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Seize the Day! A Conversation with CaitieSith
56 Plays7 days ago
In this episode, Satsunami is joined by the super Scottish cat girl herself CaitieSith! Join us as we discuss a number of topics from taking chances and the vtuber community to Scottish Gaelic and what it means to be a creator in 2025! Stay tuned because you will not want to miss this one!
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Chatsunami.
00:00:17
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Chatsunami. My name's Chatsunami and joining me today is none other than the extraordinary VTuber cat girl herself. It Katie Shee.
The Role of Hand Gestures in Communication
00:00:30
Speaker
That's me. It is indeed. Katie, welcome to Chatsunami. Thank you very much. It's an absolute pleasure to be here. Hello everyone. I'm waving. You can't see me, but I'm waving. Yes, and this audio only medium I know.
00:00:41
Speaker
I do that as well. I'm like, hey guys, and I'm like, oh yeah. ah oops I do that in streaming as well. It's bad habit. It is, but it's fun though. Oh, it is. That's true. I take it you don't have that in your model yet, do you? The hands now. I don't have hand tracking, and I really wish I did because I do so many gestures automatically. Do you think that's a Scottish thing though? Or like a British thing, you know, where it's just we're very, we talk with our hands a lot.
00:01:06
Speaker
I mean, the Italians are the famous hand talkers. It's a very much an Italian trait. So I feel like with Scottish people, it's partly culture, how you're raised and just if you're naturally a hand talker. I feel like with neurodiverse folks as well, some of us end up redirecting our stims and our fidgets into hand talking. I'm definitely in that boat.
00:01:26
Speaker
Well, you're amongst friends here with the hand chalkers. One of the worst names for a gang ever, I think. But the hand chalkers are going to be clucking down the streets, you know. But they could just use sign language and then they could communicate entirely in stealth mode. That would be, I think we could make this work.
00:01:43
Speaker
We could brainstorm it. Yeah. Hold on one second. ah oh Okay, so I'm just getting the go ahead from a red panda lawyer in the corner. Oh, perfect. He says it's okay, but he's waving his paw, kind of middling. I'm on shaky ground, I think, is what he's trying to say.
00:01:59
Speaker
And we're going to need to make sure the hand signals are compatible with limited amounts of toe beans so the red pandas can join in. Very
VTuber Persona and Design Inspirations
00:02:06
Speaker
true, very true. We'll be tabling that for the next interview episode for sure.
00:02:11
Speaker
Absolutely. So as I was saying there, of course, you are an absolutely fantastic VTuber. And as well, you are Scottish, of course, which I think our listeners have twigged on by now.
00:02:23
Speaker
I hope so. but Yeah. But honestly, it's always a pleasure to have another fellow Scot on the podcast. Oh, thank you so much. And yeah, for folks that aren't familiar with me, hi, I'm Katie Shee. I am branded, in air quotes, as the chaotic Scottish cat girl because I'm a messy, messy soul. And my VTuber, my avatar online, is kind of this punk rock themed cat girl. It's based on the Scottish Kate Shee from Scottish mythology, which is a black cat with a white flash on its chest, a little white chest floof.
00:02:52
Speaker
and the design comes from that and it's styled up a bit so now in my latest iteration i've got a leather jacket i've got ripped leggings torn shorts the whole punk rock shebang much more extroverted than i am irl probably honestly it is such a striking in design though because you know when you're scrolling through twitter and blue sky and you're looking at different vtuber designs i have to say yours in the best way possible yours definitely stands out when you're going through and it's like Why does that cat girl have an egg on her head? to
00:03:23
Speaker
What's this? But out of curiosity, inspired you to go down that route for the design of your avatar? Oh, it's honestly been such a fun experience because I started out with quite a basic KG design where I'm like, OK, the white chest fluff is going to be a white shirt. I'll wear black shorts, black gloves. And then it kind of got built on. As I started streaming and as I interacted with the community, early on there was a joke that I would throw an egg at a lot of my problems. I was playing a lot of the game Genshin Impact and one of the revival foods there that's cheap and easy to make is a fried egg. So the joke was that eggs can cure any problem, especially death.
00:03:59
Speaker
And it very much became associated with me. And i mean then I just kind of was looking at it and was like, you know what? I think that would look good on my head. The tricky thing about VTuber design is you want to look unique, especially from the sort of waist up.
00:04:11
Speaker
You want a design that even if you're just zoomed in like a streamer to use or your head and your neck upwards, stands out. And I thought, you know what would look really funny? Just sticking an egg on there. So I did. And the lore develops over time. The lore now is so Katie has left the Fae realm and she was basically kicked out of the Court of Cracked Eggs, her old Fae court. And they keep tabs on her through this egg, which is attached to her through some very unpleasant means. And if you remove it, things get body horror very fast.
00:04:42
Speaker
So it looks like in a very adorable little accessory, but it's also a terrible ankle monitor from her old masters. To be honest, that is probably one of the most creative design ideas I think I've ever heard on Chatsunami. Obviously, other than the fact it's an egg on somebody's head, but it is quite eye-catching. You're scrolling through, you go, why does that cat girl have
Cultural and Nostalgic Influences on Design
00:05:05
Speaker
and then you look at the design further and everything and honestly i think you've done an absolutely fantastic job with well i suppose visualizing it and then getting to design it and everything and as well can i just say because this is something that i think you've brought up a blue sky with me in the sense that you and i somewhat share a similar color scheme we do and we're both in our avatars kind of curled up in little balls yeah It is such a coincidence, isn't it? Yeah, it works so well.
00:05:34
Speaker
And I know for me it was partly the kind of Scottish i Am Brew inspiration. was that Did that come into play when you were figuring out your colours? See, to be honest, I think subconsciously, yes. And you would have been around in the peak blue and orange movie theatre poster era as well. So I feel like that lives in all of our brains subconsciously, the blue and orange contrasting movie theatre poster trend. Oh no, absolutely.
00:05:59
Speaker
And I mean, as I said, you can't really be a Scottish content creator and not know about the likes of Iron Brew and just how iconic it is. At least in terms of colour schemes anyway. That obviously matches with the whole colour theory aspect. But yeah, honestly, it is such a good colour scheme, isn't it? It is. It is. And it's a fun one to play about with as a VTuber as well, because my Katie Shee design is not actually very blue and orange. It's very black and sort of coffee colours, blondes and yellows and oranges. But it contrasts really nicely because if you put that against a blue and orange backdrop, everything is going to pop against that because none of those colours are on her palette. So I I kind of tried to steer away from Iron Brew for a little while because I felt like every Scottish creator would do that as a matter of course but I couldn't. It's just such a fun colour combo to work with. Because I mean it's either of that or the red and white with the tunnex angle. Yeah oh absolutely yeah or you go full saltire with white and blue. Yeah the whole Braveheart avatar isn't it?
