State of the Skeleton - June 2023

Hey Skelefam,

**Quick Note: We’ve been having Street Fighter 6 meet-ups in the discord, thursday’s 5pm PT. All skill sets welcome! Hope to see you there!**

It’s Uncle Derek here with a very much-needed update with what’s been going on with SSFF. I know it’s been pretty quiet around these parts. Well, it’s been a very turbulent few months in my personal life, as I’ve stated a few times before, but things have actually only just finally settled down, so here’s the full story.

From late October of 2022 to March 2023, a ton of stressful, awful stuff happened that left me in desperate need of a break. It started with being displaced from our apartment due to a major leak and mold situation, looking at places to potentially move to while we fought with our insurance and landlord, then an editor needing to bow out of a project leaving me with a lot to finish up when I should’ve been resting, and finally my mom and dog Launchpad both separately ending up in the hospital (and then our other dog kinda also getting sick too). That we were able to make 4 rather large videos in that 6 month period was a miracle. But by April, l was absolutely physically, emotionally, mentally drained. And I dunno, spiritually too? Point is I was low, maybe the lowest I’d ever been.

I’m very happy to say that nothing truly bad happened, but it takes a toll to just stand on that precipice of life-altering tragedy. The smartest thing would’ve probably been to not then barrel immediately into video production.

I have very little memory of making the DK Bongos video. I had done all the research and most of the writing and gameplay footage months before, but for the actual production, I was running on fumes. Grace really pulled out the reserves on the shooting and editing for that one. In making that video, it became clear I needed something drastic to recharge myself. So for the entire month of May, I left the state to be with my family as my mom recovered. Plus I brought some gear, I could get some work in, maybe see a few old friends while I was there!

But, nope!! Almost immediately after arriving, I got extremely sick. If you’re familiar with the concept of getting sick when you go on vacation, I think that’s exactly what happened. I came down with a typical sinus cold that I get all the time, except this was the worst one I’ve ever had! Seriously, my face looked like the famous bloody nose picture of Andrew WK. I think this was my body forcing me to finally rest and recharge. There were many days last month where I woke up, ate breakfast, showered, and then went right back to sleep. Now I hadn’t planned on staying the ENTIRE month of May, but it was clear I needed to ride this out. There were days I was too sick and tired to play Zelda TotK! When I finally started to feel better towards the end of the month, I came back home. Then there was the strain all this had on Grace and mine’s personal and professional relationship (plus our stupid dogs won’t stop getting sick, or maybe not sick actually, honestly I wish they’d just make up their minds already!).

While I was away though, I was able to get work done on some big projects we’ve had simmering since last fall, before everything collapsed. Now that I’m back home, I’m currently juggling three big projects - Reviewing Every Zeebo Game, Getting the First Ever Documented 16-Player Game of Faceball 2000 on GameBoy, and a Past Mortem on the Ouya (aka North America’s Zeebo). The first one of these videos will drop in early July!

I apologize for all that’s been happening, or rather I apologize for not being able to properly take care of myself while this has all been happening. The circumstances were certainly not typical but I have a bad habit of just plowing forward no matter the circumstances. It’s a skill that’s gotten me very far in my life and career but it’s also kept me from developing the ability to audit myself and identify when I need to step away and recharge, or just what I need to keep myself going at a steady pace. Basically, I’m much better at sprinting than running a good pace for marathons. My obligation as a partner to Grace, the owner of my two dogs, and as the face and creative drive of this channel means I need to be better at taking care of myself.

I’ll never truly be able to thank all of you, past and present, that have supported me on YouTube and Patreon. What this means to me I really can’t put properly into words. This has really been my dream, to be able to be creative and pay my bills. Sounds corny, and maybe it is, but it’s true. I’ve always said the way to stay powerful is to rest well and never stop, but I’ve honestly never been too good at the “rest well” part, instead focusing on “never stop”. You deserve my best and I just wish I was able to consistently give you all my best. The future remains as uncertain as ever, but speaking just for today, I’m ready to get back to making the dumbest, funnest videos I can for you all. It’s the least I can do.

Hug ‘em and love ‘em while they’re still here,

Uncle Derek