2018 Update (Patreon)

Hello good humans!

Triple Piano Update:

After weeks of preparation, mathematician Henry Segerman arrived at Vi Hart headquarters and we got to work on production. 

We set up, tested, changed things, filmed more tests, edited and produced to see what worked, found things that didn't work, choreographed more, filmed more, tried to understand what exactly was going on mathematically with what we were doing, etc.

As we had to take advantage of Henry's in-person time here, I've been ignoring everything else. By the middle of last week Henry was off to his next adventure and we had done our best!

Now I have a pile of footage that will need some lengthy and careful editing... and then the sound stuff. Will it come together? We'll find out after a little more editing! I hope it does though, because the two of us have put a lot of time and effort into this.

Vi Hart 2018 Update:

Every year I spend a good chunk of January reflecting on things, planning, making resolutions etc. I usually keep about half my resolutions: the work-related half. The half I usually fail are the ones about taking better care of myself, not working all day every day until I burn out, etc.

But now that I'm crowdfunding and don't rely on any single funding source that might look at what I'm doing and wonder why I can't do it faster and cheaper, I'm determined to work sane hours and that it will have to be enough. 

I've known for years that I'm not in my early 20s anymore and I can't hunch over a computer working all day and pulling all nighters to finish videos, but this year I turn 30 and my body hates me and I've gone from "you really need to start taking better care of yourself" to "ok, that's it, you don't get a choice anymore".

But it's always easy to make excuses to keep overworking just for a little longer... just until the Patreon is set up, or just to do tshirts in my spare time, or just while a colleague is in town, or that emails or messages don't count as "real work" and can be done all evening, etc etc. 

So THIS year I'm serious. Work is no longer #1 priority. If this fails and the Patreon crashes and burns and I have to get rid of my studios and piano and get a normal job doing something entirely normal, that's better than working at the pace I've been working for 10 years. But I don't think that'll happen, and I think it's less likely to happen if I avoid burning out!

Part of my resolution is taking weekends off from "real" work. Of course, "work" is ill-defined for me. Technically playing piano and making art and reading and thinking are all part of my work, but the workier parts of my work cut into the time I have for undirected artistic exploration. So I'm at least taking weekends off from workish work and I'll have to figure out what that means as I go.

While Henry was here we had a lot to do in only 8 days, so we worked through the weekend. But then I did something radical, and after he left I took the next two days off to make up for it! I cleaned! I took a bath! I walked the dog! I read!

And then I did something even more radical (for me): instead of compulsively working more after that, I went to the hospital to see what is up with my toe. Like a responsible person who doesn't just ignore their own injuries until they end up in the emergency room (I am real good at that one).

I thought I was just being super over-achieving of my new years resolution to prioritize my own well being, but it turned out to be a good call... new xray shows my toe is still broken (after 7 weeks). So science called BS on my theory that "I just need to use it even more and it will stop hurting and start being able to bend again, like physical therapy, because clearly it should have healed by now".

So, still limping around and waiting on a specialist to tell me why it won't heal and what to do about it. Dogget has given up on the idea that I will ever be fun ever again.

But do I take off on holidays now that I'm soooo good at not overworking? I dunno. I compromised and instead of getting back to work on Triple Piano today I wrote a short blog post about some of my favourite authors: http://vihart.com/some-favourite-authors/

...and of course I wrote this, which is also work. But now it is 6pm and I am trying to limit my "actual work"-ing hours from 9am to 6pm on weekdays JUST LIKE A HUMAN WHOSE TOES HEAL.

Ok happy 2018 to you all! Tomorrow it's back to work on Triple Piano and I'm excited because it's gonna be real cool :D