šŗ https://youtu.be/se_yJgVi4tc
The emoji/modes are my level of engagement with the live stream. You can read more about it on my about page: https://twitch.tv/rwxrob/about
āļø doing stream maintenance [admin] Keep me company while I do the boring admin work to keep the live stream community up and running: pushing videos, making hilights, updating descriptions, managing music collection, creating OBS scenes, drawing emotes, updating schedule, etc. This is a good time to ask questions about running your own live stream community.
šØ appreciating art [appreciating.art] Occasionally, Iāll go out to a gallery art crawl or show or other art event with my wife Doris (https://instagram.com/doriskapner) whoās work is very well known in our region (and for sale). Sometimes Iāll just review art at home from my desktop while we talk about it. I canāt always directly respond to chat, but all types of chat are welcome, including questions for the artists that I might be interviewing live.
šµ appreciating music, pub crawls, etc. [appreciating.music] I love music of all kinds, but I especially love live impromptu music like you find in a pub or from people busking on the street. I canāt always get out, so youāll see me set this status when just searching through Spotify and YouTube for good music to add to my collection. Chat is fun, interactive, and emotes are totally fine.
š away for now but come back soon [away] Iām away from my computer or phone and not streaming. Donāt worry. Chat is blocked but people regularly use IRC or Discord to hang out even if Iām away.
š» chillin, random whatever, and music [chillin] Chilling is when Iād have a beer with friends and just talk about random shit, listen to good music, and sometimes belly laugh laugh. The mood is definitely āno worriesā so just about anything goes, including limited emoji spam.
ā coffee talk, news, music [coffee] Quiet, more intellectual conversation about current events, tech trends, secops drama, and roasting shitting blog posts. Coffee not required. Ask anything you want, but please donāt spam.
š¤ learning something together [colearning] Learning is often best when done with a group of friends. Yāall are my friends (honestly, I have few outside of streaming) and the current followers in chat are the group. Letās figure this shit out together. Questions and insights are strongly (and selfishly) encouraged.
š working together (pomodoro coworking) [coworking] Iām just here working and taking breaks at the top of the hour. Imagine if we were all sitting in a co-working/co-location center or coffee shop. I have no idea what you are working on, but we are madly working away on our own stuff. We take breaks and talk about the industry and life, then we get back to it. If you get lonely or unmotivated (like so many of us) join us. Iāll try not to be too distracting. Any chat is allowed, but avoid excessive emoji spam since we are trying to get work done.
ā ļø hacking to learn [hacking] Iām a slow, methodical, grey-hat hacker who takes lots of tangents along the way. I donāt hack for speed. I hack to discover, understand, and shame. Iāve never been a āprofessional,ā but I have written systems security audit software and performance-testing fork-bombs for IBM where I also did forensics on Tivoli core dumps. Iāve caught hackers on my personal network (using tools Iāve written) and reported them. And, yes, Iāve āhackedā into systems in the past. In fact, I may or may not āaccidentallyā dox my IP address to attract more script-kiddies to my honeypot. Youāve been warned. I also have quite a few contacts (weāll say) in the āsecurityā space with a particular set of skills that far surpass mine. (I also speak Russian and French.) When I first started streaming in early 2020 I started to pursue an OSCP certification and considered getting into it formally. Iām glad I switched to cloud-native infrastructure engineering instead, more money and less paper work. Plus, I can still hack āfor funā in my own time (but obviously nothing on stream unless it is to learn). Ask all the questions you want when Iām in this mode.
ā” helping others learn [mentoring] Important people have said Iām good at helping others learn complicated things, probably because Iām a simple person who prefers connecting and comprehending more than coding. Iāve been offered gobs of money by multi-national companies to develop their own propietary materials. I refused. Iāve worked for elite private schools and community colleges. Academia is just not for me. I started SKILSTAK in 2013 with my own retirement money to help people really learn without the fetters of traditional education. In fact, Iām writing a book about it (āActivate Your Autodidact, Learn Like the Bestā). I really enjoy empowering this (extended) SKILSTAK community with the same skills that have helped so many over the last decade achieve their personal goals. I no longer accept private community members, instead, tune in Saturdays and Sundays for SKILSTAK community-driven learning and AMA sessions. The content will always be free and is specifically focused on getting you the fastest growing, highest paying jobs in the tech world (which are usually not FAANG companies). You usually donāt need to spend anything on tech education! Stop wasting your money on unused Udemy courses and irrelevant college tuition. Focus.
š out walking, talking, skating, touring [out] Iām out and about doing something usually, mostly outside. Could be camping, strolling, walking, visiting the store, whatever IRL. I live in Mooresville, North Carolina, home of NASCAR and people who want to see what āMerica looks like might be interested (expats, internationals, etc.) I try to explain American terms and culture to those curious about it. All chat is welcome.
