Perhaps the most exciting news ever in the history of my live stream: after years of hoping to get my wife on the live stream, she has agreed to stream once a week with me. I'm super excited about that. It'd probably be a good idea to hear her explanation again, but yeah, we will skip that.
Oh, and that's how I can go up in the air a little bit. Okay, cool. This is the first time I've played Super Mario Sunshine. I had a GameCube, but for some reason I didn't play this or Mario 64. Ow — I bumped into that same thing again. That's probably the only way to lose a life here, and I managed to do it. We need some popcorn. Oh, I love popcorn — popcorn is my favorite snack food. Party's in session, Among Us. I need my popcorn back.
Guilty as Charged, Clean the Whole Island
Then the courtroom scene played out. "I judge the defendant guilty as charged. I hereby order the defense to clean this entire island until completely free of his vile handiwork. Mario shall not be allowed to leave." Wow — you've got to clean the whole island. Oh man, I've dropped that popcorn. But I eat stuff off the floor and it works out just fine. This is a strange start to this game right now.
Then the interrogation: "Mario, you witnessed this object at the airstrip, correct?" I did, yes. "Shine Sprites are the source of power on Isle Delfino. They used to gather in great numbers at the Shine Gate, but the graffiti incident has polluted the island and most of the Shine Sprites have fled. There is no longer any power to support the peaceful lifestyle of the islanders. It is most pitiable."
Rodney in chat asked if we should call it Banfield Popcorn Company. Yeah, I could throw it in a bag like these other companies — put some oil and salt on it, make it like it's special. Then the game tried to hit me with the whole speech again. No, I do not want to hear that again.
The Thirty-Dollar-an-Hour Job Post
So here's how this happened. I've been asking around for a few weeks, maybe a month, and I hadn't found anybody else to play with. So I had the smart idea on Wednesday night. I said, you know what — based on the ad revenue I get playing these games, I could easily afford to pay people to come play with me, and it'd be a job. So I put up a post.
Now, I've asked Laura to play with me on my live stream for years, and she's always said no. Recently she said she'd try a live stream with me playing Mario Kart when Jack goes to school, which was like, whoa. But still, I didn't figure Laura would be serious — that she'd really be that interested in doing the stream. I thought that was going to be a one-time thing. So I posted a job two days ago on Facebook to come game with me for like three to nine hours a week, and there were 40-something people that applied within the first 24 hours, which was awesome. I didn't boost the post or anything — just a lot of interest. Thirty dollars an hour to play video games gets some people's attention, and for me it'd be well worth it over the long term.
In fact, some of you that are following — I got multiple applications from those of you that love watching the videos and have been following for years, who said, "Jerry, I'm moving. When can I start? I'll move." Like, no, don't move — there's not that many hours a week. And I got one application from a girl who looked very attractive looking at her Facebook profile, and it says she has a talent agency and she's done some modeling and some promotional work. I'm like, yes, this is exactly what I'm looking for on my live stream. I'd love to have a girl on my live stream, because almost all of you watching are men — except for Lisa. And what's up, nice to see you, Brandon. The click-through rate, if there's a girl on stream, is going to be way higher — especially if you've got me with no shirt and a girl playing an old-school video game. You're talking about just potential to go in.
I Have a Deal for You
So I told Laura this. I'm like, yeah, this girl applied — same thing I just told you. And Laura's like, "I have a deal for you. I prefer that we don't have these people — I prefer that we don't have people coming over to our house. I'll tell you what: if you will agree not to have anybody else come over to do these games, I will play with you once a week." And I just immediately did this happy dance, which is not very common for me, to break out in a happy dance. I'm like, thank you.
So, back to letting me finish this story up. I did a happy dance, and I'm like, thank you — you are the person I really wanted to play with. I told Laura, I'm like, you're the person I really wanted to play with. I was only looking for other people because you made it clear you weren't interested and didn't want to participate. So I'm so happy Laura said she will play once a week on the live stream. I am absolutely thrilled. Immediately after she said that, I deleted the job post. I'm like, I don't want to play with anybody else.