00:07:04
Speaker
Oh gosh, yep, yep. It's an interesting one in the VTuber sphere because tartan is very hard to render in any kind of anime style or stylized art style. So it's interesting seeing the various efforts to make kilts work in 3D and 2D because it's a very tricky fabric to work with. of curiosity
Balancing Online and Real-Life Identities
00:07:23
Speaker
though because I know you have your own Katie Shee tartan kind of black and yellowy one what was the inspiration behind that particular pattern was there a real life tartan that you drew from or was it more just that it looked good to you That was actually created by a member of our community and a fellow streamer, McMorgan. And they took inspiration from a lot of different aspects of Katie's design and personality. So it uses yellow and black and brown very predominantly, which are her primary colours. But also it's got smaller stripe of orange and blue running through it for the iron brew and mcmorgan just has a brain for tartan he is able to put all these things together in a way that really works i never would have thought a small strip of orange and blue could work on the yellow and black but he makes it work and it's wizardry to me i never would have even considered making my own tartan until he kindly just did it for me and it's one of those things that i just never would have thought of on my own I'm just looking at it just now and I see exactly what you mean with the orange and blues going through it. I never even picked that up at first glance.
00:08:29
Speaker
It's so subtle, it's so clever and it feels so true to real tartans because especially for folks that aren't in the UK who haven't seen tartan up close, it's not just like a checkered or a played plaid i don't know how you say it's pattern. There's a lot of variation the colours and a lot of storytelling in the colours. It's a really nuanced art and I was just really impressed that someone could even think of that in terms of of basically a fictional character, an OC. Yep.
00:08:53
Speaker
I'm just looking at your reference sheet here, Foda, and I'm just laughing because it says high foot four, small and angry. I'm just wondering if that's the name of the tartan or just the name That's just me. That's just me. That's been on my ref sheet from basically day one. I just like, I need the internet to know that I am short gremlin with too many emotions going on. And that's stuck with me ever since. It's just very important. And everyone looks at it and yeah, that seems about right for her. Yeah.
00:09:21
Speaker
I mean, if you got have a bit of the realism in and that's one of the things that I find really interesting about being online because you really have to figure out how much of your true self you're bringing in and how much you're leaving behind. Obviously anyone who's who's had dealings with the Fae knows that you should be a little bit careful with your personal details and your real name and things like that online.
00:09:43
Speaker
There's a lot of advantages to keeping private but also if you don't let
Impact of the Pandemic on Social Dynamics
00:09:47
Speaker
a little of your true self through you're going to really struggle to connect with folks. and I feel like being online having a persona online is figuring out what is safe to share how much you want to share and kind of balancing the risks between what you share and what you keep to yourself you know that is an absolutely fantastic point because the amount of youtubers that I've talked to and I've brought up this very thing where there's a lot of youtubers I don't know if you've noticed that as well that they use their avatars more as a character they'll say they're a no shade to anyone who is like a thousand year old demon lord from down south let's say down south from wherever you are dear listener so they'll do that and then they'll be very into character tar but then as soon as they finish their streaming that's it they detach themselves from that they go about their daily business but i feel as if personally from my experiences anyway and i'm sure you must feel the same that it
00:10:43
Speaker
I wouldn't say impossible, but it's very difficult to separate entirely between the character versus your true self, because a lot of yourself does seep into the personality of A, the character that you're portraying, but then B, as well, what you're trying to get across with your streaming. Absolutely. And I feel like some of my favourite lore and character representations are when it's really connecting with a core attribute of the person playing that character. Like with Katie's lore, a lot of it is about the struggle of coming from the fae realm into the human realm, having to be mortal for the first time, having to experience time flowing the way it does for the first time, which really ties into a lot of my feelings as someone with neurodivergence about time blindness and how much time seems to speed up as we get older and this constant fear of mortality that is just is kind of creeping on and on. When i was younger, I felt disconnected from my body. In a way, I think a lot of young people are. you feel a bit invincible, a bit like an anime character. You're unstoppable. You've got unlimited potential, it feels like, especially if you're like me and watching a lot of cartoons. But as you get older, you're really coming to terms with the fact that, okay, this isn't just a meat sack that I can make jokes about, like, haha, it's a little meat robot, and I can pull myself away from that. This is the body I'm stuck with. It is aging, it is aching, it is exhausted, my energy is just dropping less and less, and I'm stuck with it. Like, this is what I've got. And it's so limited and so frustrating, but it becomes more real, and real year on year. And more present and i really enjoy using the character of katie she to explore the sort of pain of having to come to terms with that and coming to terms with the fact that everything around me is also so terribly finite and think people pets everyone is potentially well not potentially inevitably things will end and it sucks i hate it and so much of that rage against
00:12:45
Speaker
The fact that everything is finite gets channeled into the character. So much of this sadness and grief as I'm facing all of these things that I can't run away from just comes through in the character. And it's so cathartic to express it that way because you can't really just walk into a room and be like, hi guys, I'm terrified of dying and even more terrified of the people I love and my pets dying.
00:13:06
Speaker
That's kind of a conversation killer. But if you wrap in this phalor, you can approach it gently. and it starts out just a funny haha isn't it funny she's from the fair realm so she doesn't understand mortality and then you can really gently lead into it and just get into the creeping horror of being here and existing following on from that when i started my content creation journey i started in the 2020s which i'm sure a lot of listeners like and story I started in the 2020s. My very good friend, Martha McAllister encouraged me to do streaming and break out of my shell. And honestly, since then, you definitely do feel as if you evolve through this journey of content creation. And before I go on to ask you about that in particular, when abouts did you start? Were you in a similar boat of starting in the 2020s or did your content creation journey start well before this?
00:14:00
Speaker
A little bit later, I was around July 2021, I think was when I started. So in the thick of the pandemic, like a lot of folks. And yeah, it was when I was really coming to terms with the fact that I'd spent all these years of my life thinking that I was your typical bookish introvert who um just wants to be left alone to read. And then I'd realised
Nostalgia and Its Dual Nature
00:14:21
Speaker
through all these months of lockdown that actually I was really aching to see my friends and family and loved ones. And I wanted to be out there and hugging people and just being in the same room as people. And it was very much a kind of shocking realization to myself that, oh, I'm actually more extroverted than I thought. I'd spent all these years kind of thinking of extrovert like it was a bit of a dirty word, a kind of antagonist to this introvert persona I'd built up. And then I realized, no, actually, human connection is really necessary for me and I'm suffering without it.
00:14:51
Speaker
For those listening to this episode who of course lived through that time, you know, you don't need me to tell you how isolating that whole period was of the twenty twenty s Between 2020 to, well, the beginning of 2022, because that's when it started to ease up a little bit. Eventually things got to, and again, you can't see it, I'm air quoting here, relative normality here.
00:15:15
Speaker
because that is something that I found quite both interesting and again going back to what you were saying about realising how finite experiences are because and this is something my friend Martin and I joke about we talk about how we feel as if our lives have been separated into like two chapters you've got your pre-Covid period of life as it were and now you've got your post-covid chapter where we've gone from you know loving our normal lives growing up etc and then as soon as the 2020s hit it was just this completely unprecedented experience and despite obviously the hardships and i would never wish for anything like this to happen again that moment for me in particular gave me the opportunity to you know explore different creative outlets both with streaming and then eventually the podcast which you're thankfully on but then as I went through the particular period of isolation with the lockdowns and whatnot and things started to open up again i noticed that a lot of people that I'd made friends with online had started to kind of move away and you know they have every right to obviously go and live their lives as a way but it's It was quite sobering, I would say, that you made friends with these people, you were chatting with them, you were gaming with them till, you know, the early hours of the morning, and then one day they were just gone. And obviously they're gone as in doing things, but did you feel that way as well when you were streaming and you were building up a community, or how did you feel about that process? I definitely feel that, yeah. Like, from a streaming perspective, this is going to sound terribly ruthless, but the audience potential that you had during the pandemic when everyone was stuck inside is unbeatable compared to what we have now. And it's a great thing that it's changed, but it is such a different world. And there's almost a sense of it's a bit like when you leave secondary school or high school or leaving university or college and knowing that all of these people that you've got to know due to this kind of forced proximity you might never see again and it's such a strange experience
00:17:26
Speaker
It's so strange. And in the UK, school reunions until recently haven't really been a thing, at least in as far as I've known it. But it's becoming
Challenges of Content Creation and Authenticity
00:17:34
Speaker
more of a trend being picked up from America to the point where I've even had invites to school reunions. And it's such an odd idea kind of reopening that box and tearing open those old wounds and trying to recapture some of what was a very unique and kind of fragile moment in time, trying to recapture that. No, you're 100% right there.