š out for a run [out.running] Lotās of heavy breathing. I usually do a 1-1 interval in order to keep the pace conversational. Why not put on your shoes and go running with me? Any chat is okay including motivational emojis. I actually live streamed the 2021 5K race I was in here locally and plan on doing it again. Just have to stay in shape for it. I used to be something of a triathlete back in the day, but that was a long time ago. I run with a gimble or GoPro to keep things pretty steady and watchable.
š¹ out long-boarding, strolling, and chatting [out.skateboarding] Sk8te or die! Yeah, I know Iām 54 and I shouldnāt be skateboarding, but fuck that. I put all the best wipe-outs on YouTube. Open to any kind of chat at all. Including motherly calls to ābe more carefulā.
š planning [planning] Planning and putting together the stream schedule of educational and other content. Open to input from the community. Usually, involves our Google calendar.
āļø dota2 turbo [playing.dota2] Iāve been obsessed with Dota2 since beta. Iām proud to be a perpetual casual with a horribly shitty shadow MMR (although 3400 was my highest back when I put in the time). Hereās the thing. I have a life. ;) I enjoy the strategy of the game more than out twitching the other team which is why I love the totally fucked up meta of Turbo. Itās an entirely different game that no one writes much about. You can easily tilt a Turbo game by quickly changing your build in the middle of the game. Thatās not as easy in regular Dota2. Does it ruin my regular Dota2 skills? Hell yes. But I donāt give a shit. Itās fun. Please no backseating unless I ask for it. Most people who backseat have no fucking clue what they are talking about ā especially in Turbo.
š¹ bow sniper, engie, pyro [playing.tf2] I love and hate TF2. I have great memories playing this with my boys over the years and the notalgia will never get old. But this is an out-twitch-them game and that getās boring really fast. Still, Iāll play it sometimes and when I do, I prefer taking my time for skill-shots with bow sniper. Any chat is fine.
šŗ playing witcher, cat school, triss [playing.witcher3] Witcher3 is my all-time favorite game. It demonstrates what a true art-form gaming can be, at every level. Iād never cried in a game until Witcher3 (and no it wasnāt during the sex). My wife is an avid Witcher fan as well and has read all the books (just not played the game at all). We love the Netflix series as well, despite its quirks. Chat away and tell me your preferred choices. Sorry for the screen ripping. One day Iāll setup a capture card.
š§ practicing ashtanga yoga [practicing.yoga] Iāve been a practing ashtangi since about 2010 when I discovered Yoga after my divorce and leaving the Mormon church as a means to spiritual and physical harmony and peace, plus it gave me ripped abs (statistically preferred by most women over every other part of a manās body). It worked. I met Doris largely through yoga and we are very happily married (and both completed Yoga instructor training from the Ashtanga Yoga Institute). These days I tend to miss more days than I once did. But if you want to join me, letās do it. I rarely respond to chat during a Yoga session unless we are on a āmoon dayā and doing nothing but talking about Yoga.
š¤¬ yelling obscenities into the camera [ranting] Old man shouts at the camera connected to the cloud, about whatever. āDonāt get mad, get busy. Donāt get mad, get busy. Donāt get mad, get busy.ā (There, Iām calm now.) You can yell back in chat if you want to.
šŗ making videos for youtube [recording] When making videos everything that appears in chat will permenantly be recorded with the YouTube video. Please keep that in mind. I do have moderators, but there is always a chance someone will force me to cut out a segment of video that is inappropriate. If you have relevant additions to the video please make them in the chat ā especially if I make a mistake.
š trying to find answers on the internetz [searching] Could be looking up functional parsing algorithems, or could be finding the Buckaroo Bonzai theme song. Chat is strongly encouraged to help get the answer as fast as possible.
š looking for something to buy [shopping] Thereās something that I need to buy and am doing the research to get the right thing, could be tech, could be music, or just a good book.
š taking calls from discord guests [taking.calls] When the phone is on you can call from Discord stage and talk on the stream with me. That status will have the topic we are talking about.
š writing in zettelkasten, working on books [writing] My first love is writing. Since the time I wrote all those Dungeons and Dragons adventure campaigns from scratch I have never been satisfied. My fingers hurt writing this now (because of of how unnecessarily verbose all of this is). I was the college kid who submitted 25 pages when only eight were required (but somehow my professors still liked me, even let me turn in a final two weeks late once). The books Iām currently working on are listed in their own Twitch About section. You can chat away about whatever you want because I very likely am not looking at the chat at all. Just donāt expect a response from me. Typo corrections are very welcome. People have said they really appreciate seeing the thought process behind the writing in real-time. I would agree. I like watching others do it as well.