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  <title>The Black Sea Scrolls</title>
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  <description>The Black Sea Scrolls - LiveJournal.com</description>
  <lastBuildDate>Tue, 16 Jan 2024 05:54:15 GMT</lastBuildDate>
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    <title>The Black Sea Scrolls</title>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://proof.livejournal.com/641027.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Tue, 16 Jan 2024 05:54:15 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Maximize Your Stream&apos;s Potential: Tips and Tricks for Building and Managing a Strong Community</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/641027.html</link>
  <description>&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--media&quot;&gt;&lt;lj-embed id=&quot;124&quot; /&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;</description>
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  <pubDate>Tue, 16 Jan 2024 05:52:55 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>2023 Content Planning</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/640805.html</link>
  <description>&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--media&quot;&gt;&lt;lj-embed id=&quot;123&quot; /&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Happy New Year! We are talking all things Content Planning, and we want to hear about what content you&apos;re planning on creating in 2023. Let us know what topics we should look at this year! Are you ready to make the most of your content in 2023? Join us for a live stream with content experts Sam Proof and John Lacey as they share their top tips and strategies for maximizing your content plan. Whether you&apos;re a business owner, influencer, or just looking to up your content game, this live stream is for you. We&apos;ll cover everything from planning and organization to distribution and engagement. Don&apos;t miss out on this opportunity to get valuable insights from two of the industry&apos;s top content creators. See you there! Thanks for watching! If you have any questions or thoughts about the content covered in this video, be sure to leave a comment below. Your input is valuable to us, and we may even use some of your questions in a future live stream. So don&apos;t be shy - let us know what you&apos;re thinking. We can&apos;t wait to hear from you!&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://proof.livejournal.com/640608.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Tue, 16 Jan 2024 05:51:40 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>What we learned in 2022</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/640608.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;We look back at the year that was 2022 and reflect on what we learnt as content creators.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--media&quot;&gt;&lt;lj-embed id=&quot;122&quot; /&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;</description>
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  <category>live streaming</category>
  <category>streaming</category>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://proof.livejournal.com/640328.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Tue, 16 Jan 2024 05:49:56 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Holiday Streaming</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/640328.html</link>
  <description>&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--media&quot;&gt;&lt;lj-embed id=&quot;121&quot; /&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Join us as we talk about Holiday Livestreaming Tips. With the holiday season just around the corner, many people are looking for creative ways to celebrate and connect with loved ones. Live streaming can be an excellent option for hosting virtual events, concerts, parties, and more. Whether you&apos;re an experienced live streamer or just starting out, there are a few key tips to keep in mind to ensure your holiday live streams are a success. In this article, we&apos;ll cover five tips for successful holiday live streams, including ideas for different formats and content, ways to encourage audience engagement, and the importance of using high-quality equipment and lighting. We&apos;ll also explore strategies for promoting your live stream in advance and building a strong connection with your audience. If you&apos;re planning to go live this holiday season, read on for some helpful tips and inspiration! &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/streaming&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;#streaming&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/stream&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;#stream&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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  <category>#streaming</category>
  <category>stream</category>
  <category>streaming</category>
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  <pubDate>Sun, 12 Feb 2023 06:41:26 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Cute Avalanche Presents: The SuPurr Bowl - Interactive Fundraising Event for Kitten Season 2023</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/640238.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;Football season is in full swing, but what if we told you that there’s an event that promises to take the sport to a whole new level? Get ready to join the &lt;a href=&quot;https://supurrbowl.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SuPurr Bowl&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, where football meets the feline kingdom in a truly unique way!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On February 12th at 11 am PST, tune in to &lt;a href=&quot;http://twitch.tv/cuteavalanche&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;twitch.tv/cuteavalanche&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; to experience the ultimate cat-themed football experience. This is the fourth year that the &lt;a href=&quot;https://supurrbowl.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;SuPurr Bowl&lt;/a&gt; has taken place and it’s become a highly-anticipated event for cat lovers everywhere. With a 24/7 live stream and a dedicated website, cutteavalanche.com, the event is sure to be a purr-fect way to spend your Saturday.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;[Image 1: A picture of a cat dressed in football gear, ready for the big game]&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The SuPurr Bowl is a special fundraising event hosted by CuteAvalanche, a husband and wife volunteer team dedicated to fostering and caring for cats in need. In its six years of existence, CuteAvalanche has done a lot to support cats in need and the SuPurr Bowl is just one of the many ways they give back. This year, their goal is to raise $500, which will go directly to food and litter costs, as well as treats and toys for the cats. All the proceeds go to the felines themselves and help provide the care they deserve.