An Update on Stuff Keeps Happening

Dear Reader,

Stuff Keeps Happening was an accident. I wanted to have a venue to talk about my thoughts on goings-ons. Originally, it was just a blog that I called "What's going on," but eventually I started recording my thoughts as TikToks, as I often find that its easier for me to just record a video than actually compile thoughts to text.

Fast forward a couple of years, and content creation is my full time job. It has been an incredible ride. I am so, so proud to even have the chance to be writing this. I've met so many wonderful people and have had such an incredible level of support from the community.

I wanna be super clear: this is not me prepping you for news of SKH ending. Though I do lament to say that I will be bringing Stuff Keeps Happening to a once-weekly schedule, posting on Mondays.

This year so far has been non-stop rushing for me. I intended to hit the ground running in January, but getting COVID threw me for a loop and set me back a few weeks. I've been playing catch-up since then, and after over a month of trying, I'm still not caught up.

Beyond SKH, I also host and produce The Atlas Loom, stream three times a week, maintain The Astral Campgrounds (my discord community + a suite of bespoke services for the community), and have been semi-quietly working on a massive new project to be announced later this month, which will likely eclipse my existing projects in level-of-effort.

In addition to those creative endeavors, I have been working on getting my mental and physical health under control, which of course takes its own significant chunk of time, energy and stamina. While I'm making progress, I also find myself in some incredibly confusing times in my personal life and mental health journey, which requires a level of focus I have not been able to have.

As I look towards the road ahead, I'm realizing a few things. Please enjoy some bullet points, straight from my noggin:

• I am thrilled about all of the projects I am working on and have no desire to stop them
• I am noticing I am making more mistakes
• I'm working more hours per day right now than ever before, in part due to my general level of excitement
• Working more than ever before is a great way to burn out quickly and resent stuff

This is not an "I'm taking a break because I am burnt out" post, but is instead a "I'm noticing that if I don't course-correct, I will burn out" post.

Producing SKH is exhausting. Collecting articles, internalizing stories, producing the video, podcast, social posts and everything is just a lot to do for one person in the turnaround time I am working in. And while working with others to lighten the load may be an option, I have found that it actually increases mental load for me at this point.

I want to be sure I can make good—properly—on my commitments. I have not had the space to produce SKH bonus content as much recently, for example. So here is my plan.

• Stuff Keeps Happening will continue to be posted as a newsletter, podcast, YouTube video and social media posts, with production happening every Monday
• The YouTube video, podcast and newsletter will all go out at the same time, while clips (TikTok/Reels) will go out over the course of the week.
• Bonus newsletter posts will likely become more common, if there's blooper content or specific topics I want to cover out-of-band
• I am hoping to get back to posting more varied topic videos on my TikTok/Instagram/Socials in general. I truly miss just goofing off on camera

Your support means everything. It's the reason I'm able to do what I'm doing. And I am keenly aware of the fact that reducing my schedule for SKH to once a week is a far cry from the original 3-times-a-week posting schedule that folks signed up for. If this change causes you to re-evaluate your subscription, I fully understand.

On the flipside, if you want to help me accomplish the gargantuan project goals I have set out for myself, your continued support is greatly appreciated. If not here, then via Patreon, Twitch subscriptions, Merch store orders or just sharing my content with friends. Any and all support helps.

Again, this is pretty much the opposite of a "goodbye." It's a "I want to make this work long-term," and if I want to be able to do that, I need to continually evaluate what I'm able to deliver. So, here we are.

With all that said, here are the stories I had collected for today's newsletter, along with a simple quip for each. SKH will return as normal on Monday!

• A 62-year-old german man got 217 COVID shots and is doing fine
• That dude who leaked government docs on Discord to win a military nerd argument is going to jail for 16 years
• There was a wildlife trafficking bust at an airport in Bangkok where, among other things, they found a red panda in a suitcase
• The US congress is going to vote on banning TikTok today, again.
• Hackers hacked Epic Games, but turns out that was a lie, and the hackers wanted to hack other hackers
• The SCOTUS ruled that Trump can be on the ballot nation-wide
• There's a spongebob Xbox and its horrifying
• Nintendo sued a Switch emulator out of existence, winning $2.4 Million from its developers
• Nikki Haley won the DC and Vermont primary elections, making her the first woman to win a GOP primary
• Twitter execs that Musk fired are suing for payments he apparently never made to them
• Basically all of Meta's services (Facebook, Instagram, Threads) were down on Tuesday