I've been having a very frustrating time getting up and running with Twitch. every time I make progress, I hit another wall.

example: streaming from PS4.

I'd been playing P5R and using PS4's built in share ability, which is unfortunately limited by what the developers of the game will or won't allow to be recorded

I got to the new January content, and gameplay was no longer recorded.

so I bought an Elgato, forgetting I already own one and it's in storage. but I couldn't get it to work. the TV would display for about 5sec before going dark.

PLUS, I had to buy two massive USB extender cables for the Elgato to reach from my entertainment center in the living room to my computer in my office

computer guy came over for computer problems and I asked for his opinion on the Elgato problem also. he let me know that USBs have a power limit of about 16ft (and I had put two 12ft cables together), and suggested I try getting massive HDMI cables to bring the Elgato into my office doorway instead to use only one USB extender

so I did that. two 25ft HDMI cables. all of this has been very expensive so far.

THAT didn't work.

contacted Elgato.

they gave me a list of things to troubleshoot. one of them included that extenders won't work; the Elgato has to be directly plugged in to the computer.

so I moved my computer into the living room.

my desk, however, wouldn't fit through the door. I had Gavin come over to help, and he figured that it needs to be taken apart and reassembled, but he wouldn't do it then because he didn't have the tools.

as we moved it, it started pulling apart. after he left, it collapsed entirely. good news: it can probably be disassembled and reassembled. bad news: I have no desk.

I've been sitting on the floor.

also good news: plugging the Elgato directly in to my computer made the video work! along with a weird setting on the PS4

bad news: the Elgato is not capturing audio.

so, another obstacle to figure out.

so that's the PS4.

for the computer, there's the aforementioned desk problem, and the BSOD problem that my guy came over to fix only got worse, and Chrome is taking up a LUDICROUS amount of CPU and RAM that it hadn't been before, and is basically unusable

unsure what triggers the BSOD, it's completely random, which makes relying on it for streaming unlikely and taking it to get fixed will be time consuming and expensive

then for art, hoo boy. ratatosk gave me a display tablet they didn't need/want anymore. I got all of the tools and cables I needed to make it work, and...it wouldn't work.

computer registers it as a second monitor, and the zoom buttons on the tablet work on the main monitor, but the power button doesn't light up and the tablet doesn't turn on. or display, at least.

so fine. bought a new one. it's beautiful. 10% off sale. cool.

I was expecting it in 3-5 days; that was the expedited shipping that you had no other choice but to accept.

it took two weeks.

but fine.

it gets here, I'm excited, I open it and set it up, it's gorgeous

it turns on, it displays

but it only registers as like a mouse for the main monitor

the pen won't work on the tablet directly.

okay. so I look it up, and find tutorials, and change settings

changes nothing.

even though it's very straightforward and easy to do, supposedly

THEN I discover that the 3-in-1 cable it comes with is FAR too short to be useful, so I'm hoping that a USB-C extender works and it doesn't need to be directly plugged in like the Elgato

so

I've been cycling through the roller coaster of emotions that's either "I'm going to tear my hair out and return all of this in a rage and give up and sulk" or "one step at a time; I accept this, there's no rush"

other than that, I've been trying to network on Twitch and supporting my friends doing it, slowly climbing out of the pit of winter depression...