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h1&gt;CuteAvalanche has:&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Fostered over 140+ Cats and Kittens&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Raised money for Best Friends Animal Society&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Raised money for Kitten Rescue LA&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Create a Giving Tuesday program in 2022 to create Foster Starter kits for Kitten Rescue fosters taking part in the event (&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu-b58adWu0&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;video&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;and so much more&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The event itself is a virtual football game, complete with cheering crowds and exciting play-by-plays. And the best part? You can make a donation and take part in the action! You can donate through the website cuteavalanche.com/donate or using the built-in &lt;a href=&quot;http://twitch.tv/cuteavalanche&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Twitch&lt;/a&gt; bits system. Not only will your donations help care for the cats, but they will also determine the score of the game based on the following chart:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Cheer — $1 or 100 bits&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Field Goal — 1 point — $3 or 300 bits&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Safety — 2 points — $5 or 500 bits&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;TouchDown — 6 points — $10 or 1000 bits&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Higher donations add cat-sized balls to the field, get your message on a virtual JumboTron and more.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You can even add a message with your team name and the points will go toward your team, or if you don’t choose a team, they will be assigned randomly. Team names have not been finalized yet, so be sure to stay tuned for updates!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Pre Game with SuPurr Bowl Tailgate perks&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But that’s not all! The SuPurr Bowl also offers several “tailgate” perks for those who pre-donate before the event through Supurrbowl.com. With donation tiers ranging from $1 to $50, there’s something for everyone. Here’s a breakdown of the perks:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Chips and a Beer tier — $1 or more: All donors will be shown and given a shout-out during the halftime show(and make sure to enter your name if you want a shout-out, or choose to remain anonymous). Donors will also receive 100 “Purrs” added to their Twitch username on the CuteAvalanche channel.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Ambrosia Salad tier — $25 or more: In addition to the perks from the Chips and a Beer tier, donors at this level will have their name displayed on the donation whiteboard during the entire event and will be listed in the show credits. They will also receive an additional 500 Purrs added to their Twitch username.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;BBQ Master tier — $50 or more: The top tier includes all of the perks from the previous levels, plus the donor’s image or user avatar will be printed out and used as a decoration during the event. Donors will receive a whopping 2,000 Purrs added to their Twitch username.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The SuPurr Bowl is not just about raising funds, it’s also about bringing the cat-loving community together. CuteAvalanche has a 24/7 live stream on &lt;a href=&quot;http://twitch.tv/cuteavalanche&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;twitch.tv/cuteavalanche&lt;/a&gt;, where viewers can interact with their favorite cats in real-time. With the built-in Twitch clipping system, it’s easy for viewers to create and save their own highlights from the event. And for those who want to save a clip instantly, the chat command “!clipit” will save the last 30 seconds.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;a name=&apos;cutid1-end&apos;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</description>
  <comments>https://proof.livejournal.com/640238.html?view=comments#comments</comments>
  <category>livestream</category>
  <category>kittens</category>
  <category>supurrbowl</category>
  <category>twitch</category>
  <category>cat stream</category>
  <category>cat cam</category>
  <category>cats</category>
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  <pubDate>Tue, 30 Aug 2022 16:28:18 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Jesus Ch--  My LiveJournal blog is 22 years old!</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/639888.html</link>
  <description>&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--text-width&quot; data-figure-type=&quot;image&quot; data-image-type=&quot;standart&quot;&gt;
            &lt;div class=&quot;aentry-post__img--text-width&quot;&gt;
              
                &lt;img style=&quot;max-width: 100%&quot; src=&quot;https://l-stat.livejournal.net/img/ESN/journal_birthday/Card_22.png&quot; fetchpriority=&quot;high&quot; /&gt;
              
              &lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;
            &lt;/div&gt;
          &lt;/figure&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I know I don&apos;t write here often anymore, part of that is it seems only one or two of my old LJ friends remain on here. But also free time and energy is not something I&apos;m overflowing with lately.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&apos;d love to say I&apos;ll be back one day to do more, I miss the catharsis of brain dumping here and it is truly the oldest legacy I have online, so it seems a shame to let it fester and die.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If anything it would just become one more place to post and promote things I&apos;m doing other places (like tiktok), and I don&apos;t know that that would be very interesting to anyone. Hell not even sure I can embed tiktok videos&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Guess we&apos;ll do a quick test&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--media&quot;&gt;&lt;blockquote class=&quot;tiktok-embed&quot; cite=&quot;https://www.tiktok.com/@officialsamproof/video/7127068579413085486?is_from_webapp=1&amp;amp;sender_device=pc&amp;amp;web_id=7046569991077250565&quot; data-video-id=&quot;7127068579413085486?is_from_webapp=1&amp;amp;sender_device=pc&amp;amp;web_id=7046569991077250565&quot;&gt;&lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;@officialsamproof&quot; href=&quot;https://www.tiktok.com/@officialsamproof&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;TikTok by @officialsamproof&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=2119806&quot;&gt;View Poll: How Often Do you Check LiveJournal?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;a name=&apos;cutid1-end&apos;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</description>
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  <category>#ljanniversary</category>
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  <pubDate>Fri, 11 Mar 2022 21:22:20 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Am I the Sum of my Hair?</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/639491.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve been called out for the second time in my life for cultural appropriation about being &quot;white with dreadlocks&quot; by someone who has spent zero seconds looking into who I am. saying I choose my hair to be cool.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m deeply hurt and instead of lashing out, I&apos;m going to use my words to educate people on who I am and how I came to be who I am. I don&apos;t think I need to justify my appearance, and I think it&apos;s appalling that anyone should have to.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Calling me a white man, is an interesting duality as yea on the surface if you don&apos;t look too deep that sure seems to be the case. However, I am Jewish and my appearance didn&apos;t shield me from antisemitic slurs being flung at me by both strangers and even those I considered friends.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We all just try to get by and find ourselves and like a kid in middle school, high school, college you sit ideally by and put on a smile as those closest to you tell you the fate of the &quot;two jews who walk into a bar...&quot; or even more directly call you out on &quot;really jewing&quot; something when you try to trade those Magic the Gathering cards in your favor.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--text-width&quot; data-figure-type=&quot;image&quot; data-image-type=&quot;standart&quot;&gt;
