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WatchNathan community code of conduct

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I’m a big advocate for free speech. I believe people can and should be able to say whatever they want within the confines of their own home, or platforms. That being said if somebody else comes into YOUR house, place of business, or platform I believe you have every right to tell them what they can and cannot say before you remove them or have them removed from the premises. As somebody who has been a content creator long before creating WatchNathan I’ve learned that unless you have rules people can and WILL act like idiots. If you try to be a “nice guy” they will test you and push you. These are the rules for using MY website. If you cannot handle having rules I implore you do not comment, or just go somewhere else.

  1. Absolutely ZERO racism and/or prejudice on this website. Doesn’t matter if you’re “joking” or not.
  2. Don’t insult or instigate fights and/or arguments with other people on the site. Doesn’t matter who they are.
  3. Keep swearing to a minimum. I don’t care if it’s how you talk in real life. A little is okay, but no more than a couple swear words may be used in comments and interactions.
  4. Keep sexual jokes to a minimum and keep everything PG-13 at most.
  5. No trolling. If you come here looking just to irritate people you will be immediately banned no matter what.

Generally if you break one of these rules you’ll be given 1 warning. If you continue to break them you’ll be banned permanently. My editor’s and I reserve the right to subjectively decide if we want to enact these rules, change them, or ban you.

I know these rules are written in a very harsh tone, but generally if you follow the golden rule you’ll be fine.

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you…”

Matthew 7:12, NIV

To make it fair I will also try to keep these rules my personal standard for interaction on WatchNathan and in the content I make in 2022 moving foreward. Any content before 2022 of course I cannot really speak for but I will be holding myself to this standard moving forward.

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About Me

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I realized not too long ago that I never properly set up an “about me” post on Watch Nathan so I figured this would be a good thing to add.

My name is Nathan Sample I’m a funny guy who loves video games! My favorite genre has always been platformers and sandbox style shooters like GTA.

Since I was a kid I’ve never really fit in very well, I’ve always sat in a room of people and been the one guy that everyone gets angry at because I’m eccentric and I think for myself.

I’ve always been creative, since I was a young boy I’ve always enjoyed doing things like writing, fiddling around in photoshop, editing videos, painting, etc.

I was the lead editor of my schools newspaper program senior year and really love making interesting things and discussing my opinions regardless of if it offends people or not.

I’ve streamed on different websites for the past 4-5 years, have a podcast called “The Game Juice Podcast“

When I was sixteen I chose to give my life to God and it’s been an interesting journey since.

DON’T POST, Journal Instead!

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Social media is often used as a sort of online diary with people writing and over sharing about their lives CONSTANTLY! in the past few months I’ve began keeping a personal journal to help me express my thoughts and have noticed that I lack the desire to post on social media. Many people use these sites purely as a place to vent and keep track of their lives I’ve found for me personally that it’s actually healthier to keep a journal. Obviously I have my website as a sort of “online diary” but this helps me post less nonsense and more things that I find important, helpful, and fun to write about instead of things like “here’s why things are stressful right now” or “here’s whats going on in my life all the time!”

I also found a very helpful resource while I was looking through the books at Walmart. It’s a little book called “Burn After Writing” that basically is a book that asks you random questions about yourself that you can fill out. I plan on filling out a page of it everytime I want to post something pointless on social media.

Burn After Writing

There’s nothing wrong with using social media to keep in contact with friends and family, but if you’re one of those people who uses it to show off, vent, or just post mainly about yourself (I’m admittedly one of those people) this idea is probably going to be very helpful.

Also in a world full of crazy people looking to cancel anybody who breathes wrong sharing a little bit less publicly wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Just my two cents.

My Thoughts And Suggestions For Switching To A Landline in 2022!

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Why Did I Switch?