00:17:53
Speaker
Because i think this is something that a lot of, especially in the content creation sphere, I think that a lot of people kind of fail to realise, at least for the newcomers anyway, that there's a lot of people who might have success in particular periods of their career or journey as a content creator, but then they always try to cling on to that particular moment I mean, as someone who is very nostalgic, and I'm one of these people, and my friends make fun of me for this, but I'm one of these people that you know, you're scrolling through the internet, and then it's like, oh, did you know that this is so many years old? You know, what it's a sobering moment. It is.
00:18:33
Speaker
I hate the feeling. Yeah, I hate it. it makes my skin crawl. just Oh my gosh, yeah. I won't name some of the ones that come to mind because I don't want to give anyone listening and the shivers. Being forcefully made aware of the passage of time, oh it hurts.
00:18:47
Speaker
Because, I mean, I went into the lockdowns in my late 20s and now I'm in my early 30s. Don't look up how long red pandas live for, by the way. They live forever. They live forever. In my world, they live forever. but Yeah, it's absolutely crazy looking back on these things and going, oh my god, I'm old. But at the same time, i think what the issue is with particular people is when they cling on to those memories. It's one thing to treasure the memory, but it's another thing to act a little bit like a dragon, you know, and kind of hoard those memories and say, these were the best times of my life. Nothing's ever going to top it. Which I feel as if it's quite a narrow view to look at it. You don't know what the future holds, to be honest. When I was in uni and college and whatnot, I never thought I was going to start a podcast. I mean, ironically enough, I'm in the exact same boat as you in the sense that I am a completely introverted person. I hate making phone calls. I hate being the centre of attention for things. And yet I'm sitting here talking to you on the podcast.
00:19:54
Speaker
It's just such a paradox, but without that kind of outlet, you know, it pushes you to try different things, to try different experiences. i mean, I wouldn't have played particular games, watched particular films, I wouldn't have traveled to particular places if not for the decisions I had made. And flipping it back onto you, do you feel the same way about that? Yeah, nostalgia is such an interesting kind of double edged sword. I never thought I'd really be a nostalgic person because I powerfully remember going through secondary school and it was hands down rock bottom of my life, the worst time of my life. And I would get so furious when adults would tell me, oh, this is the best time of your life. You'll love these years. You'll never get anything like this again. And it just made me so furious because all I could really think was it has to get better than this. It has to get better than this. And it did. It gets so much better to anyone, especially younger folks listening. The 20s can be rough. The teens are very rough. But 30s, 40s onwards, it just gets better and better. There's so many positives from knowing yourself better and coming into your own as a human being and gaining confidence in who you are. So I always would rally against this nostalgia and any of that rose-coloured thinking. But I find myself now seeing a lot of the reticulants Retro gaming nostalgia for things like PlayStation Portable games, GameCube games, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color. And I get pulled into it. I've got a retro gaming console. I'm digging out all my old games and things like the Y2K nostalgia movement, the trend towards very Y2K style websites with glitter and blinkies and scrolling marquee tech.
00:21:30
Speaker
and web rings. I do love it. It really hits something in me that I didn't expect to end up feeling. I didn't expect to feel the draw of nostalgia, but I look at these things and I do feel the comfort and the comparison creeping in of why the internet really was better before it was all algorithms and social media and adverts. And I actually did enjoy gaming a lot more when it wasn't filled microtransactions. And it's become a very dangerous pool where I have to keep dragging myself back a little bit and trying to remember that a lot of this is rose-colored glasses and time bias sneaking and it can't be as good as it feels but there's a strong allure that i never really expected to feel towards some of those older things now funny enough when you're talking about retro gaming there one experience that humbled me greatly and this must have been a about 10 years ago. It was either 10 or maybe it was less, but my friends and I went to a local comic convention and I remember they said that they had a retro gaming room. And when I hear retro gaming room, i hear what I hear is, yeah, the Atari, the Commodore 64, know, Pong, Pong.
00:22:37
Speaker
and like man that kind of thing what i don't expect to see is to walk in the room where they've got an name sixty four and then they've got a nintendo wii and a xbox d60 i was just like this is a retro gaming just say it's a gaming room you know don't make me feel old oh i know there's a photo somewhere on the internet of a retro gaming museum with i believe a ps2 in one of the cabinets and oh that was a hit to the gut But it does have some nice benefits because even though it doesn't feel retro to most of us, it does mean there's been enough of a chunk of time that some of the emulation technology and the homebrew support and the fan community has really grown. So there's pros to it that I try and focus on so I don't feel the gradual aging of my body just creeping up on me. Because I have to say, and again, this is something that I've brought up on the podcast before, but it's quite strange how there's a difference between, in terms of nostalgia for gaming, in terms of how companies view it versus how, well, the consumer views it. And I was talking to very good friend and fellow streamer, Super Shadow 271, about the
00:23:43
Speaker
pros and cons about game collecting both physical and digital and long story short physical's always going to be better but what's quite interesting is there's a lot of companies if they know something's going to succeed then they're obviously going to put money into they're going to re-release it one of the current examples that i'm going through right now is the resident evil series which I have to say, never been a Resident Evil fan, never played a game in my life.
00:24:09
Speaker
But then one of my friends very nicely gave me a copy of the remake for Resident Evil 4. So I played it, absolutely loved it. And to be honest, it got me into a series that, quite frankly, I don't think I would have really got into otherwise. Same with Dead Space as well. The remake, that was incredible. It's just such a shame that they're not going to do another one, least according to EA. Stort yourself out, EA. Absolutely, yeah. But you know, on the one hand, that brings in a whole new audience of people who either, you know, skipped over that period of gaming or just didn't want to look at it. But on the other hand, there's that idea of gaming preservation and things like that, that eventually it becomes abandonware. It's just such a shame. Oh yeah, my heart aches for the amount of really good creative projects we've lost through things like old game stores shutting down and even little things like forums shutting down. How many great stories and fanfics and roleplay logs we've lost through all the forums that have gone through the years. The amount of amazing content has just slipped away. is
00:25:12
Speaker
It's a bit like living through the burning of the Library of Alexandria. And there's definitely some benefits to being able to set yourself free from all the stuff you did when you were younger on the internet. But at the same time, yeah, just so many amazing things lost as well. See, of
The Balance of Online Personas and Real-Life Identity
00:25:29
Speaker
curiosity, I've got to ask this question because I know you're a fellow Scot, so you know what I'm talking about here. Did you have a Bebo page?