I'm just so grateful. Laura is so supportive and utterly fantastic. She saw the job post I made and she didn't say anything. She waited. Instead of being nasty, she waited — and that's what's so attractive about Laura. She's just so grown up. I mean, being mature, to me, is much more attractive than your physical body, which is probably why I'm starting to notice grandmas for the first time in my life. Like, hey, you're really mature.
I'm 37 today, and I love being 37, because life at 37 is so much easier than it was at any other year. It's much easier. I really like being 37. I think it's an honor and a privilege to gain more life experience. I look at the kids and I'm like, man, y'all have so much to learn that I've already learned. I like having learned a bunch of these tough lessons in life already, and I don't have to learn them again. It's great. I really like being 37, because life at 37 is so much easier than it was at any other year. I remember feeling hopeless when it came to dating at a lot of points in my life, and I want to let y'all know that I'm talking about how great my wife is because there's a lot of other people that are great out there too. This world is filled with nice, kind, loving people who, given kind and caring and loving treatment, will be really nice to you and will make all your dreams come true.
You Are a Disgrace on the Streaming Community
The first email I got today was from somebody asking a question about a video I posted before. The second one was somebody saying — what'd they say? — "You're disgusting. You are a disgrace on the streaming community." And I deleted the email, and I thought, I'm glad I was able to receive that email with compassion. Because I know just yesterday I got all upset when we were at my son's school. I'm not loud and angry — I'm just like, I don't want to look at anybody, feeling ashamed. And I went outside and cried and felt my feelings, because I'm like, you know what, I don't want to be in that reactive state where I'm one comment away from going off on somebody, or I'm one car pulling out in front of me away from losing it. Because that's how I used to live — feeling like I could easily lose control of myself and forget what was important. That could easily slip away.
The biggest benefit of going to Alcoholics Anonymous has been getting myself back, and my self-control back, where I'm not very often in that reactive state. I say reactive state because it feels like a depth you get sunk into, where you're one comment away from it, and I've certainly been washed in that same delta of ugliness plenty of times. But really, in that state, it's like you don't have control of yourself. You'll try and think positive, and all that will come are negative thoughts. You'll try and be nice, and then you'll notice that nasty things keep coming out of your mouth again. I lived a lot of years of my life like that, and I sent a lot of messages and I said a lot of things on Xbox Live to people in that same kind of energy.
So I'm glad today that sometimes I can be really understanding. Like, you know what, I'm going to pray for this person who sent me this message. From their view, what they've said has validity. From my view, I can see where they're coming from, but that also is not valid in my experience. So I'm grateful today that I do my live stream, so I can share a little stuff like this — because to me it's very important to be aware whether I'm in reactive mode or not. And if I'm in reactive mode, I need to immediately find out about it, and my first priority is to get out of reactive mode. Reactive mode is where anything that happens, you're going to blow or react, and you're going to do things you regret.
Would I Tell Everybody About This?
Wait — can I jump? Hold up, we can jump on this, can't we? Oh yeah. That moment when you figure out something new is just so satisfying, isn't it? Wow, all the goop is hanging out over here. Nice, we got another blue coin.
I love teaching this stuff because it helps me practice it. Some days I'm like, man, I don't want to tell my live stream how I lost it today. But being accountable is the most helpful thing I've found in my life for improving behavior. If you're not accountable, you truly are free to act any kind of way. But if you're accountable to people, it promotes automatic good behavior. So anything I do, I'm going to tell everybody about it, and that just makes it very easy. Anything I'm doing, I think: would I like to tell everybody about this? My wife, my kids, my parents, my live stream audience — is this something I'd like to talk with everybody about? If even a hint of some kind of self-harm comes up, then it goes through that test first: is this something you want to tell everybody about? Nah. All right, let's just end this line of thinking now, because I don't want any more of it.
