Apparently, there comes a point where your livestream branding can become a little too consistent.
I figured that out when somebody called me and basically said:
“Uh, dude, I just got notified that you had Breakfast Talk. Did somebody hack your channel?”
Nope.
Nobody hacked the channel.
I had simply gone live at a time when nobody should reasonably have expected Breakfast Talk, while still using graphics and wording that made it look like that was exactly what was happening.
And that was probably the point where I realized I needed to clean this up.
Breakfast Talk Is Breakfast Talk
Going forward, Breakfast Talk is exactly what the name says it is.
It is the morning livestream.
The normal schedule is 8 A.M., Monday through Friday, assuming everything else in life cooperates.
That is where the usual morning conversation happens: gig work, technology, something happening in the news, whatever ridiculous thing I was thinking about the night before, or whatever else manages to work its way into the conversation.
If you see me live in the morning, chances are pretty good that you’re watching Breakfast Talk.
Everything Else Is The Debrief
If I go live later in the day or during the evening, that is now The Debrief.
That gives me somewhere to put all of those livestreams that happen because something came up during the day, I wanted to follow up on something from Breakfast Talk, or I simply had something I wanted to sit down and talk about.
It also means somebody getting a notification at nine o’clock at night isn’t going to stare at their phone wondering why Breakfast Talk suddenly moved twelve hours.
The Debrief doesn’t have a hard schedule.
It happens in the evenings when available.
And Then There Are the Projects
Of course, this channel also has the other category:
Projects.
Or, perhaps more accurately:
Updates on things that are totally irrelevant.
That can mean Raspberry Pis, old Macintosh computers, local AI, 3D printing, electronics, building something that probably didn’t need to be built, or discovering that an idea I had while chopping wood somehow turned into a three-week engineering project.
Those streams happen when there is actually something worth showing.
No point scheduling a project update when the project has spent three days sitting on a workbench because I’m waiting for a six-dollar connector to arrive.
One Livestream Brand, Three Different Things
So the new livestream graphic is meant to make the whole thing a little easier to understand.
Breakfast Talk
8 A.M. Monday through Friday.
The Debrief
Evenings when available.
Projects
Updates on things that are totally irrelevant.
And underneath all of it is probably the most important part:
All streams depend on availability.
Bills don’t pay themselves.
This is still something I enjoy doing, but it also exists alongside driving, work, family obligations, projects, and everything else that happens in real life.
Sometimes Breakfast Talk happens right at 8 A.M.
Sometimes The Debrief happens that evening.
Sometimes I disappear into a Macintosh Classic with a Raspberry Pi and emerge several hours later wondering what happened to the day.
That’s The Gigman’s Life.
At least now, when the notification shows up, you’ll have a better idea what the hell you’re being notified about.