            &lt;div class=&quot;aentry-post__img--text-width&quot; style=&quot;width: 640px;&quot;&gt;
              
                &lt;img style=&quot;max-width: 100%&quot; src=&quot;https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/proof/13020/1326/1326_original.png&quot; fetchpriority=&quot;high&quot; /&gt;
              
              &lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;
            &lt;/div&gt;
          &lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I had the double whammy of really kinky hair, a jew fro if you will. for years I tried everything to make my hair conform to other people&apos;s standards or otherwise face near-daily mockery in school. So when I found myself bored or anxious in college I began braiding my hair. And let me tell you, it was still pretty awkward.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Months later, braids still in, I went to take one out and found that it had about an inch of locked growth. Instead of struggling to take it out, I let it go and grow. I put no products in my hair, no Elmer&apos;s glue, no honey. My hair grew naturally. When it was finally more lock than braid, I made a promise to myself that I would never cut them, years later I would find out I&apos;d inadvertently taken a Nazarite vow. (yes at the time, I&apos;d also take a vow against drugs and alcohol, also part of the vow)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My hair had chosen me, and I finally felt good about my appearance.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It didn&apos;t stop the world from throwing words and stones at me, figuratively and in one case literally. If anything the ridicule didn&apos;t stop but opened me up to new forms of it as well.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When I tell you I&apos;m Jewish, I was never a highly religious person.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Spirituality, however, that&apos;s personal.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As a young boy, the story of Samson was one of the few biblical stories I clung to, while I look back on all the flaws of that story now, for better or worse Samson and his &quot;seven locks of hair&quot; have always been in the back of my mind. And in some ways, I do find strength in my hair.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--text-width aentry-post__figure--has-text&quot; data-figure-type=&quot;image&quot; data-image-type=&quot;standart&quot;&gt;
            &lt;div class=&quot;aentry-post__img--text-width&quot;&gt;
              &lt;a class=&quot;&quot; href=&quot;https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+16%3A13&amp;amp;version=ESV&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;
                &lt;img style=&quot;max-width: 100%&quot; src=&quot;https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/proof/13020/1106/1106_original.png&quot; alt=&quot;source: https://www.openbible.info&quot; title=&quot;source: https://www.openbible.info&quot; loading=&quot;lazy&quot; /&gt;
              &lt;/a&gt;
              &lt;figcaption&gt;source: &lt;a target=&apos;_blank&apos; href=&apos;https://www.openbible.info&apos; rel=&apos;nofollow&apos;&gt;https://www.openbible.info&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;
            &lt;/div&gt;
          &lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After I&apos;d made the commitment to myself about my appearance and its fate, I actually did some research long ago. (hard to do in the days before the internet, but I did it). Because as I&apos;ve said, this was not the first time someone looked down on me as a white man with dreads, called me Bob Marley, or just yelled &quot;hey Rasta!&quot; to my face.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I found dreadlocks have a long history in so many ancient cultures, including both the Jewish people and the Polish, of which I&apos;m both at least in part to that latter. In fact, this is where the Rastafarian people took their own inspiration, from those biblical verses in Leviticus and the Nazarite vow to never cut their hair. Though I am do not consider myself Rasta, I consider the Rastafarian people family as one of the Twelve Tribes. But this is about me and not them, and I don&apos;t presume to be an expert or historian on their beliefs, history, and culture.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--text-width aentry-post__figure--has-text&quot; data-figure-type=&quot;image&quot; data-image-type=&quot;standart&quot;&gt;
            &lt;div class=&quot;aentry-post__img--text-width&quot;&gt;
              
                &lt;img style=&quot;max-width: 100%&quot; src=&quot;https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/proof/13020/828/828_original.png&quot; alt=&quot;Polish Peasants with &amp;quot;Plaits&amp;quot;&quot; title=&quot;Polish Peasants with &amp;quot;Plaits&amp;quot;&quot; loading=&quot;lazy&quot; /&gt;
              
              &lt;figcaption&gt;Polish Peasants with &amp;quot;Plaits&amp;quot;&lt;/figcaption&gt;
            &lt;/div&gt;
          &lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I can only speak to my own, and this is my culture.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve worn this hair for over 25 years now and I will wear it very likely until the end of my time.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To judge the worth of my character for my hair is no better than to call me a Kike, a Hebe, or a Christ Killer to my face. All things that have been done.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In fact, it&apos;s easier to brush those attacks off, because I know these people have been taught nothing but to hate.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Whereas screams of cultural appropriation come from those who think they&apos;re persecuting me on behalf of a greater good, and that not only hurts me deeply but the actual cause they&apos;re trying to promote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I hate that I have to put something this personal online, but I don&apos;t want to let this go unchecked.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m a fairly open person, and if I&apos;d been asked I would have gladly had a discussion with this person but now it&apos;s out there for the next person that tells me I&apos;m wrong for being who I am.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I stand with all marginalized people, and if we&apos;re going to see a world we want to live in we need to approach conflicts with love and open minds and not immediately reveal in hate and polarization.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;a name=&apos;cutid1-end&apos;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</description>
