If you know me by any other name...no you don't.
I'm Darunia (da-ROON-ia)! You can all me Daru or Runie for short. I'm old, queer, and a content creator.
What does that mean? In short, I make things. I remember reading somewhere that said we should stop calling ourselves "content creators" because that implies we're bots or something. That we should call ourselves "artists", "streamers", or something of the like.
I do agree, but the reason why I use "content creator" is because I don't do just one thing, I do a lot of things and I like to try more.
I'm a born and bred New Yorker, so that explains my potty mouth. Sorry, not sorry at all. I ended up in Michigan because my wife, who I met while I was living in NY, is a Michigander. Along with my wife, we have a lovely teenager, three cats, and two dogs. Chaos exist in this household. I wouldn't change it for the world.
In addition to making things, I have a huge love for video games (huge Zelda fan here if you haven't figured by the name), true crime and disaster podcasts, the color purple, and caffeine. Lots of caffeine.
Road to content creation
I was a blogger in a past life.
Before Twitch and a little bit before the boom of social media in general, I was a blogger who talked about my life, which included my experiences with mental illness, frustrations with finding a partner, then eventually, for a short time, it evolved into me being a "mommy blogger". Yes, I'm that old. Since then I have been mostly on social media and focusing on full-time job stuff and blogging was put on the backburner. It wasn't until recently when I decided that I needed to start writing again, so here we are.
I started streaming a little bit after the pandemic hit. While people were starting as soon as shutdowns happened, I was too busy deciding if I wanted to actually stream. My wife, also a streamer, helped encourage trying it out, so I did, focusing my content on another one of my favorite games, Final Fantasy 14. I have since switched up my streaming content to include Zelda randomizers and indie games.
As for video editing, it's something that I did some of in general when editing my own Twitch VODs. Then my wife asked me if I wanted to try editing one of her YouTube series, and I said "sure", because I have no self-control when it comes to projects. But then something happened and I fell in love with doing it. It gives me a way to be creative and I'm helping someone out. Now it's something I really enjoy doing and would love to help others with their editing woes. If you are interested, feel free to contact me!