00:25:36
Speaker
Oh, of course, of course. Oh, thank God. Finally, someone that can say, you have a Bebo page? And they don't say, what? What's a Bebo? It broke my heart when they shut down so suddenly, the amount of amazing photos I had to scramble to save and the amount of amazing ones I lost.
00:25:53
Speaker
off and by amazing i mean pixelated and horribly blurry but just so pure and of their time and it's probably for the best in some ways that they're lost but i will miss them forever and all the drama that was lost oh it breaks my heart that they deleted the archives it's up there on my list of great heartaches alongside neopets wiping most of their old accounts but yeah um i mean i i I lost one of my first jobs because I should talk them on Bebo. That's a key memory for me. Yep, yep. They're like, oh, well, you said something mean stuff about us on Bebo, so we can't keep you working in this shitty cinema. I was like, but I mean, you can pull up the comments, but I'm just talking about some bosses being shitty. I didn't mention the company name. They're just like, well, we know it was about us, Katie.
00:26:38
Speaker
I'm actually sure surprised that companies were on Bebo at the time. Again, it's something that I never really thought about at the time. I was just interested in, you know, like the skins you could get. You could put YouTube videos up there. Oh, yes.
00:26:51
Speaker
whatno Oh, it was such a good social media. It was such a nice gateway into coding for a lot of people as well. MySpace, I think more so. MySpace and Neopets for me were the big catalyst for young people learning to code. Neopets had the pet page where you'd customize the homepage for your pet and it was very open with the HTML you could use. And MySpace as well had a lot of freedom. Bebo less so, but once you got into it, you could make it look really beautiful. And those skills have honestly served me so well. My day job is in IT and pretty much 99%. The reason I ended up working in IT is because I grew up watching Digimon.com. and code leoko and all these kind of early naughty shows that were trying to create this fantasy version of what the internet could be and picture what it was going to change into and honestly they were so much better than what we actually got yeah and that did directly lead me into working into it i'm like you know what this digital world thing really cool it's got like vaccine types it's got virus types i'm going to keep on learning about this
00:27:50
Speaker
Well, all I'm saying is The Matrix has a
Positivity in Content Creation
00:27:53
Speaker
lot to answer for for that. Oh, yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. ah But I love it so dearly. Because that is the thing, though. And again, going back to the topic of nostalgia as a whole, that, you know, nowadays when you look at social media, I mean, pardon the language, but it is a bit of a hellscape, isn't it? It is. It's so rough.
00:28:12
Speaker
it's so rough to look at and it's interesting so you can go on to it and i feel like if you try and step back a little bit and be mindful you can feel it making you angry you can feel it manipulating those emotions and my heart kind of goes out to a lot of younger people on the internet right now because i did my time in the forum rp zones in on live journal watched the drama started right in its infancy on bulletin boards and BBSs and IRC chat but a lot of people aren't so familiar with the tactics now and it catches them by surprise but ultimately a lot of the bad patterns on the internet are the same thing repeating over and over and you see it on the Byrd site before it self-combusted it was you'd see a lot the same patterns of people coming up with drama to get attention to feed their followers and they come up with more drama and the cycle would repeat and if you'd been around the internet long enough you can see that coming from a mile away you can see the telltale signs of someone who's really amping up drama for the attention it brings them but for a lot of new people they're not familiar with that type of bad acting online and they don't know the warning signs that they want to accept things at face value or they want to accept nothing and believe everything is fake on the internet which is a different side of the coin a more nihilistic side of the coin that's equally dangerous believing that nobody you're interacting with is a real person with real feelings that it definitely goes either way where they seem to either be believing nothing is real and nobody can get hurt or everything is real and everything is my number one priority Because that's something I find weird about the mid to late 2000s internet versus what eventually evolved into, you know, because especially 2010s internet, I feel as if it was the kind of peak of it where, unfortunately, I do remember this, that unfortunately a lot of people moved away from Bebo and into Facebook, which in itself, that's whole other kettle of fish, is just a terrible social media now where I think people just use it for the most part to... Well, either keep in contact with, i mean, I do as well, but keep in contact with people because that's one of the easier ways to do it, to be like, oh, add me on Facebook. Well, then again, not anymore. But nowadays it's just overrun with adverts and relevant content. Same with Twitter. of course as well again they've taken the social aspect of social media and it's become a lot more negative i would say it's such a shame it's such a shame to see it and don't get me wrong there was always drama as you were saying and there was always drama in those old social media sites and in those forms because i 100% agree i've served my time as well yeah because of i don't know sonic fan 42 said oh
00:30:51
Speaker
some of the sonic webcomic drama back in the day was something else oh i remember i was in the thick of it yeah i used to read all the sonic fan comics on fireball 20xl and then oh my gosh that became a whole dumpster fire very quickly but absolutely it's such a poisonous way the internet is set up now people don't always consciously realize it like we think we're aware of the fact that the algorithm is profiting off strong reactions, but it's difficult to be constantly aware of just how insidious that is. It is watching not just the things that you retweet or repost and like, but the things that you linger on, the amount of time you spend reading things, the things that you read but then don't share. All of it is being tracked. into this machine that is absolutely being fed by any kind of strong emotion, bad or good, and bad tends to be more profitable for the way the machine works.
00:31:45
Speaker
The ironic thing is it's a tale as old as time. A lot of newspapers, media outlets, whatever you want to focus on, they are always going to have that one negative story to attract people in. They're not going to have, oh, person went to the park, had a good time, you know, that no one's interested in that, which is a shame because I'm sure they had a lovely time at the park.