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  <pubDate>Tue, 30 Nov 2021 23:02:04 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Quickness</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/639232.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;It&apos;s been a pretty crazy day today. &amp;nbsp;And closely it&apos;s going to be a pretty crazy month till the holidays are done, So I just wanted to get something up quick.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m actually using the dictation program for the first time to try and write this blog. &amp;nbsp;Which is 90% accurate. &amp;nbsp;and 100% weird feeling.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But here we are. &amp;nbsp;This is actually the second blog I&apos;ll write today. but not on LJ. I am attempting to write daily streamer tips on a different blog (&lt;a href=&quot;https://medium.com/streamers-corner&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt;) but am already feeling like I&apos;ve bitten off more than I can chew.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Anyway, my first tip goes out tomorrow as a sort of streamer advent calendar of tips. And now I&apos;m basically just lost in the TikTok infinite scroll.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In other news, a blast from the past hit me as I&apos;m on an old friend&apos;s newsletter and today she featured a collaboration we did years ago. This song &apos;I&apos;m Not Gonna Click on your Youtube&apos; a Love Song parody.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--media&quot;&gt;&lt;lj-embed id=&quot;120&quot; /&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I was always really happy with that shoot and the product. Unfortunately, it was one of many of my videos that got hit by the Youtube down res of... I think it was 2010, magically overnight their entire archive went from whatever resolution it was to 480p.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m pretty sure I still have the original somewhere, but not sure it&apos;s worth uploading that version. But maybe.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hope you&apos;re all well.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We have a Cat Chat tonight on Cuteavalanche&apos;s Twitch Stream at 9pm PT. come on by and meet the cats and hang out. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.twitch.tv/cuteavalanche&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.twitch.tv/cuteavalanche&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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  <category>amy vorpahl</category>
  <category>streaming</category>
  <category>stream tips</category>
  <category>cats</category>
  <category>youtube</category>
  <category>twitch</category>
  <category>blogging</category>
  <category>videos</category>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>https://proof.livejournal.com/638991.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Thu, 25 Nov 2021 05:13:19 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>What&apos;s up with Cats, a part II</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/638991.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://proof.livejournal.com/638944.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Previously&lt;/a&gt; I talked about cats, fostering and live streaming, etc.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I wanted to focus on Cuteavalanche itself, the sort of driving force or connective tissue behind everything we&apos;re doing right now, cat-wise.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;CuteAvalanche started as a Tumblr and eventually became what it is now, which is a 24/7 Kitten Cam on Twitch — &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.twitch.tv/cuteavalanche&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.twitch.tv/cuteavalanche&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That&apos;s the main hub, though we do have accounts on all the big social media sites and try to keep active on:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.tiktok.com/@cuteavalanche?lang=en&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;TikTok&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/cuteavalanche&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;YouTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.instagram.com/cuteavalanche/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Instagram&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://facebook.com/cuteavalanche/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I do a lot of maintenance and work on new projects; from interactive elements to full-on games in the streams chat. I&apos;m hoping to start documenting a lot of that here.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So let&apos;s start by playing catch up, and maybe in writing all this I&apos;ll be able to clean up some of my old functions (probably not but that&apos;d be neat huh).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One of the coolest things about the stream is we provide about 8 cameras that our audience can switch between. This includes controlling a fullscreen view &apos;Main&apos; and a picture in a picture, smaller window called &apos;PIP&apos;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We have a few night vision cameras and we just recently got a PTZ (pan tilt zoom) camera, and I just got that full functionality available to our viewers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Viewers can call up cameras through the Channel points rewards&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--text-width&quot; data-figure-type=&quot;image&quot; data-image-type=&quot;standart&quot;&gt;
            &lt;div class=&quot;aentry-post__img--text-width&quot; style=&quot;width: 438px;&quot;&gt;
              
                &lt;img style=&quot;max-width: 100%&quot; src=&quot;https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/proof/13020/740/740_original.png&quot; data-inherit-privacy=&quot;true&quot; fetchpriority=&quot;high&quot; /&gt;
              
              &lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;
            &lt;/div&gt;
          &lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;From there they simply type the number of camera 1 through 8 (though camera 6 has been retired for now).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The PIP can also be moved around the screen with coordinates like &apos;Top Left&apos; or &apos;Bottom Right&apos;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;and our good old PTZ Cam (#7) can be controlled with commands in chat;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;!7 and a,b or c as one of the three wide shot presets.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Then to nudge the cam along users can type !up !down !left !right and an integer, the amount to move it &lt;strong&gt;!left 2&lt;/strong&gt; etc.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Finally cam 7 can Zoom! which again is controlled in chat with &lt;strong&gt;!zoom in&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;!zoom out&lt;/strong&gt; — Zoom being the command and in/out being the variable of the deterction.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We have a lot of other fun interactive, graphic overlays that can be triggered on screen, a community pet slide show, LED lights of which you can change the color. Users can also clip portions of the stream and play them back on the stream.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I was hoping to create an interactive Advente for calendar Catmus but I&apos;m running out of time and inspiration. That being said who knows. Maybe the next few days off of work will give me the reboot I needed.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;a name=&apos;cutid1-end&apos;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</description>