It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for the past 2-3 years. I grew up never having any decent smart phones; I had Tracphones, and cheap barely running $30 Android phones. About 5-6 years ago I got my first really solid smartphone and I became addicted since then. I would notice myself paying attention to the phone at the store, or anytime I felt slightly out of place. I had shoulder and neck pains from staring at it so much. I’m a tech junkie, however I know when enough is enough, recently I calculated how much money I’d be saving a year by switching to services like Google Voice and it’s astounding around $380 a year, and it would’ve been more had I not downgrading my current cell plan. I also hate being bothered while I’m busy. I decided I had spent most of my life barely using cell phones and after seeing some videos about Google Voice and different options for landline services I decided that I was going this route for good.

Why A Landline And Not A Dumb Phone?

To put it simply we live in a world of constant connectivity. Everyone wants your attention **RIGHT NOW** and if they don’t get it they get angry. I actually know a few people who get very angry when I, or others don’t answer the phone for them **EVERYTIME**. I’ve also had people call me on the phone when they’re in a bad mood just to complain to me about it. I don’t play these games, if people give me a good reason to make a big change I’m jumping in. If all of my calls are going to a landline that means 100% of the calls I answer are happening when I’m not busy.

But What If There’s An Emergency! WHAT IF SOMEONE DIES!!!!!

I’ve had a relative get furiously angry with me and ACTUALLY say this to me whenever I turned their phone off after they woke me up with 4-5 Facebook Marketplace notifications at 3AM.

  1. – Your family knows where you live. If they don’t know where you live then tell them.
  2. – If there’s an emergency you should be calling 9-11 NOT me.
  3. – Most of the people that I’ve seen freak out like that are older people who literally have lived into being middle-aged without ever touching a cell phone or the internet. You seem to have lived just fine back then.
  4. You can still have a cell phone just to call 9-11 laying around if you need it to travel with. I’m merely saying I don’t feel like answering angry phone calls about how I upset some random relative with a joke 3 days ago. (and yes I’m purposely speaking from experience I know not everyone’s family is like that)

MODERN Ways To Hook Up A Landline

Buying an Obi Hai VOIP Phone – This is what I chose to do. This phone connects through your router and can connect to many different services like Google Voice, Anveo, and One Suite. These phones are mainly sold through Amazon.

https://www.youtube.com/c/JordanU

Cell2Jack and/or XLink adapters – These nifty little devices connect to your cell phone via bluetooth and just ring through to your landline phones. The XLink branded ones seem to be really good, but the Cell2Jack seem like a more budget friendly option from my research. Maybe someday I’ll link one of these up to my cell phone using my local network and Google Voice and put it in another room of the house. My Obi Hai will continue to be my main phone, however these are definitely a good option for situations like what I’ve just described. If I ever live somewhere where I have dedicated office I’ll certainly have one phone in the office and one in the bedroom at least.

Nathan’s Newsdesk – September 17th, 2022

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It’s been a little while since I wrote a “daily links” article. I decided that I’d slightly rebrand it to Nathan’s Newsdesk since it leaves me more open to posting them on a more sporadic schedule. It’s more or less going to be the same format though.

Sony says original PSVR games won’t be compatible with PSVR2 | Eurogamer.net

“because PSVR2 is designed to deliver a truly next-generation VR experience”.

When are game companies going to realize that adding marketing spin to your laziness isn’t going to please the hardcore gaming market? Backwards compatibility needs to be a focus for Sony and not through PSPlus, through support for hardware, and software! Anything else is pure laziness and excuses in my opinion.

“Elaborating further, Nishino claimed the new elements of the PVSR2 hardware – inside-out tracking and eye-tracking, 3D audio, a 4K HDR display, and its controller with adaptive triggers and haptic feedback – meant “developing games for PSVR2 requires a whole different approach than the original PSVR.”

So the hardware being more advanced than the prior generation stops you from making it work with older games how so?

YouTube showing up to 10 unskippable ads on a video

“At YouTube, we’re focused on helping brands connect with audiences around the world, and we’re always testing new ways to surface ads that enhance the viewer experience. We ran a small experiment globally that served multiple ads in an ad pod when viewers watched longer videos on connected TVs.”

I love how YouTube just does very stupid things under the guise of an “experiment” and then act like it makes no sense when nobody likes it.

