for and rescheduling my surgery, school being out for the summer (meaning I'm sharing the apartment with other people sometimes), and now attending a friend's wedding, I've lost a lot of shooting days in the last two weeks. Technically I've already shot a sponsor segment last week, but it was done in a rush on a very hot day and I look super greasy and sweaty. And tired! I need to reshoot it so I don't look so gross, and I'll have a couple days here to do that.

In the mean time, I've been giving the "Definitive Way to Play Sonic Adventure 2 Part 2" script its much needed touch-up. That's basically ready for a fresh voice over session now, and enough changed (like 40% of the script) that I should revoice the entire thing from scratch. We'll see if I can squeeze that in before Thursday.

I've also been spending a lot of time trying to clean up my HDD. I've got a lot of clutter, and with all the footage I've captured from the Shadow Generations and SA2 videos, plus all these raw voice over recordings, I'm getting down into the red zone on remaining HDD space. So I've been diving into the depths of my video capture folder, I've been trimming file collections, I've been doing everything I can to free up space because I need it badly. You forget just how much space 6tb is until you really start poking around and see just how much junk is hiding in dark corners.


--- IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Throwback Thursday: Hey, That Quake 2 Remaster is Nice www.patreon.com/posts/148586351?collection=1952317
- Throwback Thursday: Hot Shot Racing Review www.patreon.com/posts/154687711?collection=1952317
- MWF Music Channel uploads have resumed until August: youtube.com/@BlazeHedgehogMusic
- But will probably slow down or stop entirely after that: youtube.com/post/UgkxGBJFRJcJ58-fo4xJUB9IMHYTNAuvg…
- Daily ask blog is still ongoing: blazehedgehog.tumblr.com/

Feels like kind of a short one! But only because I was so late with April's update. See you next month!

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2 months ago | [YT] | 45

BlazeHedgehog

Update time!

A little late this time, but I had things going on and I got distracted. Namely, I should have posted this while I was pet sitting for my cousin at the end of April, but it always feels like I'm in another world when I'm doing something like that.

Like I mentioned last month, with the 10 day pet sitting at the end of April, I was actually able to cover rent for myself for the month, but things still aren't great. It is still crickets on the job front. My Workforce program was supposed to give me an update and hasn't, so it's about time I poke them about that. I also signed up for that pet sitting gig job, I'm just waiting for the background check to finish.

On top of that, my roommate wants to move by this time next year, which means I will have to find a place of my own. I've got 10 or 11 months to figure something out, so I'm trying to keep the panic to a minimum right now.

I'm finally going in for my dental surgery on the 22nd of this month, and there's a whole prep of mouth washes, antibiotics, and then afterwards very strong painkillers that will follow that. Like I said last month: it's super scary! But I'm also a little excited. And I'll be sedated for the actual surgery part, so I'll basically just wake up to a lot of missing teeth, and then, a week or two later, getting fitted for a partial.


-- In Case You Missed It
Another month, and two more throwback articles on the Patreon. The next one actually gets posted later today, but you'll have to head over to the Patreon to read it.

- The Mind Behind a Hoax www.patreon.com/posts/154716313?collection=1952317
- On Quake Halloween Jam 3 www.patreon.com/posts/148578045?collection=1952317

If you forgot I have a music channel, I also recently posted a process video over there. I start to ramble towards the end, and I was working without a script, but it covers most of the basics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmBjM...

I also have a daily ask blog just in case anyone forgot over on Tumblr. I keep wondering if I could turn some of these posts into videos over here. If I ever get around to that, maybe your questions could end up in a Q&A video one day.
blazehedgehog.tumblr.com/


-- Upcoming Videos
One key I've been told to getting videos out faster is to sort of work on a batch of different videos all at once. I've been bad at doing that historically, but I'm getting better at balancing that. A lot of April was spent bouncing around four or so things.

The audio for the Shadow Generations video is nearing completion, as is video capture. I have the completed audio, but it still has all the breaths between lines. As in, the parts where you hear me inhale before I say the next line. Or you hear my weird mouth sounds. As I've said before, I gotta trim these out otherwise people complain about it, and I wish there was a shortcut so I didn't have to. But once I get through this, that video should be easy street to put together.

I'm continuing to flesh out the outline for a future Sonic 2006 video, as well as revisiting the outline for my giant Sonic tier list ranking series. I'm basically at the point where I can start writing episodes for the latter, I just need to get started. The goal has always been something shorter, easier to put together, so I can release them more frequently than my bigger essays.

Speaking of big essays, there's one very large essay I was trying to whip into shape while pet sitting in the hopes I could squeeze in a voice over session while I was there like I did with the Yooka-Laylee video a few months ago. The problem there is the size of the script: at close to 26 pages, it was the longest script I've ever written for a video, and that stressed me out. Long videos take a lot out of me.

So I spent most of my 10 day pet sitting duration slowly trimming down the script. I cut almost four whole pages of text out of the script without losing much content. And I write scripts like people write books, in big solid paragraphs. I probably chopped out something like 20 minutes of rambling. Which is great news! The script is closer to the length of the Sonic Frontiers review, which puts my mind a little more at ease. And I think I could probably trim a little more.