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  <pubDate>Mon, 22 Nov 2021 22:30:01 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Let&apos;s Talk About Cats</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/638944.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;My wife and I have always been cat people (we&apos;re dog people too). Early on in our marriage, my wife expressed an interest in one day fostering cats.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At the time, with a full load (full-time job, kids, and all that comes with it), I didn&apos;t have much free time and my once budding Content Creator lifestyle had calm shuddering to a halt. So I told her, fostering would be fine... if I could livestream it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Jump ahead to four and a half years ago, after Amanda&apos;s cat Avocado had been taken from us before his time and a weird twist of fate landed her on a Facebook post of kittens in need we ended up fostering two kittens; Cloudy &amp;amp; Stormy.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--text-width&quot; data-figure-type=&quot;image&quot; data-image-type=&quot;standart&quot;&gt;
            &lt;div class=&quot;aentry-post__img--text-width&quot;&gt;
              
                &lt;img style=&quot;max-width: 100%&quot; src=&quot;https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/proof/13020/286/286_original.png&quot; data-inherit-privacy=&quot;true&quot; fetchpriority=&quot;high&quot; /&gt;
              
              &lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;
            &lt;/div&gt;
          &lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And then we were off to the races and never looked back. We fostered almost non-stop, with only a few days here in between litters or a week there for the holidays.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;for 4.5 years we&apos;ve fostered (and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.twitch.tv/cuteavalanche&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;live-streamed&lt;/a&gt; it), fostering over 100+ cats and specializing in the youngest of kittens, including newborns. We&apos;ve bottle-fed, weened, had vet emergencies. We&apos;ve fed, cared for, treated, and raised. We&apos;ve put in time and effort, love, and money and it&apos;s been an amazing experience.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And yes, we&apos;ve streamed it. Starting on an old iPhone streaming directly to Facebook and advancing to a laptop and then Mini PC streaming to over a dozen platforms at once to now--&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;At our height, we found a home on the now-defunct Mixer website. We&apos;d hit 10K followers and often had dozens to hundreds of people viewing at any given time. Part of this was timing and part novelty. On Mixer we were the only 24/7 animal cam, we had a viewer-controlled camera switcher and we had a pregnant mom ready to give birth. It was an event people were waiting for enthusiastically.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When Mixer closed, it took a while to find our footing, our new home, our base of operations but it soon became clear Twitch was where everyone was watching from and most of the 12 other platforms no longer had much to compare. So when the time came to become Twitch affiliates we took it. So this is our home base now &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.twitch.tv/cuteavalanche&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.twitch.tv/cuteavalanche&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We do still have a viewer-controlled camera switcher and some other fun interactives (mainly graphic overlays and season games).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This has been my primary creative outlet for the last few years and I&apos;ve started to focus on what comes next.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mainly, two major steps that are both very daunting&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Become our own Animal Rescue nonprofit&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Open a Cat Cafe&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ll talk more on these in the future, as they&apos;re both probably several blogs worth of ideas.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As fosters, we currently volunteer through Kitten Rescue, and if we do either of those next steps we would want it to be in line with KR and not as a replacement. I want our nonprofit to focus on helping Animal Rescue and Animal Rescuers.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If we open a cat cafe, it would showcase exclusively KR cats.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So this is where we are at. The holidays are upon us, and we&apos;ve had a strange year for fostering. This again will require its own blog post, as year 2 of a pandemic saw an exploding community, stray and feral populations, and declining potential adopters.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We&apos;ve had a mother and daughter bonded pair available for adoption for several months.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Meet Bonita &amp;amp; Cutie&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--media&quot;&gt;&lt;lj-embed id=&quot;119&quot; /&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Their Adoption listings are:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--media&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;link-card&quot;&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;link-card__link&quot; href=&quot;https://kittenrescue.org/animals/bonita&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;link-card__container&quot;&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Bonita • Kitten Rescue&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;img class=&quot;link-card__image&quot; src=&quot;https://kittenrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/KittenRescue_Bonita1.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; loading=&quot;lazy&quot; /&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link-card__text&quot;&gt;Bonita is a super sweet and playful young cat looking for a loving forever home. Rescued as a pregnant teen, upon first arriving&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link-card__domain&quot;&gt;kittenrescue.org&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--media&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;link-card&quot;&gt;&lt;a class=&quot;link-card__link&quot; href=&quot;https://kittenrescue.org/animals/cutie-patootie/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;link-card__container&quot;&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Cutie Patootie • Kitten Rescue&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;img class=&quot;link-card__image&quot; src=&quot;https://kittenrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/KittenRescue_Cutie-Patootie3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; loading=&quot;lazy&quot; /&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link-card__text&quot;&gt;Cutie Patootie is a friendly, fun and playful kitten! The leader of her litter, Cutie was the bravest, most confident, curious and the first&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link-card__domain&quot;&gt;kittenrescue.org&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;More to come&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Peace Meowt&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;a name=&apos;cutid1-end&apos;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</description>
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  <category>kittens</category>
  <category>kitten rescue</category>