00:32:06
Speaker
But at the same time, you know, it's the same with social media. And I think what's worse as well is it's not like you can turn off the TV anymore or not read a newspaper. i mean, you can if you cut yourself entirely from technology. But if you're someone like me who has to check their phone for work and whatnot, then unfortunately you're getting exposed to story after story. I mean, this happening, that happening. I'm quite curious to hear your take, see, on the content creation sphere, at least on your side, see trying to promote yourself as a content creator. Have you found there to be any difficulties in that part of the internet, in particular social media? Absolutely. I feel like any kind of creative online who is familiar with how the system works is going to feel this little dev on their shoulder pointing out that if you take the bad patterns, you can absolutely explode in popularity quite easily just by doing a couple of things that might not feel too dodgy to be in with. Just A couple that you can write off as jokes, a couple little bits of faux drama stirred up, and then it kind of escalates from there. It's always this kind of devil on your shoulder as a creative online. You see everyone, what feels like everyone around you doing it and profiting off it and getting successful. And even the people that are getting, in air quotes, cut. cancelled and called out for it they're still making the big numbers like there's no such thing as bad publicity it's such a true statement online that it all feeds the algorithm feeds the numbers it can lead to revenue and money and success and that's really disheartening to see and something i think streamers definitely struggle with seeing i know I certainly do and for my artist friends as well I feel like it's absolutely heartbreaking because you see people just drawing to the trends and it's so much easier to succeed that way than drawing original content and same from a lot of creativity you follow the trends and that can feel like a really quick path to success
00:34:03
Speaker
And it's very much a constant battle against the devil on your shoulder and making the conscious choices to say, I know the commercially savviest way to do things, or I know this isn't going to be the air quotes the right way to stream or the most efficient way to build an audience, but it's what I want to do. Or you can choose to chase the trends too. I mean, there's no shame in that. It works and it takes a lot of strength to go that path as well. But you need to figure out what is right for you and what's actually going to sustain you. Like if the numbers will sustain you, then maybe chasing the trends is for you. But if that's going to kill your joy, then you need to know that and stop yourself before the habits kick in. I cannot agree with that more, to be honest, because the most heartbreaking thing that I think I see in terms of content creation, and especially for streamers and even YouTubers as a whole, is the people who they don't want to be themselves. They want to be the next ex. or why or you know they don't want to put themselves out there whether that's fear of rejection from the audiences or they're not going to pick up anybody from that and they might be quite nervous about that I mean my advice to anyone listening and having having those kind of feelings is honestly just put yourself out there and be yourself because there is nothing worse than seeing people who have amazing ideas, amazing content, but they just want to be a clone of someone else. And there's a fine line, obviously, between, as you were saying, they are chasing trends and jumping on the bandwagon, as it were, versus making that your whole personality. Absolutely. There's so much creativity out in the world and it is so heartbreaking that nowadays, because the internet is a different place, it doesn't promote this creativity, it promotes what's popular. I wouldn't say it's always been like that, but there have been peaks and valleys and things, but I feel as if now more than ever, that is the case, that if you're not following these trends, if you're not doing X, Y, Z, then you're just not going to get noticed. And that is very discouraging, isn't it? Absolutely. And I feel like something that can be forgotten is it's not just online as well. As a human, there's a really strong inbuilt instinct in folks to try and blend in with the group they're in. It's a very powerful social instinct and it can be very beneficial, but it can also be detrimental in the wrong circumstances. And day jobs can really bring that out where I can see a lot of people that have made this idea in their head of who they think the best employee or the most
00:36:29
Speaker
efficient or successful employee looks like or who their work self should look like and they have to stick to that and then they go back home and they feel like an entirely different person to who they are at work and there are definitely situations where that is necessary for your survival for your safety i've been in workplaces where i very much had to hide who i was but if you're in a place where you can safely be more authentically you there's also some really big benefits that can come from that from letting yourself be truer to yourself so you're not going home and having to disassociate entirely from who you were for the rest of the day because it's not good for you mentally to have to put up that act or mask all day or chameleon in with the workforce. So there are situations where it has to be done and for any younger listeners in school it's almost a necessity to be in some ways fitting in with a herd.
00:37:16
Speaker
School is very ruthless in a way that workplaces aren't so much. But if you can get to a place where you can safely be more yourself, whether that's at home with your friends or your family, with your loved ones, whether it's in a more understanding workplace or in a club of like minded people or just online and streaming, there's real power in understanding who you are when you're not performing for the crowd around you or performing in a way that is more true to who you would be entirely in a room on your own. And you mentioned earlier about the pandemic and how that really made us face what we wanted. And I do feel that is so key to a lot of this is the idea of learning to be comfortable being cringe. It's kind of a jokey statement for a lot of the generation that we are unleashing the cringe or we are being cringe and free. But there's so much truth it as well that growing and becoming more confident in yourself is about letting yourself be a bit embarrassing. letting yourself do the things that bring you joy, even if they feel childish or improper or unfashionable or that people are going to look at you funny or judge you. If it brings you joy, there situations where that joy is worth it.
00:38:20
Speaker
And honestly, nine times out of ten, it's that joy that it brings you is absolutely worth it more than any kind of embarrassment. And you'll find when you do it enough. that a lot of the embarrassment or the fear of the judgment is entirely built up in your head because people enjoy seeing other people be authentic to themselves. I love hearing people talk about what they are passionate about. Don't care what your hyper focus is. If you want to tell me about it, I am here. I will sit down and listen and have a great time because if you care about something, you can absolutely sell me on it and I'll have a great time hearing about it. I love hearing what people are passionate about, no matter how strange or niche they think it is. i love hearing about people's special interests. And I think that as well is a very human thing, getting excited when you see someone else excited about something, feeling that enthusiasm, being and just wanting to cheer for someone when they're clearly having fun and doing what they love.
00:39:13
Speaker
When I was younger, I definitely felt that way. See, when you get to your teenage years, yeah and then you start to move away from the quote-unquote childish aspect of your life. So it was like no more Sonic, no more childish games. I was going to play manly games like Call of Duty and Halo. Oh, yes. It's such a stupid thing to say out loud looking back on it, but you know that way you get into your own head and with societal pressure of, as you were saying earlier, with your peers and things and all these cliques and groups saying, oh, you should be doing X, you should be doing Y. you should be doing this and that. You want to fit in. You want to be someone who lives a normal life, does stuff that will make things easier for you. But that is only a short-term solution because as soon as I reached university, I met my very a good friend and co-host Andrew, such a good co-host that he's currently living in Canada with his wife.
00:40:07
Speaker
ah For legal reasons, that's a joke. Well, no, he does live in Canada. Sorry. and But, yeah, him and I met during university and we bonded over a lot of things like anime and gaming and things like that. Things that, on the outside, you know, you think, oh, that might be a bit childish, blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day, and it's something you said at the very beginning of this episode, life is short. And I...
00:40:32
Speaker
I'm not saying you or I are anywhere near that stage of a life yet, but at the same time, you've got to grab onto the things as long as it's obviously not bothering anyone or it's not interfering with anybody else. Take those opportunities, you know, take those moments ah of of happiness, whether that's, I don't know, going out for a coffee every so often, something small like that, or going out and buying that game that you used to play when you were younger. Because I feel as if with out those experiences can't really build up that sense of fulfillment and happiness in your life can you and apologies i'm getting very philosophical oh no it's so true though and it's interesting what you were saying about the teenage angst phase i went through a similar phase and for especially female presenting people at the time there was a lot of horrible torment toxic masculinity kind of in it. This whole idea of you're very much pressured to not be like the other girls, to be the cool girl, to be the girl who plays shooters, who hangs out with all the guys, who's one of the guys. And it's horrible to look at, horrible to think back on. But if I don't actually look back on it and look it directly in the eyes, if I try and just bury it and pretend I never went through that, then it's a hugely dishonest thing to do to try and pretend that I didn't have those phases where I got absolutely sucked up. in this culture and this pressure perform in a way that was really, really negative and damaging. Being able to look back at these really awkward and uncomfortable parts of life is a huge part of being more comfortable in yourself, knowing where you've gone wrong and had missteps. And being able to look directly in the eyes of something very uncomfortable is a very dangerous
00:42:11
Speaker
difficult skill but a very important skill you mentioned there about life is short and i absolutely wish everyone listening a long and happy life but we also have to face the fact that the universe can be horrendously cruel and random at points and very much what i would encourage everyone who's listening is to never be afraid to tell your friends that you love them and you care about them. Hug your pets, hug your family, hug your parents. If you're in a good relationship with them, hug your loved ones because horrible, random things do happen. And it's better to be honest with your feelings now than to regret it when it's too late because these things do happen and it's very human to want to run away from that, to not face
00:42:53
Speaker
the horrible random ways the world works that we cannot control. But if you let yourself sit with that discomfort for a little bit, then it really can help you embrace the moment you're in and the people you're with and how important it is to spend that time with them and not run away from the present and the people you're with and how much the moments matter. Because you've got to let people know you love them. You've got to let them know that you care and that they matter in your lives and that they bring you joy and that your lives are better for having them in them. It's so important that we tell each other that as humans oh no absolutely i think that's a fantastic message i think especially terms of people who they want to get big on the internet and going back that thing of content creation if they want to get big on the internet and then they get consumed about building up their image and things like that and they focus on the bigger picture of it rather than
00:43:45
Speaker
As you were saying, you the smaller parts of embracing your loved ones and everything and taking those moments to live life. I think what a lot of people kind of fail to realize, and I have to say, it doesn't even have to be content creators. It can just be very influential people. And I'm not going to name names. Insert.
