I. Need New EP Art

EDIT: This is embarrassing but I'm letting Bleak-Creep do the art because she's amazeballs. This section still has some relevant information about the new EP and a change in my Free Downloads so I'm editing it to deflect any further applications. Sorry if I got any one's hopes up :C

My last EP was just a bunch of crap tossed together during the 2022 Jamuary song a day challenge, it was $12 for 30 songs and I made a grand total of $0. This time, I'm just tossing some random shit together and making it a "pay what you want" EP called "$pare ₵hange". The Pay-What-You-Want method kind of goes with the theme of spare change but I have some bad news about accessibility; today I'm removing free downloads from the tracks I've stuffed onto past EPs.

(Check my BandCamp or Playlists to see which songs are being limited.)

I'm fucking old by some standards and have no real income. Most of my financial stability revolves around the fact that I'm married to a breadwinner (lucky me). I've always wanted to keep my music accessible and free but with nothing coming in at 34, I can't justify it anymore. I'm "selling out" by removing downloads for a handful of songs that are also hosted on Bandcamp. Ya'll can still download a ton of my other stuff for free, or you can download a program like Audacity and rip audio straight off your hard drives. For anyone interested in "sampling," many audio programs let you record the sounds coming from your hard drive. I have a massive amount of respect for anyone willing to "steal" my mp3s by doing all the extra leg work, fucking do it losers. FUCKING JUST DO IT. STEAL MY SHIT KIDS D:<

Make sure you give the EP playlist for $pare ₵hange a quick listen. There's a lot of experimental dubstep, progressive genre bending, and a few extra gentle songs that don't fit in at all. I have no idea what the album art should look like, that's entirely up for grabs.

II. Unreleased NGP Episode

For anyone interested, I uploaded an old Newgrounds Podcast interview to my Google Drive for a friend. He kept asking and it never occurred to me to just upload the raw stuff from my own computer, so please thank Dieswyx for this upload. Here's two sloppy unedited hours of people talking: never released NGP episode. Also, Shal learns how to hold a knife:

D:

III. More Wedding Pictures

A small Easter egg from my wedding, here's a picture that wasn't included in my last blog because it hadn't been uploaded to the shared folder at the time (or I missed it):

For anyone not familiar, the gorgeous babe on the right is Bleak-Creep. I invited her and her boyfriend to my wedding after finishing work on the Us cartoon series. The fact that she and Danny flew out from Minneapolis made her visit all the more special. She gifted me with some additional illustrations, haven't digitized them yet. Honestly, I've considered asking her to do the art for the new EP but I'm currently AWOL on Discord and I feel like a bad friend. I hide my shame by becoming an invisible person. SHAME ON ME, SHAME. NO AMOUNT OF INVISIBILITY CAN HIDE MY EMBARRASMENT.

Oh, I also forced her to draw in my 2016 Pico Day sketch pad. This sketch book is getting a little worn from all the abusive years but it's still an absolute treasure:

IV. Music Studio Construction

Work on the music studio progressed some. We got the materials to insulate, a drywall lift for the ceiling work, lights, wires, breakers... it's slow work on our own but one day this dream will be real:

I'm not sure how Tom feels about the fact that I snapped this picture of him doing the electrical, but I like having documentation of everything he's doing for me. Naturally I don't get any pictures of the work that I'm doing too but I also have no problem admitting that Tom is the brains of this operation. He'd probably have finished the studio by now if I wasn't such a total bitch all the time, this is totally my fault. EVERY MOMENT IS A LEARNING EXPERIENCE, LEARN FROM EVERY MOMENT.

Studio things were slow this year from all the work we had to put into our wedding. Couldn't have asked for a better time from the wedding. Despite the slow moving shed there are other projects we have been getting done. We heated the cabin in previous years with a pellet stove but have recently installed electric heat pumps (on our own, like every other project). Tom is adding more battery power to the house to compensate for electric heat:

That last picture has one of the outside units visible on the house, under the left window. We used the Kubota to help lift it into place & dig trenches, I snapped the picture before Tom could see me.

Outro Feelings

If anything about that first section about not making any money from my music seemed like a pity grab, this outro is reassurance that I would rather you people spend that money on yourselves. My life is great, the pictures I included are evidence of how good things really are. I could honestly afford to pay an artist more than $100 for the EP illustration but I've previously charged $100 for OSTs and that's where the amount comes from. I've stayed affordable, kept my music free in most instances. Feel free to negotiate with me over illustrations, it's a tough economy. I look forward to checking out some art. I gotta wrap this blog up, Tom wants to do some more work on the shed and I still haven't shut off downloads. I STILL HAVEN'T SHUT OFF MY DOWNLOADS, THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE, GO DOWNLOAD ALL MY MUSIC FOR FREE BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, DOWNLOAD IT BEFORE YOU HAVE TO PIRATE IT, DOWNLOAD THE SPARE CHANGE EP BEFORE I FORCE YOU TO BUY IT ON BANDCAMP, DO IT, FUCKING DO IT D:<

edit: I just removed the ability to download all of my old Bandcamp music. Spare Change EP isn't on Bandcamp yet, download these songs now before I make it slightly harder to get them for free.