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  <pubDate>Fri, 19 Nov 2021 21:55:12 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>One and Done</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/638617.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;Doing that thing, trying to rebuild my habit of daily writing. Missed yesterday, it&apos;s just been &quot;a lot&quot; lately.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A long time ago a friend of mine told me they couldn&apos;t read my blogs, because he felt they were too depressing and I think I carried that weight of &quot;how does my writing affect other people&quot; ever since then, and in a lot of ways that holds me back from writing anything, good or bad. personal or fictional.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Opinions of other people have always weighed too heavily on my creative outputs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Once someone criticized my guitar playing.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I stopped playing for years after that.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;and I really loved both writing and guitar.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m not sure I&apos;m beyond being influenced, but I&apos;m more aware of it now.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That&apos;s it, that&apos;s all, short day here. I just needed a quick exercise in accomplishment.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Made a goal to write, I came, I saw, I journaled, then end.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fin&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If anyone is interested I&apos;ll be live streaming Today on &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.twitch.tv/samproof&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.twitch.tv/samproof&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I stream board games, chats and MTGA Wed &amp;amp; Fridays at 2pm PT.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Come on by, would be good to see some old faces and make some new friends as well.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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  <category>writing</category>
  <category>influence</category>
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  <pubDate>Wed, 17 Nov 2021 00:18:05 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Making Habits</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/638288.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Days N Daze&lt;/strong&gt;: Post Party Depression: &lt;em&gt;peel the mask away&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Feels like every time I feel the need or want to write, journal, release brain to page it&apos;s all about how long it&apos;s been since I&apos;ve done it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--text-width aentry-post__figure--has-text&quot; data-figure-type=&quot;image&quot; data-image-type=&quot;standart&quot;&gt;
            &lt;div class=&quot;aentry-post__img--text-width&quot;&gt;
              
                &lt;img style=&quot;max-width: 100%&quot; src=&quot;https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1455390582262-044cdead277a?crop=entropy&amp;amp;cs=srgb&amp;amp;fm=jpg&amp;amp;ixid=MnwyNTUxNTB8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwyfHx3cml0aW5nfHJ1fDB8fHx8MTYzNzEwODIxNw&amp;amp;ixlib=rb-1.2.1&amp;amp;q=85&quot; alt=&quot;Photo by &amp;lt;a href=&amp;quot;https://unsplash.com/@aaronburden?utm_source=livejournal_app&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;quot; target=&amp;quot;_blank&amp;quot;&amp;gt;aaronburden&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; from &amp;lt;a href=&amp;quot;https://unsplash.com?utm_source=livejournal_app&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;quot; target=&amp;quot;_blank&amp;quot;&amp;gt;Unsplash&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&quot; title=&quot;Photo by &amp;lt;a href=&amp;quot;https://unsplash.com/@aaronburden?utm_source=livejournal_app&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;quot; target=&amp;quot;_blank&amp;quot;&amp;gt;aaronburden&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; from &amp;lt;a href=&amp;quot;https://unsplash.com?utm_source=livejournal_app&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;quot; target=&amp;quot;_blank&amp;quot;&amp;gt;Unsplash&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&quot; fetchpriority=&quot;high&quot; /&gt;
              
              &lt;figcaption&gt;Photo by &lt;a href=&quot;https://unsplash.com/@aaronburden?utm_source=livejournal_app&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;aaronburden&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;a href=&quot;https://unsplash.com?utm_source=livejournal_app&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Unsplash&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;
            &lt;/div&gt;
          &lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The problem with writing has always been the garbage, it&apos;s a piled high with thoughts, trash, distractions and you need to just write to get the tallow to render and separate from the rest of it.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I need to post crap more frequently so I can finally get to the good stuff.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So here we are back on LJ saying we&apos;re back on LJ again and again and this time with a plan to come back on LJ not two years, not two months, not even two days but daily.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Days N Daze&lt;/strong&gt;: Post Party Depression:&lt;em&gt;who&apos;s gonna be there to catch you when your plans all fall through&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So I&apos;m leaving the LJ tab open, hoping it&apos;ll encourage me to come back and write every day.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Will it work? Maybe, will people read it? that doesn&apos;t matter.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Days N Daze&lt;/strong&gt;: Wholesale Failure: &lt;em&gt;I&apos;m not catalyst for change&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So here&apos;s goes nothing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It helps if you&apos;re out there.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If you&apos;re reading&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If you&apos;re commenting.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I miss you all.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So where does this go?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I really don&apos;t know, but I miss this and need this as an outlet. Maybe this is the first step to me finding my fiction voice once again. I lost my ability to write daily and with it, my motivation to be a published writer.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Dreams deferred yadda yadda.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Note2Self:Yadda Yadda&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So what have I been doing?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Note2Self:That should probably be it&apos;s own blog&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;True me.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So the bullet points, for those in the back seats:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Got Married&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Had Kids&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Worked so many crappy production jobs, in reality TV and entertainment news&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;landed a job at mobcrush&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;started fostering cats&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.twitch.tv/cuteavalanche&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;started a 24/7 Kitten Cam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Any questions?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Apes Of The State&lt;/strong&gt;: Bill Collectors Theme Song: &lt;em&gt;I can&apos;t seem to keep my head out of the clouds&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That&apos;s it, that&apos;s all, it&apos;s done.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ll be back tomorrow&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hold me accountable!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;SIDENOTE: How the heck do I get the old editor back so my HTML actually works! since apparently you can&apos;t change font color in the new editor... sigh&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;a name=&apos;cutid1-end&apos;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</description>
