Return of the Stream
Hello all! Thank you so much for joining me here - I’m excited to get you caught up on all the latest things going on. I hope you’ve been at least surviving and maybe even dipping your toe into thriving out there.
It has been exactly one month since my last post. I left saying that I was going to start my comeback to streaming, and that I’d be derusting Mega Man 4. I did indeed derust all of Mega Man 4, but the road had several twists and turns.
Also, I guess let me cut to this part - I’m planning on streaming sometime today, August 18. More on that later, because right now we’re going to talk about the winding road that I traveled over the last month.
When Speedrunning Reorganizes Your Entire Living Space
First, you’re going to need to know roughly what my apartment layout is. It is shaped like a U. The part connecting the two prongs of the U is where our kitchen is. One of the two prongs is a giant living room. The living room undergoes a vibe change about ¾ down the prong. For the first ¾ of the room, it’s the primary hang out space in our apartment. We have a couch, a large television, video game consoles, etc. While there’s no door, the final ¼ of the living room is where my office space is. My desk is there, my desktop computer, all my streaming equipment, all my retro consoles, etc.
That final ¼ of the living room prong is also historically where I live stream on Twitch. I mentioned that there’s no door; this is why I always have those collapsible wall things behind me when I stream. The things I put my pixel art on. Anyway.
Moving on to the other prong of the apartment - while one prong is a giant living room, the other is divided into three separate rooms. There’s the master bedroom, the bathroom, and a spare room that we either refer to as “Erika’s office” or “Pancake’s Room”, depending on who we’re talking to. These two possible names reflect the two main functions this room has had in the five years we’ve lived here.
Erika has a desk in there and can work from that room. Now, that sounds simple and logical in premise, but Erika is a wanderer, really. She works in the dining room and the living room and outside on the deck. If she has a really important meeting she will probably take it from her office, but the seclusion of the office isn’t a perk Erika actually utilizes very often.
This room has also served as Pancake’s home base for the duration of our stay here, which has been vital given that Podo the beagle has been alive throughout that duration. During Podo’s youth in particular, having an extra room’s worth of space to negotiate with the pets was invaluable. Pancake’s litter robot is in this room, and it has only been during his fifth year on earth that Podo has been allowed to actually go into this Pancake-centric space. Their relationship has come a long way.
Now, the master bedroom. Within the past 12 months, Erika and I have been experimenting with sleeping in separate beds more often. This is not due to acrimony; we would much prefer to sleep in the same bed. Erika is an extremely light sleeper though, and she has been having trouble getting restful sleep with me and Podo in the bed (and maybe a Pancake walking on your pillow cameo). Since Erika’s office slash Pancake’s room has a much less important third role as a guest bedroom, there is a bed in there. Erika has been sleeping in there most nights right now (and her sleep has improved dramatically).
Okay is everyone clear on the layout of the apartment? Now, let’s switch the scene back to the moment after the last blog post. I start derusting Mega Man 4 over in my corner of the living room. Over the course of the next two weeks, I notice that I’m having an issue with my CRT. Every once in a while, it flickers a little. With the level of perfection speedrunners are striving for, minor visual randomness like this is essentially not workable.
My analysis is that the flickering I'm experiencing is related to power surges tied to the way we use electricity. We've tripped our electrical breaker several times, and have had to move certain things around our apartment to accommodate our use of electricity...so this isn’t exactly coming out of nowhere.
One offshoot of all this is sometimes our power will surge. Our overhead light will dim and then come back on, since we're pushing the limit of the power infrastructure (I think). Since the last time I streamed, we’ve added stuff to the area near my desk, and now these surges have been happening on the CRT and appearing as flickering.
I research, and find that one of the first suggestions is to make sure the CRT is plugged directly into the wall, and not into a power strip. In the living room, where the CRT is, there is no possible way for me to do this. There is too much plug competition. To make matters worse, one of our living room outlets randomly stopped working earlier this year (we need to call an electrician…), so plugs got condensed onto even fewer outlets recently.
I do a sweep of the apartment. The only way I can puzzle out how to get this CRT its own personal wall outlet is for Erika and I to switch desk spots. Erika never really built out any sort of elaborate office…like I mentioned, she just wanders around with her laptop. In Pancake’s room, the only things plugged in are her litter robot and one lamp. Erika signs off on the idea of a desk swap.
I move my CRT into her room and run a test. I play for 90 minutes in there and experience zero flickering the entire time. We commit to the move.
Now, if you put yourselves in our shoes, you might be able to see the next domino that needs to fall over. If I am now going to work in Pancake’s room, and we’re sleeping in separate beds, and Erika is currently sleeping in Pancake’s room. We’re going to need to switch and have me sleep in what is now my office, while Erika sleeps in the master bedroom.
So yes I changed where I’m sleeping every night in order to get my CRT it’s own personal wall socket. That is speedrunning baby.
In truth though, we had been contemplating switching desk spots off and on for a long time now. It’s been a topic of conversation. But with that said, who knows if it really ever would have happened if the CRT hadn’t motivated me to follow through with it.
So, now I have my own room. It’s kind of cool guys. I joked with Erika that I sort of get the concept of “Man Cave” now even though I’d never use that term and now she’s been calling my room the Gender Neutral Hovel. Erika is funny.
In the new space there will be no need for my old fold up background thingies during streams, so my pixel art have a new home in what will be the new background of my stream (aka the wall). I love this because now my pixel art can just stay up in this room 100% of the time I don’t have to take them down after the stream and not get to see them.