00:44:03
Speaker
ah particular person here but you've got people who are very hyper fixated on the wrong things of life that they say oh this is a bad thing focus on that i've seen it hundreds of times and this is something that irks me to no end with the podcast community because the indie podcast community is one of the most wholesome nicest internet internet communities i think i have ever seen in my life genuinely i've got a group with a couple of other indie podcasters called the Podpack Collective. Shout out to the Podpack, yep. Yeah, the Podpack are some of the greatest people I've ever met in my life. Well, online anyway. You've got the Casting Views podcast, you've got the Howdy Beans podcast, Two Girls, One Reusable Cup, Seismic cinema game club pod honestly they are such fantastic people they've been so supportive and everything and i cannot honestly imagine better group of podcasters because there's so many that i've met along the way outside that group that make all of this worthwhile because the aim of chat tsunami as you probably guessed by now is it's supposed to kind of mimic the idea of getting friends on and kind of sitting down and having a cup of tea having a chat with your friends or you know just people in general when trying to promote a bit of positivity no matter the topic like we're not gonna sit here and then speak for 10 hours about how rubbish the world is and how back and hardy the game cube was a real console you know things like that yeah then when you look at the more professional and i use this so loosely the professional side of podcasting your joe rogan's your whatever podcast your uh just insert any horrible podcast here where it's rampant with misformation with misogyny with homophobia transphobia whatever you want to put in there it's It's just rampant. And because they are seen as figureheads of their particular fanbase, they are the definitive voice of that. So you get a lot of kids especially listening to this, you get a lot of impressionable people, whether they're adults or not. listening going oh i agree with xyz and it is so horrible to watch people because i mean i'm sure you've seen it on twitter as well and you know other places where people nowadays and obviously your mileage may vary but people nowadays are less likely to promote their own kind of negative views and they just seem to be parroting other people yeah and what they're saying it's not very constructive i would say It's of these really painful truths of not just creativity, but just everything in human life is negativity will always reach further than positivity. Having a podcast that focuses on the negative
00:46:48
Speaker
quicker path to success than trying to be wholesome and positive and the same online stirring up drama again in arguments it can be a quicker path to followers a lot of the big time podcast know this and are consciously doing this and you see this in a much wider level as well even on the political stage the american blue and red division is very much based on talking points and sewing negativity and sound bites and feeding that kind of machine It reminds you of what you were saying about the news and how they focus on the negative. And it's heartbreaking because I've tried so many times in my life to find sources of positive, wholesome news, whether it's in video form or written form. And they all, without fail, shut down because the money is not there in positive news. People don't click.
00:47:33
Speaker
positive news stories the way that they click negative news stories. So very much the machine is built for the negative extremes. And if you're trying to be a positive force, you are always going to be going against the grain there and it's going to be more of an uphill struggle because of that.
00:47:49
Speaker
But that doesn't make it less worthwhile. It just means it's tougher, but that doesn't mean it's not worth it. It's just tougher, but it benefits a lot more people that way. I think you don't have to feel guilty about poisoning the mind. So that's nice too. I mean, it is true, though, because I would rather, and don't get me wrong, I know my limits with the podcast and things. I'm not expecting to be the next Joe Rogan or whatever. I know I'll probably never hit those heights, but at the same time, I don't think I would ever want to hit those heights. Oh, no.
00:48:17
Speaker
And I don't mean that as in, you know the fable where it's the fox that can't reach the apple and it's like, oh, I bet that was poisoned anyway. I don't know why it was very Scottish, but, you know. ah it's not you know oh i don't like it because it's unreachable i think having that responsibility and having that power is just such an overwhelming thing and i always say whenever i'm putting out a tweet or a i don't know what you call it on blue sky a post i believe skeets sky tweets basically skeets I'll put it out something like that. And, you know, I always call my fan base the Pandalurians, which of course... Yes, i saw that. I love it so much.
00:48:55
Speaker
Shout out to all the Pandalurians. Whenever I say Pandalurians, it's like I'm never thinking of one particular person or one particular group or anything. i always feel as if that is... a catch-all term for anyone who wants to be part of this community. You know, no matter where you come from, no matter what your background is, whether you're young or old, the point is, if you want to join in, if you want to listen to the podcast, if you want to feel part of that community under a very weird red panda banner, they at the end of the day, that is something that i welcome with open arms, that I think that if they want to come and listen, that's fine. If they don't want to listen, that's also fine.
00:49:34
Speaker
Nobody's forcing them. you know i'm not taking away their snacks if they don't listen to chat tsunami but i would rather have that type of community where we're all listening together talking together and it warms my heart when people message me or reach out to me and say oh i loved your episode in this or oh i've listened to that you know even if it's just one person and again i'm not breaking in with a multi-billion dollar deal with spotify or anything but at this stage I genuinely think that having a set amount of pandalorians is just absolutely fantastic but out of curiosity do you have a name for your followers?
00:50:10
Speaker
I do they are called the kittens which I named them before I knew about discord kittens that was a unpleasant discovery and I still call them the kittens but I do just feel a slight shudder in my soul the thought of discord kittens and what they have done to the poor poor kittens out there of the world.
00:50:27
Speaker
I love what you're saying, though, about the Pandalorians, because there's a saying in the fanfic writing community that if you're writing a fanfic, you're not writing for everyone in that fandom. You're not even writing for everyone in your social media following list. You're mostly writing for that one friend you have who kind of matches your freak, who reads all of your stuff, the one person who comments on all your stories or beta reads your work. And that whole idea of this single person that you are creating for is really powerful in the artistic community. It doesn't have to be a real person. It can be yourself or a version of yourself. But to have the idea of the reader or the listener or viewer that is going to really enjoy your stuff and focus on them, it can really keep you on the right path creatively and I feel like the Pandalorians are definitely an extension of that. Just knowing these are the people that you're creating for. And it's the same with me and the kittens. Like I know who my regulars are. I know who I'm creating for. And every time I get tempted to chase trends or do whatever is the current quick trick to popularity, I remember it might work briefly, but it's absolutely going to alienate these core people that me. the world to me and absolutely keep me going and are the only reason I have everything I currently have so it's not worth it if you're losing the people that actually matter and have been with you from the start or for huge parts of your journey it's not worth it because I mean even when I started streaming I don't know if you'll be listening to this episode, but if he then huge shout out to this guy.
00:51:53
Speaker
There was one guy i remember when I was streaming at the very beginning and growth was really slow and everything. You know that way you do get into your own head and you think it's not worth it. This is kind of a waste of time. Or not a waste of time, but you know, I was only streaming to my friends who absolutely love them to pieces. but it wasn't picking up any traction.
00:52:12
Speaker
And then i came across, or rather, they came across me, this user called MTRZ Gaming. They came on and i think they gave me a sub and everything. And I said, oh, of course, oh, thank you for the sub, blah, blah, blah. You know, obviously I was a bit more grateful than blah, blah, blah, but I said that to them. And they turned around to me and they said, no problem, I really enjoyed your stream. That was a stream that genuinely I thought was...