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  <pubDate>Sat, 09 Mar 2019 05:14:55 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Memories of Tomorrow</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/638122.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;Every time I go to blog these days it immediately goes to a place of nostalgia. I&apos;m so tempted to start every post with &quot;I used to this&quot; or &quot;remember when that&quot;... I never feel excited to talk about things I&apos;m doing, going to do, the future, etc.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Where did that go?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Frankly I&apos;ve been running on empty for nearly 6 years now. I&apos;m not blaming the girls, but it&apos;s the kids, and the job and the bills. I&apos;m exhausted, I need time to tuck myself away in a room by myself and just exist.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I haven&apos;t recouped in forever.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m not even sure the last time I legitimately wrote anything was. Like fiction-wise.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This is as close as it gets to being creative these days, and I&apos;m over it. hiding my thoughts away in this old dusty corner of the internet.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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  <pubDate>Tue, 05 Mar 2019 06:44:24 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Everything Tastes Like Salt</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/637781.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve been fighting this virus for what must be nearly two weeks. I hit the peak last Friday which literally knocked me on my ass so hard I couldn&apos;t stay conscious for longer than a few minutes here and there until it was nearly Sunday. I wasn&apos;t able to eat anything either, I drank water and juice when I could manage to get up.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Then as I was on the mend, something horrid happened. For the second time during this battle (sorry in advance) my entire mouth was in a world of mucous. All I could taste or smell was that. With the slight exception of the day I took some Berry flavored NyQuil knock off to sleep; then it was the taste of Chemical Berry Mucous. It was worse.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But nothing was worse than what followed. Everything turned to salt. It came on suddenly when I tried to eat some pasta my wife made, and at first I only noticed the overwhelming salt taste when I tried to eat anything.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Then it became persistent.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It is the worst version of the weird fruit that turns your sour tastebuds to sweet, except this is just an overall — everything is fucking SALT!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Chicken soup? Salt water with meaty bits.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;La Croix? Dish soap.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Pizza? Fuck you, there is no God!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A quick google search presents this fun list&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Dehydration&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Nutritional deficiencies&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Oral bleeding&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Acid reflux&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Oral infection&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Post-nasal drip&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sjogrens-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20353216&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Sjogren’s syndrome&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Hormonal changes&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Side effects of medication&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Chemotherapy side effects&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Roughly 5 of these could apply, pretty sure I haven&apos;t been getting secret Chemotherapy but who, I&apos;m willing to blame anything at this point (you know... cause I&apos;m salty... *shakes fist*)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;How do you get better when all your food tastes like poison?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve been forcing myself to eat, I push past the taste as long as I can, one slice of pizza, a side salad, a cup of tea (which thank god doesn&apos;t taste terrible but has no real calories or nutrients or anything but it&apos;s liquid).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This is like my own personal Twilight Zone/Black Mirror episode.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Utter hell.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Stay Strong&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;a name=&apos;cutid1-end&apos;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</description>
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  <pubDate>Fri, 25 Jan 2019 07:15:44 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Calm Down and Destroy</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/637678.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;This is a bit of forced entry, I&apos;m making myself put the virtual pen to the virtual paper. Exercise exercising my demons. I have a jumble in my brain, a bee&apos;s nest swarming and buzzing and concentration has been hard for years.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I live so often in nostalgia, in the impulse to start every passage with the nagging brain pull of the past.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This is now, this is future, this is the Push.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It&apos;s been slide and survive for so long.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We move on and cast out the insects from our skull, find the calm and peace. Waves in the ocean. The Black Sea rises. I&apos;ve tried so long to call back, Daniel, Katie. The chessboard. Memories of Tomorrow.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But now, this Tume, this time, this this... I&apos;m covered in spider webbing, saran wrap, sinew of life.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tear it all off, does that bring me a calm or a focus to become a titan?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Do we stay wrapped and buzzing in our coma of work, life, social media and bullshit just out of fear. If we rise above it, do we cease to strive?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m ready to relax, I&apos;m ready to destroy.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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  <pubDate>Tue, 22 Jan 2019 23:13:19 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Life Updates</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/637278.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;It&apos;s been a million years since &lt;a href=&quot;https://proof.livejournal.com/2000/08/31/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;I started my journey here on LJ&lt;/a&gt; (or 19). I&apos;ve taken vast breaks, returned to check on the void of nothing and left again and again, and why should this time be any different?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It might, it might no be, but where I once stood a single guy recently moved to Hollywood with dreams and aspirations; here&apos;s where I am...&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I was married 8 years ago (we live streamed it, it was intense). I now have two amazing daughters (3 and 5), and I&apos;m finally working at a job where I livestream for a living. In fact I run the studio, I have people above me to check in with but I&apos;m on a very loose tether.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--text-width&quot; data-figure-type=&quot;image&quot; data-image-type=&quot;standart&quot;&gt;
