Life Update 2016

I will start this blog by emphasizing and reiterating that I am nobody special, and my life is no more important than anyone else’s. In the domain of professional industries and organizations, I am still near the bottom tier in terms of experience. This blog post just provides context for my intermittent long periods of absence from YouTube for the last 6 months.

I have talked about my job in earlier vlogs and life update videos so those that have been subscribed to me for years might already know, but my 40 hour a week day job is doing clinical research for Johns Hopkins. I manage and coordinate patient participation in research studies. Previously, I worked for Orthopaedics with an emphasis in spine surgery recovery. Due to the nature of clinical research, a large portion of staff salary is funded by external grants and not directly by the University. We were doing a multisite study with Vanderbilt, and they decided not to continue funding for data on research participants at Hopkins, which meant the department couldn’t support my salary anymore. I had to go into emergency job hunting mode. Looking for a full time job is its own full time job, with all your free time devoted to looking for positions, drafting resumes and cover letters, custom tailoring cover letters to better fit the position, and contacting potential references. Job insecurity is one of the most stressful things you can ever experience. During my period of job hunting, I didn’t make many videos because they just wouldn’t be of good quality. I couldn’t bring it upon myself to be motivated to make entertaining, engaging content. That’s one talent the best full time YouTubers have in common: even when they are stressed they put on their lively persona and  can be natural and entertaining on camera. For my job hunt, I finally got some interview offers in middle of August, and got employment offers to choose from in September. I ended up accepting another clinical research position at Hopkins, one with a slightly higher pay grade than my former position, but also a higher level of responsibility. I work with Neurobiology now, and I won’t go into further detail on the specific disease that I do research for, not because these are super secret projects, (in fact, the results of all our studies will eventually be published) but to keep a level of separation between my personal life and my professional life, especially since living with the disease is a sensitive issue for the patients and their families.

To give myself a shorter commute, I moved out of my parents house and into this apartment in Baltimore. Even a few years after graduating college, I still lived with my parents even on a salary that allowed me to move out. There are a couple of reasons for this decision. One of the reasons is that my parents had wanted to buy a new house, and one contingency of them buying the house was my ability to help with the mortgage. So, I contributed $1,000 a month to help with the mortgage, which essentially acted as my rent. Furthermore, I didn’t want to move out on my own just for the sake of saying that I did. It didn’t seem super appealing to me to live in a tiny apartment or rent in a house with roommates, and still have to deal with the headache of a commute. Getting an apartment in the city on my old salary would have given me maybe $20 in savings a month. I think in our current generation, it is more socially acceptable to live a while longer at home, especially if you have student debt to pay off. Now, on my current salary, I’m able to afford an apartment in the city, which alleviates the stress of commuting so I have more energy for my new responsibilities at work.

So that’s why I’ve been so stagnant in making videos from July to December. Now, I’ll answer some questions I’ve had come up again and again.

Why do you have guns and games on the same channel? Why not just make 2 channels?

I never intended my channel to be exclusively about gaming and tech. If you were subscribed years ago, you’d also remember that fitness videos were also a common feature on my channel. I host both guns and games on one channel instead of having separate channels for each focus because the diversity of channel functions as an avenue to introduce new enthusiasts to hobbies they wouldn’t have had exposure to otherwise. I do get a lot of comments on my videos from guys saying that they got into firearms and tactical shooting because they found my videos from first having seen some of my gaming videos, and I’ve also had some viewers take an interest in building their PC after having found my PC building videos after watching some of my firearms videos. Furthermore, the process and philosophy of building a performance PC and building a performance rifle are more similar than they are different. I have made a video on this topic before, but I don’t think I did the best job that I can, so later next year, I will revisit the topic.

Another question I get a lot is:

When am I going to make more fitness videos?

The reason I haven’t been making many fitness videos is that I’ve not been consistent in my workout regimen. I feel it would be hypocritical to be giving fitness advice when I myself am not adhering to the concepts that I advocate in my videos. There is no excuse for slacking off on a fitness regimen. Being busy with work is not a valid excuse. There are medical residents who I see are regulars at the Cooley Center, and there are few professions on this planet that have a busier work week than a medical resident. Since moving into my new apartment, I have been more dedicated and consistent with my regimen, and I feel more at ease giving fitness advice. I also have to come up with videos that aren’t just me shirtless talking to the camera, because then I would feel like a complete toolbag with inevitable comparisons to another YouTuber. Starting in January, I plan to have at least 1 fitness video a month, and I intend to discuss practical and specific strategies for achieving your fitness goals, whether it’s losing fat or gaining muscle. I’ll talk about concepts that are overstated and overrated. I think the strongest aspect of my videos about diet and exercise is that I don’t have an ulterior motive to sell you a specific supplement or an exercise plan. YouTube views and the satisfaction of helping others keeps me going.

If there are any more questions you have about me, then leave them as comment on this blog, and I may feature it in my next Q&A. I’ll do a new Q&A every 2 weeks, and if they get more popular, I may even do one once a week.

This website supplements and complements my YouTube channel. Mostly, it’s blogging of the written transcripts of my YouTube videos. I had thought about making a blog for a long time, because I already write scripts for most of my videos, so it wouldn’t be too much additional effort to incorporate those scripts into written blogs. Another factor in my decision is I’ve had more and more subscribers request scripts or subtitles to videos, because English is their second language and they’d like to progress through my content at their own pace. If you get the chance, please leave a comment on any of the blog posts. I’d really appreciate it and it would really help my website gain momentum in development.

Thank you all for sticking with me even when I slacked off. I can’t ask for a more dedicated core group of subscribers. I hope everyone has had a great 2015 and is ready to start the new year off with a bang. I have a lot of exciting content planned for 2016. The best is yet to come.