This is a cool game. We often hear in life about how we need to do more, when really less is often more advantageous. It's often doing more that compromises our entire life situation. I mean, you think about things like staying faithful in marriage — if I'm focused totally on my wife, that's easy.
Being a good parent — all I've got to do is pay sufficient attention to my children and take care of myself and take care of my marriage. It's not better for me to try and feel like I'm important by the work I do, when all I need to do is be there for my family and I automatically feel I'm important. I know I'm hugely important to my kids.
Wait Till His Mouth Opens
Then the boss fight. "Your attacks are having no effect." Maybe I need to alter my timing. Yeah, I must need to do something different. Well, we've got to wait till his mouth is open. Oh — all right, we need to hit him when his mouth opens, don't we? Ah, there we go. That got him.
The Definition of Insanity Is This Pineapple Basket
How am I supposed to put this in the basket? Well, I just threw that. Wait, I've got to throw these. So I hear the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results, and that's how I look at it. Wait, I need to put these in there. There must be an easy way to do this. How do I get this basket down? Can I jump up high with this? Can he, like, dunk this thing? We're going to get this in there. I wonder if I can carry this around the side. All right, we've tried that — that's not very good. We need to get up on top of this, ideally. Oh, now I just jumped out further.
If you want different results in your life, the way to go about it is to try something new. It's often in the new things we try that what we're looking for is discovered. That's when I went to Alcoholics Anonymous — I mean, that's what I did. I started trying a bunch of new things. Instead of drinking when I'm upset, let me go get a massage. Instead of screaming at somebody, let me slow down and pray for a moment. And all of a sudden, now I've got all these tools that work really well. So I'm going to try something new, and I'm going to try something really good for me.
Those Are Lemons
Did that go in right now? Did that go in? I can't even tell. Does she want a pineapple? Also, a few — and I guess if you don't know what to do, that's where you ask other people for help and say, hey, I'm really stressed out, what do you recommend? All right, I brought her one, so let's look for a couple more. Oh, those are lemons, aren't they? Those aren't pineapples.
If you're really stressed out, ask people: hey, what do you do for stress relief? And sometimes what you hear will obviously not be right — you'll be like, you know what, I don't think that's right for me. But other things you hear, you'll go, wow, I didn't think of that, maybe I'll try that. I can't tell — did it go in? I like to think of it this way: if I do something new with someone new somewhere new, will I become someone new? Absolutely.
Playing Video Games and Calling It Work
I thank God I'm in a good mood most of the time today. It really sucks to be in a bad mood. I've got a lot of love for everybody who's out there having a bad mood today, because, man, I'm loving my life. I'm glad I'm alive. I'm glad I'm here playing this video game and calling it work. I mean, miraculous. What I'm doing now as a reality seemed impossible for most of my life. No matter how good my life went, if you'd told me 20 years ago, I would have said: no matter how good my life goes, I am never going to be playing video games for my full-time job. And yet here I am, fumbling pineapples on Isle Delfino for my Games playlist.
Can I jump up here and get it in? Hold up, I'm working on it. All right, so I got one in. We need to get two more in. Can I jump up there and get that? All right, can I — this should be real, this should be a slam dunk right here. Can I jump on this? Give me that. No. Up — the pineapple's sitting in the basket. Is this supposed to sit right next to me? The basket. Real gentle with it, just drop it in there. I'm hitting every button. What did I just do? I have to be outside of it to throw it today. How do I switch the camera angle? I'm just hitting every button now. Where did that pineapple go? Oh, what did I just do there? It just looked up. Where did that pineapple go? Get it in. Oh, whoa. How do I switch the camera angle? I really liked that one camera angle — that was good. I'll just hit every button. That one, sir. Oh, all right, so if I hit this one I should be able to look more. I can't — oh, look up hard. He just put that down. He straight up put that down. There's got to be an easier way to do this. Can I jump on her head and put it in? Oh, I got it in. I got all of them. Nice — that was challenging. Jose, have a good night. Thank you.