Perfect White Bread

This recipe is based solely off my own baking experience and others' may differ as conditions change. All directions are based around using a stand-mixer with a dough hook. During the rising process,  I used my oven with a bowl of water inserted, warmed to the lowest setting it had and let to cool slightly before inserting the dough. 

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (110° F)
• 2 cups milk (Scalded)
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 4 cups all purpose flour

1. Combine yeast and water, let soften
2. Combine Milk, Sugar, Salt, and Butter. Cool to lukewarm
3. Add 2 cups flour; beat well
4. Add softened yeast, mix
5. Add enough of remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough, mix for 8-10 minutes
6. With floured hands, shape into a ball and place in lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease entire surface.
7. Cover and let rise until double (Approx 1 hr) in warm place
8. Punch down, split dough into 2 equal portions. Shape into loaf and place in pans. Let rise again until double.
9. Heat oven to 375° and cook for 25 minutes (covering pans lightly with foil after the first 10 minutes)

So I'm being laid off

Yesterday I was given my 30 day notice at work that they're laying me off. My entire department is being relocated to another state and everyone I work with is out of a job right before Christmas. There is no relocation option for us, there is no being transferred to another department. If we wanted to stay with the company, we'd have to apply for jobs just like every other person out there. Sure we might get special consideration and be fast-tracked through the application process, but there was no guarantee.
Now me, I'm not too worried, I've always been one to just go with the flow. I have faith that things will work out ok, at least for the near future. I'll be "working" until December 19th. After that I get 10 weeks of severance pay. Beyond that, I've got money available from my father's estate. It's not the ideal situation, but with cost cutting and creative money management, I'll be ok for a while.
I do plan on looking for another job, but I gotta stick with it here till the end to make sure I get that severance money. Of course, while I'm getting severance pay, I won't be able to collect unemployment. It makes sense, I'm still getting income. At the same time, I'll be unemployed.
I've got a friend who says his company is hiring. It sounds like a pretty decent gig, but it pays less than I'm making now.  I think I could live on a smaller budget, especially once I get my last credit card paid off. It would be a significant drop in pay. Of course, I can't be sure that I'd even get that job.
So what's my plan? For now, I'm just gonna ride this out, till Thanksgiving. After that, I'll shoot my resume off to my friend, post it up around the job sites, network, etc. Then I'll hope for the best. I'll start applying to other jobs as well, but really, what company is going to hire someone right before Christmas?
Once my 30 days (29 as of me writing this!) is up and I'm not working, I'll be focusing on YouTube again, increase my daily gaming videos. I may also start a daily vlog talking about my job search and such.  Outside of that, there's a lot of resources out there that can help me earn some small amounts of cash. I could setup something on Fiverr, maybe start turking, and could always pick up some temp work on Craigslist.
Course, what I'd love to have happen is finding my way in the YouTube world. Nothing would make me happier than to be able to earn a living from making content people love to watch. I have ideas and plans on what I can do to improve. I have new series I want to start, as well as some old stuff I'd like to pick back up. There's a lot of games I have yet to play that have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for me to have time to play them.
And now comes the time when beg and plead for your help. Nah, I'm not gonna do that. I'll make it. If I have to I'll work two or even three jobs. I'm not going down without a fight! But, with saying that, I'm not one to turn down a helping hand. So, let me just drop you this link. . . . Munchmo on Patreon

So the diet is working

It's been almost 3 weeks since I started actively tracking my food intake, and I couldn't be happier with the results! I know it's not much, but so far I'm down about 5 pounds. It might all be in my head, but I actually think I can see it. The best part is, I'm not starving myself, I'm not restricting what I can eat, I'm just taking a healthy amount of food, and spreading it throughout the day. I plan ahead, pay attention to what I'll be eating, and make sure it'll work.
I still eat Moe's on Monday (1200+ calories in a single meal) but I still keep within my calorie range. I ate Five Guys (1300+ calories in one sitting) on Sunday, but I worked hard that day cleaning out my father's house and didn't go over. I still eat pizza once a week, but instead of eating half a pizza, I eat two to three slices. I still snack, almost all the Halloween candy is gone, but instead of gorging on it in one sitting, I controlled myself and only ate one or two pieces a day.
And that's the best part, these sweet foods I used to binge on are still there, I still get to eat and enjoy them, but I also get to enjoy them for longer, since I'm not eating too much at once. So, at the rate I'm going, I'll be down to my ideal weight (what I'm hoping for at least) in about 9 months; that is if I keep this up.
But wait! There's more! "What more could there be?" You ask. Well, how about exercise? Right now I'm not doing anything when it comes to physical activity. I live a very sedentary life. Most of my exercise comes from working at my my father's house once a week. I'm sure it helps, but I also know there's more I could be doing.
Now, I tried this before, daily workout for 30 minutes, in the hopes of losing weight and feeling better, but nothing changed. At that point I was a bit blind to the truth about losing weight. I didn't change anything else, still had all the same bad eating habits, so I saw ZERO results.
But now, I think I'm going to give it a go, and of course, since I'm a gamer and a geek, what better workout than getting back into Wii Fit? The real question is, do I just do this for myself and all that, or should I find a way to stream it or record it? Would anyone actually be interested in seeing that?

