TL;DL I’m taking a break until March. Please fill out the survey at kakosindustries.com/survey

Hello, Kakos Industries listeners. It’s me Conrad again. Before I get into the news segment proper, I want to highlight that I have put together a survey that I am hoping you will fill out for me. You can find it at KakosIndustries.com/survey, or in the episode description. This is something I like to do from time to time, and it really helps me to figure out who’s listening. There are podcast statistics, of course, but they’re really not on the same level as statistics for other kinds of media. If you’re on the fence about participating, then you need to know that the slightly annoying thing I do with this podcast that you absolutely hate, well, someone else really loves that and they’re going to tell me that, and I won’t have your opinion to balance it out unless you also fill out the survey. And if that’s not enough incentive, then I’ll pick two random people who have filled out the survey and I’ll let them name the employee spotlight people in a couple of episodes. It can be your name, or one you make up. KakosIndustries.com/survey

Okay, onto the news.

I wanted to let you know that I am going to be taking a bit of a break, which is not something I have done before really. In almost ten years. I think I might have taken a month off early on in the podcast’s existence, but I’m not even sure I actually did that. I think I did extra episodes one time and then took a month off, which doesn’t really count. Then there was the time when Kakos went from twice a month to once a month, which you could have argued was like taking a break for two weeks out of each month, but I’m not sure that’s a particularly strong argument. Anyway, I’m taking a break. 

Right now, my plan is to take a break from making Kakos until the March 2024 episode comes out, which will be the tenth anniversary episode. Technically, I started doing Kakos on February 15th, which is the real anniversary, but when I switched to the one episode a month I decided that the March first episode was the anniversary one. 

There is a chance that I come back early, and perhaps a slim chance that I come back late, but March is the plan. There will be some short pieces coming out on a monthly basis to keep you entertained in the meantime.

I will be pausing the Patreon so you shouldn’t have to do anything if you are a patron. You won’t be charged for months where I’m not doing stuff. I know that a lot of Patreon pages work differently and people pay even for months when things aren’t happening, but I have some pricy tiers, and I think this is the best route. I’m really, really hoping that you stick around for when I return. I know that breaks aren’t that uncommon in podcasting or creative spaces in general, but I’m not used to it and I just have this terrible fear that everything will fall apart if I’m not constantly working, which is one of the reasons I’ve decided this break is necessary in the first place. There, I guilt-tripped you into sticking around. I’m sorry about that. Well, maybe I’m not. I clearly left it in the script I’m reading from right now. All of this is very healthy.

If you’re just dying to give me money, then the PayPal link is on the website.

While I’m taking this break, you will be able to find me on the Kakos Industries Discord, KakosIndustries.com/discord. Or you can shoot me an email. I’m the only person who checks the inquiries@kakosindustries.com email, so it’ll be me that you reach. You can also come to my trivia events in Phoenix. As long as you don’t shoot me or anyone else, I really don’t mind if you come to one of those events. I’m not going to list them here but there are ways of finding them. There’s also a rumor that Never Rad will be having live shows again very soon. I may do some streaming again, but I’m not making any promises at the moment. You can find more details about that on the Discord, but my Twitch username is StreamRaddy, s-t-r-e-a-m-r-a-d-d-y. The way social media platforms are going right now, it’s really assuming a lot that Twitch will continue to exist as it does in a few months, but that’s the plan anyway. I suppose the same goes for Discord. The YouTube channel for any VODs is also StreamRaddy. YouTube could also get way shittier in a few months. The world is really just an exciting place, isn’t it?

Okay, so I’m guessing there might be some questions. There also might not be any questions. Perhaps it is totally reasonable for people to take a break from what they are doing from time to time. I wouldn’t know. In almost ten years. Just saying that I think kind of explains things. 

I’m trying to be concise with my words here, which is not always easy for me. Ask anyone in my personal life about that and they’ll let you know that I can just go off for like an hour at a moment’s notice about stuff. A friend of mine just had to put up with me on the two hour drive to Flagstaff and they are a trooper. A real one, you might say. 

So the short answer to why I’m taking a break is that it’s a lot of things. I’ve been kind of overwhelmed by everything. I’m sure living through a global pandemic and having certain aspects of life on hold for years isn’t helping. I know that all of you are in the same boat with me on that one, especially my fellow extra sensitives out there. I’ve been having weird anxiety. There’s my usual anxiety, and then there’s weird anxiety. I’ve also been having a higher than normal rate of headaches, and they might just be related to stress. And then there’s this feeling that I’ve been running and running and running and not really taking the time to slow down and process things. Apparently that’s a thing people do. They have feelings, and then they process them. It sounds like magic.

It’s kind of funny to me that at the beginning of this project it was really important to me to figure out how to keep it going from episode to episode and to maintain the habits necessary to make the show, and so many years later it’s much harder to pause. I’m so used to doing it.

I also know that there is some irony in me announcing this a month after doing the AMA thing. It is noted.

Anyway, I’ll leave it there. I’m sure I’ll have some thoughts when I get back from the break. I hope that all of you have a pleasant winter and holiday season if you want to. Reach out if you feel like it. Fill out the survey at kakosindustries.com/survey please. 

Thank you again for being the best. I’ll see you in March.