Intel drops the Celeron and Pentium names for its low-end laptop CPUs (updated) | Engadget

” The company is replacing both brand names for low-end laptop chips in favor of the simpler (if not exactly creative) “Intel Processor” badge starting in 2023.”

While this isn’t a huge deal I think having a specific branding to a chip is better. Not everybody who has devices with a Pentium are novice computer users, sometimes if you’ve got a PC that serves one function around the house you can get away with a Pentium. I just think telling me specifics is better than vague nonsense.

Topaz Photo AI Combines All its Image Tools into One Automatic Photo Editor | PetaPixel

I don’t have any crazy commentary on this one, I just think upscaling AI is really cool.

My Plan To “Free” My Mind

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I’ve been live streaming for years. I’ve also been trying to balance my real life, and my life on social media. To also balance my happiness, and my usage of social media. The problem however is that the more you try to distance yourself from these things the more reasons people give you to use said things. I’ve been very wishy-washy with social media for the past several years. Now I’ve developed a plan to free my mind from the stress of social media.

Goal Statement

“Life was so much better when I was a kid!” is a common mentality amongst every generation. I’ve been feeling, and struggling with this myself for many years. I do understand that this thought comes primarily from a nostalgic mindset. I’ve always prided myself on being “reasonable” and “self-aware” and have therefore rejected these thoughts (at least somewhat) however in the last year I’ve realized that you can live your life with a taste of both nostalgia and modern convenience. My intended goal is to live my life as if it’s the late 90’s or early 2000’s, but with a modern twist.

I’ve chosen to purchase to landline phone

I’ve purchased a landline in order to prevent myself from being bothered whenever I’m busy doing something, and to prevent me from looking at my phone in public. I’m keeping my cell phone, but I WILL NOT be paying for my phone service for it anymore. It’s essentially there for travel or emergencies.

I’m rebranding WatchNathan slightly

Nothing on the site itself is changing other than the name, logo, and maybe some slight organizational things. I’m keeping the domain WatchNathan.com but making NathanSample.com the new primary domain. I’m doing this purely because I want this website to not just be seen as a video site, but as a general blog and a place to read my opinions. It frees me to post what I want whether it be video, podcasts, or blog posts. This change will come around in the next couple of weeks.

I’ve changed my browsing habits

Not only is the modern web really difficult to run on older machines, but it also is filled with images, pop-ups, distractions, and constant controversy. I SAY NO MORE! I’ve simplified my browsing habits to sort of “keep me in a sandbox” of things that aren’t ridiculously inflammatory and sinful. I’ve setup a program to block any websites that I feel steal my joy whenever I’m on them. I’ve began using FrogFind (A web browser designed to work on ancient pcs, stripped down and simplified) as my primary method of searching the web with Brave search as my back-up for sites that won’t function very well on FrogFind. I’ve substituted Google News with 68KNews which is the news site companion of FrogFind.

I’m using JellyFin and Radio as my primary sources of entertainment

I miss the days when you actually OWNED your media whether it be through VHS, or DVDs. Those days are slowly dwindling and the most modern way to own your media while still having the modern convenience to it is to setup your own home media server. Jellyfin is a free and open source alternative to Plex and Emby. I intend to purchase a TV antenna and a tuner in order to watch my tv programs and DVR them to store for the future. I’m also ripping any DVDs, VHS, CDs, Cassettes, etc. I can buy at Flea markets, thrift stores, and other such places and storing them on the server. I currently own two cheap $10 transistor radios from a company called Prunus as my way of listening to the radio. I also plan to purchase a C Crane wifi radio in order to ensure that I can get all of my local stations as clearly as possible, and then using the Prunus radios for traveling.

I’m only playing Retro games

(At least mostly) I love video games, however while I was in prayer earlier this year I heard God impress on my spirit to give up violent video games. I’m not judging those who do by the way, but this is a very personal and religious choice I’ve made. I’m keeping my PS4, and even upgrading to a PS5 (lord willing) whenever I’m able, however I’m being more picky with my choices of games I’m going to play on modern systems. I’m sticking to rated-E and rated-T games. I’ve setup one of my PCs with Batocera and will be playing mostly retro games on it because back in the 90s there were more non-Nintendo family-friendly games coming out. I’ve also setup a retro achievements profile for myself to add further enjoyment and challenge to my gaming life.