Streaming Practice, Scheduling, Speedrunning Philosophy
Honestly, this feels a lot like the CRT flickering. One thing (needing to move the CRT) led to a cascading wave of decisions that changed the shape of our living space. I think a similar wave of change is currently reshaping my approach to streaming on Twitch. Except, this wave wasn’t caused by one big thing - it was caused by two inclinations that both wound up pushing me in the same direction.
The first inclination was that I feel like I want to try to stream my practice sessions for the first time. I’ve considered streaming practice several times in the past, but I’ve never actually done it. I think I feel ready for it right now.
The second inclination was that I feel like I want to try to stream on a schedule for the first time. I’ve considered establishing a streaming schedule several times in the past, but I’ve never actually done it. I think I feel ready for it right now.
These two things naturally work well together and even sort of require each other. If I’m okay with the idea of streaming practice, then I could stream any day of the week, since I practice just about every day. So if I’m going to stream practice, I’m going to have to come up with some sort of idea about a schedule. During the streams I did earlier this year, my scheduling philosophy was that if I thought I could PB, I would stream runs. If I didn’t, I’d practice offline. It was inconsistent by design.
So what sounds like a reasonable schedule to start with? Well, part of the reason a schedule feels more achievable for me right now is because I’m so locked into my routine of going to GYM Monday / Wednesday / Friday. That makes me feel like Tuesday / Thursday / Sat or Sun could be a good streaming schedule. Today is Tuesday, so I’m trying to start this schedule today.
Now, longtime mclepke speedrunning fans might be wondering what spurred this decision to start streaming practice sessions. I’m not sure I can pinpoint all the reasons. For one, I feel like I’m capable of doing high quality practice live at this moment in time. I didn’t really feel that way at any past point where I contemplated doing live practice. I’m getting better at learning speedruns. Another thing - I do want to up my number of broadcasts and have shorter dead windows. It’s fun to be live and see people you know. I think as my Twitch connections continue to grow in both breadth and depth I’m more inspired to show more of my own speedrunning process live.
I would also say that broadly speaking, I’m trying to make my stream a lot more viewer-friendly during this era of streaming on Twitch. Historically, my stream has been bare bones. In a way the bare bones nature was something I wore as a badge of honor - I was so focused on climbing the leaderboards, that I didn’t have time for trivialities like viewer engagement.
Well, I guess I’m trying to be a little more fun nowadays. In addition to derusting Mega Man 4 and moving workspaces, I spent a bunch of the last month trying to start slowly adding fun features into my stream. I am trying to implement something my friend Concision has on his stream where there is a reward that only one viewer can claim per stream, and your stream technology is able to remember / keep score of what user got the unique prize of the day over time. I really love the setup.
So yeah in summary I’m going to start streaming again today, I’m adopting a regular streaming schedule, and I’m going to start streaming practice sessions if that’s where I am with my life when my time on the schedule comes up.
UPDATE: Reporting from Wednesday morning - I think the normal Tuesday / Thursday start time is going to be 1230pm EST.
Update on Project Weight Loss 2026
What’s the latest with the Robbie gets back into shape in 2026 campaign? Well, get a load of this:
The first row of the chart covers 2026 up until April 26, but then from there on each row is one week, and it’s chronological. I’ve lost at least 0.9 pounds based on 7-day averages in 15 of the 16 weeks. My food stability and consistency has never been better. I still never eat processed food. Not even once a week cheat meal style. They have been eradicated from my diet entirely. I’m working out three times a week and walking 5+ miles a day on the days I’m not working out. Hopefully I can keep this up for a good long time. Wish me luck.
Also if you’re on a weight loss journey out there, stick with it. I feel radically better today than I did on January 1, and it was entirely worth the work so far. You got this!
It’s also wild to look around from where I am in the process right now and see just how long this takes. I figure that my ideal weight is probably ~175lb, and that would mean that I’m halfway to where I want to end up. Or less than halfway, really, since the weight loss slows down over time. My average loss in weeks 1-6 was 2.2 lbs / week, while my average loss from weeks 7-16 was 1.2 lbs / week. The beginner gains are big.
I will try to do a before after picture thing eventually. I don’t have any recent photos though so I can’t right now.
We Got a New Couch
Look at this thing:
Podo looks great against the chartreuse and Pancake pops spectacularly. Our previous couch was purchased in 2019, leaving Boston early in life to settle into adult couchhood in Pittsburgh. It has been posted to Craigslist, and we’re hoping it has a fulfilling second chapter in life.
Latest With This Blog
So a word on what’s happening specifically here at the blog, I’d say it’s kind of the opposite of the stream. I used to stream when I felt like I could set a new personal best time, and I used to blog on a weekly schedule. Now I’m thinking that I’m going to stream on a consistent weekly schedule, and post to the blog whenever the next notable milestone happens.
For example, depending on how things go, the next post is probably going to either be when I set a new personal best time in Mega Man 4, or if I go a lot longer than I’m anticipating without being able to do that. So…idk. The gap between posts this most recent go-round was one month, and it seems reasonable that the first gap now that we’ve transitioned over to focusing on speedrunning will be the longest.
While the time is TBD, please stop by the stream to say hello Tuesday / Thursday / Sat or Sun. The schedule will become more specific over time…I’m still zeroing in on it. Once I get onto this schedule, hopefully it’ll be easier for people that are not just always on Twitch like I am to catch a stream if they desire (UPDATE: regular stream time for Tuesday and Thursday will be 12:30pm - 4pm EST. Weekend schedule is still TBD).
I hope you all have been great. This has been a long post, so hopefully you got some enjoyment out of all that rambling about what is going on with me. I appreciate each and every person who stops by this blog, and I wish you all a safe, fulfilling and happy week. Good luck out there.