More Vloggy Goodness!

So here we are, another week going by and more new stuff coming! I have so much to share with you. Right now I have 4(!) vlog videos just waiting to air. And not only that, but I've still got many more I have to put together.
One hits tomorrow, it's something special, possibly a one-time thing, but I'm kinda proud of it. It could become something more depending on how well it is received. If there's enough interest I might even make my first weekly series, who knows?
I've also got another video in the Inheritance series up and waiting to be released. This one will be a little different than the others. Plus I've got at least enough footage that I have to put together for another video about some of the cool things I've found in the house. There's still so much more work to do too!
I've got two (!) videos up and waiting for release now from my vacation to Nova Scotia not long ago. The ContentID hold on the one has finally been released so I think next Friday those two will be going live.
Then there's the videos I've still not put together, like the Atlanta Maker Faire video, and The Costumes of Dragoncon 2014. Not sure why these aren't happening yet, but I'll make time for them soon enough.
Plus, of course, I have many more ideas for videos and such, like my Maker series! I like tinkering, and I want to tinker with you!
But that's all the update I have now, so thanks for joining me today.

Updates

I figured since I have this blog, I might as well use it, so here goes! First I'd like to talk about the blog itself. Originally it was meant as a way to connect with viewers of my gaming channel, but it didn't get much traffic, which is ok. Since then, it has become more of a way for me to make notes to myself.
I think, instead of just using it as that, I can also use it to "tease" upcoming things on my channels, both gaming and vlog. I'm not sure how regular updates will be, and I won't make any promises, but as you can see in my previous few posts, there are a lot of things in the works. I will go into more detail about them over time.
Now that I've talked about this blog some, let me talk more about my channels. I'll start with my gaming channel because there's not a lot to say. There are a ton of games I'm enjoying and a ton of games I'm looking forward to. As it stands I have a single track of programming, one video per day, each series once per week. This may change, but as it stands I don't have as much time as I did before. There are some games I feel like I really want to play more though, so some might get a boost in output.
You know what, I kinda forgot about Twitch. I haven't streamed in a while, and I'm sorry about that. I've been busy, I rarely have much time between when I get home from work and when I go to bed. Because of the way things are working with my Vlog channel, a lot of that time has been dedicated to sifting through footage, which I can't really do while streaming. Although, now that I'm thinking about it, I may be able to. I'll have to try it and see. maybe even give the viewers a taste of what I'm doing?
Now, onto Munchmo Vlogs! Right now, I have a problem. Youtube's broken content ID system is flagging royalty-free music I'm using. It might take up to a month for that to be released. I expect this is going to happen on every single video I upload that uses any sort of music. I'll try make sure I don't go too long without content, I'm planning on doing a channel update video soon to help with that. But this means I'm going to have to try to have a months worth of content scheduled at all times. Luckily, I've got some footage backlogged that I'm trying to get through. It's going to take a while, but once I finally get it all put together I'll be doing ok I think. It's just going to take time, and with all the other stuff I have going on, I'm trying to make it a priority without it having a negative impact on the rest of my life.
Lastly, I want to talk about Patreon. So far, no patrons. That's ok, I don't mind. I barely have any subs on youtube, so I don't expect to have much in the way of patrons. There's also the fact that my channel is only a couple of months old. I can understand people not wanting to support a new "artist" (Is that what I am? Is what I'm doing considered Art? I really don't know). But just because I'm new doesn't mean I plan on quitting! Just the fact that I've already gotten 20 subs on youtube in a very short time makes me ecstatic.
That's really all I have to say for this blog post, if you've made it this far, thanks for reading. I'll try my best to make sure I post here more regularly, so if you aren't already following me here, please do so!