            &lt;div class=&quot;aentry-post__img--text-width&quot; style=&quot;width: 720px;&quot;&gt;
              
                &lt;img style=&quot;max-width: 100%&quot; src=&quot;https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/10429404_10152457660500668_3316903234796408104_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&amp;amp;_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-1.xx&amp;amp;oh=48976974d6411e5667a6a09f0e8a56f5&amp;amp;oe=5CCC3807&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; fetchpriority=&quot;high&quot; /&gt;
              
              &lt;figcaption&gt;&lt;/figcaption&gt;
            &lt;/div&gt;
          &lt;/figure&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It&apos;s pretty awesome, at times very stressful because all the responsibility is really on my shoulders to make this work and work well.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But for the most part the vision is mine.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Life isn&apos;t exactly easy, money vs bills is a daily competition that hasn&apos;t come to balance yet. But I&apos;m on solid ground, which has not been the case for a bunch of these years.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My car is falling apart, my health has been better, but I have an amazing family and a job I love. Creatively, I&apos;ve lost my motivations to write, create music, make youtube videos and pretty much any of my other past times have fallen off... but I hope for their speedy return.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In 2017 my wife started foster kittens, and of course I took that opportunity to &lt;a href=&quot;https://mixer.com/cuteavalanche&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;create a 24/7 kitten cam&lt;/a&gt; and that&apos;s done fairly well.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--media&quot;&gt;&lt;lj-embed id=&quot;116&quot; /&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;[I know it&apos;s probably offline right now, we&apos;re in between litters but soon to have more]&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So what now LJ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Good question, 2019 proves to offer me some hard choices, I know they&apos;re coming and I don&apos;t have my answer yet. Money will have a big factor on these decisions.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We hope to grow our Mixer following for the Kitten Cam and apply for partnership this year (fingers crossed), and we&apos;re looking at creating some kitten calendars now that we have a Hard Drive filled with images from the various kittens that have come through our doors.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That&apos;s the short term plan, we&apos;ll see where the first few months lead and then build out.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Welcome back to my world LJ.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;a name=&apos;cutid1-end&apos;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</description>
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  <pubDate>Mon, 21 Jan 2019 17:35:06 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>New Year. Old Past.</title>
  <author>proof</author>
  <link>https://proof.livejournal.com/637162.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve travelled the world as we know it, socially, internetty, in other words virtually. The BS muck and mire. The ego stroking, self indulgent, life competition.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I come back from time to time, year to year to this wasteland of what once was.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;LJ was my first success, this was my first home on the web, my first learning ground for &apos;Social Media&apos;. It was then, when I started literally a journal, a private public place I posted thoughts.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As time moved on, as I grew, as the internet broke open; it became a place to link, post, promote... it lost it&apos;s heart and my soul.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Many times I&apos;ve come back to see if there was life here, life to be breathed in to and quickly I let it slip again. So why should this time be any different? It shouldn&apos;t, maybe it won&apos;t.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But I&apos;ve found a need to open up, to write without meaning or focus, to spew out thoughts and leave the word salad garbage of my life in a desolate corner of the internet, so i&apos;ve wandered back here.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;because well this is home.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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  <pubDate>Tue, 05 Jun 2018 16:30:42 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>NEW KITTENS - Los Angeles Kitten Cam powered by MobCrush.com</title>
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  <pubDate>Tue, 22 May 2018 18:43:55 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Coffee Morning is LIVE!</title>
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  <description>&lt;figure class=&quot;aentry-post__figure aentry-post__figure--media&quot;&gt;&lt;lj-embed id=&quot;113&quot; /&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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  <pubDate>Tue, 09 Jan 2018 23:37:41 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Justbroadcaster for facebook live  intro tutorial</title>
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  <title>Luke Perry, Michelle Trachtenberg, SNL debutes &amp; More this #waybackwedne...</title>
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  <pubDate>Mon, 09 Oct 2017 18:01:26 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>John Lennon&apos;s Bday, So Much Beatles stuff,  Google Buys Youtube and more...</title>
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  <description>&lt;lj-embed id=&quot;110&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On This Day is up - Today, so many Beatles events and bdays! Plus this is the day Google Bought Youtube and changed it forever! &lt;a href=&apos;https://www.livejournal.com/rsearch/?tags=%23beatles&apos;&gt;#beatles&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&apos;https://www.livejournal.com/rsearch/?tags=%23history&apos;&gt;#history&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&apos;https://www.livejournal.com/rsearch/?tags=%23musicmonday&apos;&gt;#musicmonday&lt;/a&gt;</description>
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  <title>The Cutest Vlogmas Decoraton🎄🎄 Vlogmas Day 15 🎄🎄  - Deer Light Unboxing</title>
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  <title>Hanukkah with the Sam Fam 🎄🎄  Vlogmas Day 8 🎄🎄  #TBT</title>
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