00:52:37
Speaker
it wasn't that great. It was through the Xbox headset, it was through the Xbox itself. It wasn't high art or anything, but the fact that someone took their time to drop by, drop a fall and everything, say that they enjoyed it, it meant the world. And that sounds so weird to say, considering it's such a small act of kindness. But those are the kind of acts that I would genuinely encourage any Pandalorians listening out there. And I'm not saying to come to me and be like, oh, you're so amazing, you're so great. But if you've got any content creators out there that you appreciate or you like, genuinely, as long as they're comfortable with it, obviously,
00:53:14
Speaker
let them know that they're doing a good job tell them that you appreciate them and everything whether that's on their twitch streams whether that's on their posts or whatnot again within reason and everything don't go flooding katie's ah stream as well like you can do but within reason come on yeah flood flood chats whose comments first okay no no no no no katie's first you first i insist no no you you know reverse i'll need to get that you know but you have to spread that positivity and especially with the indie content creating community because there's a misconception that by spreading positivity that people are ignoring the negative side of this particular community you know whether it's like Oh, you're supposed to pretend that everything's hunky-dory or, oh, it's sunshine and roses every time. You've got to be realistic. You know, you've got to be realistic with your goals and things like that, whether it's going to be good or bad or what community, you know, you're playing for, it etc. But that doesn't mean that people have to be doom and gloom about it. Absolutely. Yeah, in the writing community, there's a reminder that goes out fairly often just saying like if you enjoyed a book and also a not just books with things like fan fiction, online novels, if you enjoyed it, do let the offer know because most offers are basically in their own miserable little bubble of everyone hates my work and what's the point of doing this? We're all in our own heads. We're all focused on the negative. And I feel like that's very true of any kind of creative field When we're in our own space, we're very much focusing on the dark points, the downsides. We don't really think about all the folks that are affected by our work until they drop us a little message. And gosh, then it wrecks me every time. And it's especially with things like podcasts and with streaming. There's so many silent listeners, lurkers who don't engage in the chat.
00:55:02
Speaker
who might not necessarily be able to financially support or back on Patreon or anything like that. But they're still very much key to what keeps that thing moving. And silent support is still a very powerful form of support. And it's so strange to think about like the amount of people that might be listening to this podcast who are using it to help getting them through difficult times same with my streams the amount of people that listen to as part of their routine or to go to sleep that gets me every time the idea that people can be relaxed just listening to it and i'm sure a lot of chat to readers are listening to help them relax at night because you've got such a lovely voice for that oh thank you
00:55:37
Speaker
But it's so strange to think about all these people that aren't necessarily saying it directly, but are very much affected by what we do. And creatives generally won't really know that you're there until you tell them. So it's very important if you can, if you're able to reach out to your creators and let them know that they've had an impact on you, it does go a long way. I know so many creatives who keep little clip files of the positive things that are said to them by their fans. And I really recommend it if you're a creator to keep any positive comments, write them down, scrapbook them, whatever feels right to you, but have some kind of folder or digital file that you can look back on in your dark moments because when you're struggling, being able to pull out some of those nice things people have said, the nice emails or messages or DMs or just quotes that people have left you, it really makes a huge difference to your mood.
00:56:23
Speaker
And it can be really uplifting to be reminded of why you're doing this and what really matters Oh, 110% on Because it is, when you're starting out, especially the early stages, and when I say early stages, I don't mean the first few days. I mean, could be the first year, it could be the first couple of years, where people don't find their community, they don't find their niche or anything, they don't find their audience, and because of that, they spiral. I sure as hell spiral, have to say at the very beginning. oh thinking people don't want to listen to me that this wasn't for me that I was just useless and then because of a kind few people but and obviously with the support and so have been amazing through a story that I managed to continue evolve me other people and as I said before huge shout to the pod pack because without that as well and I'm sure you're the same with your community as well without the people that you've met along the way
00:57:19
Speaker
It's just it's absolutely incredible who you meet and how much they can affect your life. But it's just absolutely amazing. And I just absolutely love it for that. Yeah, there's a couple of people have just reached out and to connect me through DMs or on stream who've absolutely changed my life. They know who they are, I hope.
00:57:37
Speaker
So don't have to shout them out by name, but there's a couple of people that have taken the time to actually try to get to know me. And I'm not always an easy person to reach out to. I'm an anxious mess. I'm bad at Discord. I'm terrified by any kind of unread message or DMs. So I can be very hard to reach sometimes, but they've tried. And I'm sure it wasn't easy for them either because it's not like they're particularly extroverted people, but they've stuck with it. And it's made all the difference and absolutely changed my life. and The thing with any kind of creative career is it's never a steady rise. It's never a steady incline. There's going to be peaks and troughs. You're going to have a couple of really good days for stats or income, and then it's going to fall off a cliff again. And some of those drops after things have been going well, they can be so much more painful than when you're struggling at the beginning because you thought you were doing everything right and then suddenly things are going wrong and you can't figure out why. Or you thought you had the system down and you thought you had to figure it out, but suddenly it's not working. So it's really important. I would encourage any creatives to have systems in place, have something like the folder of compliments from fans or friends or a list of reasons why you do what you do that you can come back to and revisit, because it's very much how these career paths work. There's going to be peaks and troughs, ups and downs. There's going to be productive seasons and seasons where you've just got no energy and nothing's worked. If you're doing streaming in particular, there's going to be seasons where there's lots of viewers and seasons where there's very few viewers. Times a year where it gets very quiet, when the revenue just drops off a cliff. So have systems in place for the bad times. And that doesn't even just apply for creatives. Just as a human being, try and have systems in place for the bad times so you're ready because the blows will come. But if you've got systems in place that makes it easier to get through those tough times, it won't make them stop hurting. It's going to be rough no matter what.
00:59:21
Speaker
but try and have something in place to make things a little easier for yourself. Honestly, I feel as if that's the perfect place to end the episode because it is such an important thing to remember that no matter what you're going through, as you were saying, whether you end up going through the good times and the bad times, whether it's in life or whether it's in content creation, that you have to hold on to the positives that there are people out there, of course,
00:59:45
Speaker
that are supporting you, that there are communities there that will support you and so on. And it's just honestly such fantastic advice. So honestly, Katie, thank you so, so much for coming on and talking about your journey. Thank you for inviting me. Absolutely fantastic. And I was very nervous in the run up to this. I know I mentioned that to you, Chatsu, but you're absolutely wonderful and you've made this a wonderful experience for me. Well, you've been an absolutely fantastic guest and you're always welcome back.
01:00:14
Speaker
Oh, anytime, anytime. I haven't even started telling everyone about Sonic and Digimon. Like, I could go on for ages. We haven't even gotten into that. Next time. Honestly, you're amongst good company here. Oh, yes. You can talk about Sonic and Digimon. Can I ask you something just before we wrap up? Of course. I was reading through your bio and your absolutely fantastic website, by the way, and it says here one of your languages is listed as Scottish Gaelic. Oh, aye. It is indeed. Oh, great. Fantastic.