I think that's it for this month! I'm attaching some pictures I took of my cousin's pets while sitting for him last week. Have a great May, everyone!

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2 months ago | [YT] | 38

BlazeHedgehog

Since it is the anniversary of Mother 3, for the next 48 hours I've made the Mother 3 essay/review/podcast I created last year free to listen to.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30Len...
Patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/111238352

3 months ago | [YT] | 6

BlazeHedgehog

I feel like playing the Mega Man stuff in Sonic Racing Crossworlds so I figure I may as well stream it www.twitch.tv/blazehedgehog

4 months ago | [YT] | 15

BlazeHedgehog

Update time!

Another month has come and gone. And you know, I've realized I've been too much of a bummer in these posts. Or just in general, I guess. Yes, absolutely things are hard. But I think I've been letting it drag me down more than it probably needs to. It still is what it is, but I'm going to stop letting myself wallow in it quite as much.

Unfortunately, the reality is it's been another month with absolutely zero job interviews. I've applied to golf courses, retail stores, food service, everything. The job fair I attended last month turned out to be a total bust; the "leads" I'd gotten never materialized. Places that told me they'd have openings "soon" never posted any -- or they posted and filled those positions so quickly I never even saw the listings materialize at all. I'm about $450-ish short on rent this month as a result, which is better than last month, but it still means I need to raise the money in order to keep a roof over my head.

ko-fi.com/blazehgehg/goal?g=35

In better news, I'll be pet sitting for a family member for ten days at the end of April, and that will cover almost the entire rent bill for May. Regardless of what happens, I won't be here begging for money this time next month! I'm also trying to get setup on a gig worker app strictly for pet sitting, since that seems like a desirable talent of mine. There's a $50 screener fee before I can start taking pet sitting jobs though, and I can't afford it right this second.

I'm also moving towards possibly setting up sort of a portfolio site to offer some of my services for people willing to pay me. Voice over, maybe some pixel art, things like that. Some of that will also probably have to wait, however, as I've spent the last week dealing with back to back toothaches, seeing a dentist about it, and prepping for dental surgery. If that sounds bad, it kind of is, but it's not as bad as I was expecting, so that's a silver lining. However, there will probably be a recovery time of 2-3 weeks all told, during which time my capacity for voice over will be diminished.

But bad teeth sort of run in the family, and this is a problem I'm overdue taking care of. As such, I'm a little scared, but a little excited, too. I had an extremely bad dentist experience in 2008, but I want my mouth to feel normal again. And luckily, my freebie poor person insurance will cover all of it! I consider that my first real win in a long time and I want to bounce back stronger than ever from this.



-- Upcoming Videos:

The final Strange Encounters podcast came out! And it flopped! The algorithm really liked the first one but I think a lot of people don't like my long intros. That's understandable. I still feel like I deserved to give them long intros, and I put chapter select into the Youtube versions so you can skip around if you really wanted to. It's also just not Halloween anymore, so people might just not be in the mood for that kind of stuff right now. I'm the kind of weirdo where usually by the end of February or early March, I start getting back in the mood for Halloween stuff again.

When I wasn't blinded by pain or having a panic attack about dentist stuff, I've been plugging away at the audio for the Shadow Generations video. There are SEVEN TOTAL recording sessions that make up the voice over audio for that video, spread out across three hours, and I'm done with processing the first of those.

Similarly, when it comes to the NiGHTS documentary, I've recorded the little bits of pick-up audio I needed for that. So in addition to seven recording sessions for Shadow, I have another six recording sessions for NiGHTS that also need to be processed.

And to explain what I mean by "processing" the audio, that generally means doing some basic equalizer work, a denoising pass, removing flubbed lines, and cleaning out breath sounds. That last step is particularly tedious, because you have to remove breaths in a specific way or it can mess with the pacing of the whole voice over session, and I HAVE to remove the breaths, because people complained about it the last time I did not. I've done what I can to streamline the order of those operations as much as possible, but it's still a lot of long, mind-numbing work. It's a good thing I'll be unable to speak properly for a considerable amount of the next month.


-- Throwback Articles:

I actually need to queue a few more of these up, because April is where the current queue runs out. But here's what went up in March, in case you missed it:

- Text Review: Fortnite Save the World (2021) www.patreon.com/posts/148181216?collection=1952317
- Returning to Donkey Kong Country Returns (2023) www.patreon.com/posts/148508979?collection=1952317

That's it for this month! I still haven't filed my taxes yet so hopefully nothing drastically bad comes from that. See you soon!

4 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 43

BlazeHedgehog

The second and final spooky stories podcast is out for everyone now. Give it a shot. I think it's better than the first one!

4 months ago | [YT] | 1

BlazeHedgehog

Well, it wasn't quite on the 6th, but for those of you who are interested, the second and final Strange Encounters podcast is out. It'll be in early access for paid members until Saturday, when it'll go up for the public.

You can listen to it here on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzxHm...

Or on Patreon:

www.patreon.com/posts/strange-part-two-152577246?c…

Though like last time, the Youtube version has some video elements (clips and images). It's not a fully edited video, but there's things to look at every now and then.

4 months ago | [YT] | 1