 Hello everyone, it's Brian, and this is a channel and personal announcement. As some of you may know, because I've confided in you personally and privately that I am struggling right now, mainly due to issues with my career, which has taken a turn due to decisions that are beyond my control. I didn't do anything, I didn't make any mistakes, I didn't do anything that would cause a change to happen, but due to me just not having any power over it, things have taken a turn. And the job that I had, that I loved, that allowed me to help people in need, has become a nightmare. And this has very negatively impacted my mental health. I struggle to get out of bed every day and do the things that I have to do. I don't have any choice, so I do what I need to do, but my mental health has declined very rapidly and sharply to the point where over the last couple weeks or so, I wondered if I needed to be hospitalized. That's not something I've had to do before, I have had to be on medication before, but I've never needed to be hospitalized, but there have been times over the last couple weeks that I thought it might be necessary. Those of you who live with anxiety and depression know that you get very good at putting on a mask. Because you feel that if you express that to people, you are burdening other people with your problem. And that's what I've been trying to do over the last couple weeks, but it's reached a point where I really just can't anymore. And you all out there who watch my videos and have become my friends deserve to know what's going on, which is why I'm making this video. Doing this video is a struggle for me. This is hard. And I know that you didn't tune in for this. This is not what you signed up for. You didn't subscribe to watch this kind of video. And if I lose a few of you because of that, I understand. That's okay. But we've been on this journey for a while. Some of you have been with me for years now. And some of you are new. And if you are new, thank you for joining. I'm glad that you're here. And I hope you stick around. I do. And we've done this together. We're on this journey together. And a lot of you have become real friends. And so you deserve to know what's going on. I had intended to record this video to announce that I would be suspending activity on this channel at least for a little while. That was my intention. For the last four years, my video schedule has been sacred. I almost feel like it's a pact between you and me. And my end of the bargain is every week I give you the best video that I can do and I get it to you on time. And your end of the bargain is you join me and we go on this journey together. Remembering G.I. Joe and remembering these good times that we had with these toys and having a little bit of fun criticizing them and praising them. We do this together. It's something that is a collaborative effort. And if I were to put up a video late or to skip a video, I would feel like I'm not holding up my end of that bargain. The schedule has been vital to me. And it's been a way of connecting with you. That is really what this has become about. Every week we do this together. And we spend a little bit of time together. And that has become so vital to me that it's hard for me to imagine not having that. But time is an issue, of course. Time is always an issue. It seems like I always have to end up sacrificing something just because I don't have enough time. But time isn't the only issue. The bigger issue is the amount of pressure that I've been under. The most recent video that went up, it had been sitting about two-thirds done for more than a week. And there were days when I came home from work and it's not so much that I didn't have the time to work on it. But the pressure was getting to me so much that I just couldn't. I just couldn't. I could not sit in front of a camera and speak the words that I needed to say. And if I had tried to do it in that kind of mental state, it would have been terrible. You would not have wanted to see it. And so that's the problem. And I need to ease the pressure somewhere. And this is the only thing that I have any control over. The problem with that being, though, is that this has been a way of relieving pressure. It's been a creative outlet for me. It's been a way to connect with people. It's been a way to make new friends. It's been a way to do something that I enjoy and get away from pressure. And giving that up is not something that I take lightly. But I had been in the position that I thought I didn't really have any choice. But as I sit here and after going back and forth on this decision for a few days, I have decided I am not going to quit. I am not going to suspend activity on this channel. I'm going to keep going because I need this. Not only will I keep going, I actually need to find ways to expand what I'm doing. Here's why. The channel's been doing great. It's been growing faster than it ever has before. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. I've made new friends. New people have joined us in this fun little journey that we take. It's been going so well. And I want to keep that going. I know there are more people out there that love these toys and love G.I. Joe and would love to remember them and would join us on this journey. And I want to find those people because every one of those people has the potential of being a new friend. Why would I want to give that up? I have a Patreon and I have a little bit of ad revenue that comes from Google. It's not a lot but it's all just gone back into the channel. That's what it's there for. It gives me an opportunity to buy new equipment like this camera which is fairly new and get toys that I can review so I can make sure I have a show to do. I have things to show you. And that's what it's been used for. That's what it was always intended to be used for. But due to uncertainty in my career and things being outside of my control this may have to at least temporarily be a backup plan. That's a little scary because it's not anywhere near capable of doing that right now and it was never intended to be that. There are people who create things on YouTube and do that for their job and I have tremendous respect for them. It is risky and scary to decide that you are going to create something for other people to watch and consume and to do that as your job and to try to sustain yourself doing that. That is almost terrifying to me. But it's possible that I may need to temporarily use this as a backup plan and if that becomes the case that Patreon page and the revenue streams that I have this trickle of revenue will become much more important. But that may be just what I have to do. I don't know and I don't know but I have to be prepared for that. So instead of retreating we have to advance. My thought was maybe I can pull back and just do the main reviews every week and cut out things like the midweek videos and the live streams but that would be retreating and we can't retreat. We have to move forward. We have to do more. I need to give you more and to give you the best quality that I can every week and to earn your support. What does that mean for the videos going forward? Well, I need to streamline my process. I need to be more efficient in making the videos but in a way that doesn't hopefully impact the quality of the videos that you get. I can say pretty confidently that there will probably be less humor in my videos going forward. The humor that I put in the videos, that's me. It's genuine. That's just how I am. That is honestly my real sense of humor. I've even seen comments of people that think that it's forced humor. It's not. That's how I really am in real life. I am real with you guys. I am genuine. I don't fake things. But right now I don't have much to laugh about and at the moment I don't really have much of a sense of humor. I'm not going to fake that. That may be an adjustment but I have to find a way to give you a quality video every week. I need to because I need you. This is hard for me. It's embarrassing to me to even need to make this video. I'm going to do the best I can to earn your support and to keep you with me on this journey. I have thought in the recent past about what it would be like if I did this for my job. One thing that I think would change is that if I were doing this, if I had more time to do this, I could give you higher quality videos. I wouldn't have to cut out so much just because I run out of time. I could give you better consistency. I can give you more. I have been wanting to pick up the comic book reviews for a couple of years and I just haven't been able to do it and I would be able to do that if I had the time. At this point, I value my time with you more than about anything else. My family, of course, comes first and they've been very supportive and they understand. But you guys have been a big help to me, too. I've been talking with other friends of mine that are in my profession and putting out feelers out there, seeing what other alternatives I might have. One friend said to me very rightly that no job is worth your mental health. And that is true. It's true. But I've got to have options and I've got to know what I'm going to do and there's a lot of uncertainty and uncertainty is something that I struggle with. I don't like uncertainty but there's a lot of uncertainty in my future right now. In my review of Jinx I said that G.I. Joe saved me when I was at a very low point. Well, G.I. Joe may need to save me again. Thank you for watching. I will see you next week and thank you for your support.