01:00:43
Speaker
ah Ironically enough, no joke intended. It is like a unicorn. It is, genuinely. Yeah, it is. For folks who are less familiar with Scottish Gaelic, it's very much a so struggling language. My mum and my grandmother and that whole side of the family were native speakers and I very much tried to grow up speaking in natively, but it's very difficult because so few people speak it now that it's very hard to keep those kind of skills honed. Because when I live in Scotland, the wonderful Lowlands of the West, it's very looked down upon. Like, I'm a huge nerd when it comes to language learning, but I have to say I found it really difficult to learn Gaelic. It is. It's so difficult because the immersion opportunities just aren't there and it breaks my heart. I want to keep my skills sharp. I want to keep that part of my culture going, but nobody on the mainland speaks So the minute hear a Gaelic speaker, I will just latch on that made me scroll back when they were scrolling down your bio and i was like hold on a second does that say scottish gael oh yes i love to mention i love to speak it on stream when i can and i'll always pair it with a translation because in terms of bleak commercial stats it's not profitable to say stuff in a language other than english really but gosh i have fun with it
01:01:54
Speaker
Oh, no, definitely go for it. This could be the resurgence of Scottish Gaelic. There's some great games out there that use it as well, like shout out to Stillwake City, a Scottish game set on the oil rig, which has a fully Gaelic mode. And I believe the new game Farewell North has a Gaelic translation as well.
01:02:11
Speaker
Really? Yep. Yep. So it's really good to see. I love to see it. Because, I mean, my Gaelic is very basic. I was going to throw you off at the beginning of the episode and introduce you by saying, oh, hello, Kimara Hasha, and they'd be like, oh, better not, better not. Oh, no. We can give the chat some basics. So the typical conversation starter, based on what you said there is, Kimara How, which is, how are you? you want to try answering that, Jatsu? Kimara How, how are you? Gleva, tap on it. Oh, Gleva. Very good, very good.
01:02:42
Speaker
or tap a lake because i learned it from i can't even remember what the video was but it's probably from like the 80s or 70s i think it was speaking our language or something it was a bbc program they teach you the basics like matting va which is good morning yeah that's right fesker mat is that good afternoon and good evening good afternoon is fesker mat is good evening and good night as i think you're thinking of yeah Yeah, there was a couple of really good ones. I know there's like Esmishie, which my name is. Is that right? Yeah, Esmishie Kedishie. The only other from that other Tapolev Tapolev was Higgistech, I think, which is like come inside. Yeah, the way it's said in Rylanger is a kind of very harsh Higgistchok, because usually if you're being told to come inside, somebody's mad at you. So Higgistchok, come in, come in. I just remember the video for that and it was a very angry woman. Yeah, wasn't Her husband and kids. My absolute favourite Gaelic phrase, which I picked up from my granny, is omokraxahanig.
01:03:44
Speaker
That's omokraxahanig. And it literally translates to, oh no, my very ruination has come or oh no, my damnation is here. It's very dramatic. It's the world is ending. Oh no, everything is going wrong. This is the end of me but it gets used for the silliest things like you've stubbed your toe oh mccraxahanig you're slightly ill with the cold and you're bedridden you're just lying in bed like oh it's the end of the world i'm damned i'm doomed that is amazing it's so good it's so good you gotta love the drama you gotta to have a wee bit of flair exactly honestly katie it has been such a pleasure having in you on this episode anytime thank you so much for having me or as a galaxy tapalette
01:04:24
Speaker
And of course, next week, Katie and I will be taking you through the basics of Gaelic again. So get your notepads out. Absolutely. Duolingo, get wrecked. We're on this now. Exactly. Duolingo, who's that? Owls? Nah, red pandas. Come on. I don't know whether I should tag Duolingo. Yes.
01:04:42
Speaker
Start some Duolingo beef. Yeah, let's do it. It's like on the one hand, stay positive, you know, promote positivity. On the other hand, throw hands with the Duolingo. Throw hands with the owl. Take it on. You can do it.
01:04:53
Speaker
Netflix, see if you're listening. I'm happy for you to, as long as you pay me, you know, you can stream the boxing rights for it. So just imagine like a red panda and a mowl and a wrinkle. That'd be so cute though. It'd be cute, but it would be devastating if I lost. So I'd have to go away and train. So as I plan that out, of course, in case they are listening, where can these amazing Pandalorians listen at home, find your content, and also, is there anything coming up for you in the future? Oh, thank you so much for asking. So the internet is very changeable and platforms change every day. But for the moment, I stream live on twitch.tv slash katie she that's c a i t i e s i t h. I also am on blue sky, same username. And if catching live streams isn't your cup of tea, and you want to listen at your own pace, maybe have me on the background while you're working or tidying or doing housework. I'm also on YouTube at katie she but if social media implodes and none those links work anymore, you can find me on catgirlnation.com, which is my personal domain that I will defend through all the fires and the flames, because it's nice to have your own corner of the internet where you can be safe from the algorithm. That's very much what the website aims to be. As far as big projects, I was talking to Chatsu a little bit about this at the start, that I'm struggling with time management because time is difficult to comprehend. It's weird. It's shaped funny. i don't like it. It moves too fast. So I'm trying very much to limit what I'm doing. And every month now on stream, I have, i start the month with a project catch up call where I go over my free goals for that month, how I did, if I succeeded, if I failed, because failing a project is a part of life. And then I let folks know what I'm moving on next to try and keep me accountable, but also stop me from aiming for too many goals at once. So my January goals are we had a secret project that got announced recently, which is an animated starting soon for the screen that was done with art by and editorial input from my moderator Dave Face Station. It looks fantastic. I am so in love with it. I get to be a little cartoon, even more than I'm cartooning usually. It's great. We've also got a project this month to do my first ever song cover, which I'm very nervous about.
01:07:06
Speaker
because I've never done that before. So step out of my comfort zone and we've got an online shop that I'm going to be putting some new merchandise on. And as for the months that follow, I'm just going to take it as it comes and I will let folks know month by month what I'm working on because there's so many ideas in my head, but I'm trying to take it one finger at a time and actually get them done. Honestly, that sounds absolutely fantastic. If the listeners at home haven't checked out Katie Shee genuinely, go check it out just now. Well, pause the episode, go check it out and then come back for the end. But definitely, you're an absolutely fantastic content creator, such a positive person as well, especially on Blue Sky, which is pretty much where I see most of your posts when you're going live in So definitely go check it out there. And as always, Pandalorians, thank you all so, so much for listening to this episode.
01:07:55
Speaker
If you would like to check out more content from our ourselves, and you can check us out at our website, chatsunami.com, as well as all good podcast apps. You can also find us on a variety of social media pages. You can find us on the aforementioned Blue Sky. You can find us on Twitter slash X, YouTube, Facebook, under the name Chatsunami. Or if you're looking through the rubble of Twitter, can on Twitter. You can find us under ChatsunamiPod. You can also find us on Twitch at twitch.com forward slash Chatsunami, where we are doing fantastic series right now called Chatsu Cafe, where my friends and I just talk about whole load of roundtable discussion, so definitely go check that out. I also want to thank our amazing Pandalorian patrons, Robotic Battle Toaster, Sonya, Ghostie, and Cryptic 1991. Thank you all so much. You are absolutely fantastic. your support means the world to us and you want exclusive access to special episodes to twitch vods to commentary tracks you know we've got whole host bloopers katie and i's and gaelic lessons there for legal reasons that last one's a joke but you know we'll be in talks
01:09:03
Speaker
then you can check us out at Patreon page if you're curious about it at patreon.com forward slash chat tsunami but until next time thank you all so so much for listening stay safe stay awesome and most importantly stay hydrated yes thank you Pandalorians