Sources and references:

The Pros and Cons of Quitting Social Media

Cold Turkey Blocker

FrogFind

[68KNews](68k.news: Headlines From the Future)

Batocera Gaming OS

Jellyfin Media Server

Retro Achievements

Recomended landline phone service

“Do you see someone skilled in their work?

They will serve before kings;

they will not serve before officials of low rank.”

Proverbs 22:29, NKJV

Daily Links – August 2nd, 2022

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Insta360 Link review: this webcam takes Center Stage – The Verge

This is definitely a cool idea. I’ve used PTZ cams for church broadcasts that have this feature before and it’s cool but it’s never as good as just moving a camera for yourself. Obviously this will be great for lots of Twitch streamers who cannot afford to have somebody work a camera for them though.

Logitech announces a new dedicated cloud gaming handheld device – The Verge

Logitech is collaborating with Tencent to basically create a device that can stream games from existing streaming services. My only concern with anything like this will be if it will work on the standard wifi people have in their homes, and if Tencent is involved since they’re a Chinese company what will be their privacy policy?

Diablo Immortal Player: Game Broke After Spending $100,000

“… one YouTuber who reportedly spent over $100,000 on beefing up his Barbarian character. The player’s win rate is seemingly so good the game won’t even match him against other players… ”

I still don’t understand what would possess ANYBODY to spend this much money on a game like this. I do find it hilarious that everyone was so viciously angry at the developers of Diablo: Immortal when it was first announced at Blizzon 2018, then the same people are turning around and spending THOUSANDS of dollars on the game regularly thus ensuring that these practices continue.

MultiVersus already has millions of players | PC Gamer

I definitely need to try this game out on stream soon. I’ve been seeing some Twitch streams of it and it does look really fun. I feel like most of the industry has given up on actually competing with Hal Labs and Nintendo on creating a competitor to the Super Smash Bros. franchise and so it’s good seeing some real competition coming up.

YouTube Shows That I Miss

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The old days of YouTube were a very magical time where the TECHNICAL quality of content was far lesser than today, but the content was produced primarily out of people’s love for the platform and the enjoyment that they got out of producing the content itself.

It’s amazing looking back on some of the content from the earlier days of YouTube and remembering a time when fun was the driving force behind the platform, and not analytics and profit.

Here are some of my favorite old-school YouTube channels, and web shows that I think you should check out!

Captain S

Captain S is a loving and purposely cheesy show that both paradies and pays homage to the show Captain N. Captain N was a show about a boy being dragged into a world within his Nintendo called “videoland” and of course Captain S is the live-action Sega equivalent.

“Follow Chad Belmont as he becomes Captain S, defender of Video Land, protecting its realm from evil invaders bent on removing its code and taking over the Mega Drive.  It’s a nostalgic mix of early 90s saturday morning TV and video games from that era.”

This show even had a crossover with the Angry Video Game Nerd back in the day!

Still Gaming

Still gaming was a game review show featured on That Guy With The Glasses back in the day and it has a lot of charm.

Still Gaming Playlist

Arcade Guts

Arcade Guts is actually STILL one of the few shows that I’ve seen online that covers arcade games as it’s primary focus. For the time when it came out it actually had very good production value and the host Michael V. actually does have a lot of charisma 

Classic Game Room

Classic Game Room was originally created back in 1999 as a part of some kind of internet TV station called “FromUSLive” the show starred Mark Bussler, as well as Dave Crosson. After the shows original run from 1999-2000 it was revived by Mark and ran on YouTube until around 2018-2019. 

The show had a style that was all it’s own. It was always interesting, however the funniest episodes came from the original.

As a kid this review literally had me doubling over in laugher.

The incredible adventures of The Lush and Pottymouth! This one still entertains me to this day.