...Rickroll you!

Well, at least not this year.  Happy April, one and all.  ^___^

I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, but life sure is some kind of crazy, mixed-up rollercoaster ride.  The ups and downs, the push and pull of it all...it's enough to make a person go completely mad!  Unless you can manage to sit back and enjoy the journey when it all goes sideways, that is.  Or at least muddle through when it's all at its murkiest.

And yet there's beauty to be found in the whole ridiculous mess, and that's where I'm sitting right now.  Maybe I don't completely know where I'm going, but I certainly know who I am and where I've been, and that makes all the uncertainty worthwhile.  This feeling probably won't last because, well...nothing ever really does in the strictest sense, but that doesn't mean I'll stop hoping that the good stuff somehow manages to outweigh the bad.

So, for now - in this very moment - I'm feeling good.  Maybe even great.  And as we all know, the art that flows from the soul is a reflection of our innermost thoughts, feelings, opinions, beliefs, blah, blah, blah...you get the idea.  I mean, this wasn't really supposed to become some long-winded thing, but it's late and I'm still surfing the highs, and yesterday my clock turned over another full year of existence that has culminated in a wiser, more interesting, and somehow even weirder version of me.

I guess I'm meandering, but I don't really care, so if you're reading this - to quote someone infinitely special to me - "Sorry, not sorry."  I may have actually said it first, but so what?  By the way, here's a fun new Electric Ambient track that I finished recently.  Whee~!

I just won't be continuing with it. It's been a pretty cool experience overall, but I'm a little sorry to see it come to an end. At the same time, I'm also kind of relieved; it's a grueling two weeks of composition each time, followed by an excruciating wait that feels about ten times longer than it really is while the judges deliberate and finally release the results. Five days somehow feel like an eternity, so it can frazzle one's nerves just a tad, waiting to find out if you're moving on or dropping out.

Nevertheless, the good has far outweighed the bad, and I am very pleased to have been a part of the 2013 Newgrounds Audio Deathmatch. I've gotten acquainted with many talented artists throughout this process and am walking away with new friendships, scads of impressive feedback, and a sense of personal growth. Getting all the way to Round 3 is, in and of itself, quite an achievement. I was happy to pass the auditions, and the rest has mostly felt like a dream. This particular dream may have ended, but the music is only beginning. Be on the lookout for more from me in the near future, and until then I will leave you with a list of the songs that got me this far and the one that ultimately wasn't quite good enough to beat the incredibly talented etherealwinds who - interestingly enough - added his vocal talents to my Round 2 submission, Tir Na Nog.

Audition ~ Forever Fantasy (2011)

Round 1 ~ Anthem of the Adventurer

Round 2 ~ Tir Na Nog

Round 3 ~ This is Not the End

Tir Na Nog is by far my best and most popular composition from this contest, so if you listen to just one, make it that one. That being said, they all have their own merits, so do yourself a favor and listen to them all!

This is amazing. I never really expected to make it past the audition phase, and here it is Round 2 already. I'm still in this thing, and I can scarcely believe my good fortune. The level of talent is out of this world, the music on offer is widely diverse and utterly breathtaking, and I am still here. Wow. Just...wow.

My Round 2 submission is a fairly traditional Celtic piece. You can listen to it here:

I have finally been able to hop aboard the FL Studio train, and the future is looking brighter than ever. That being said, here's my first original FL jam, ready and waiting to make sweet, sweet love to your ear holes:

-Destroyer of Worlds-

I've also been working on a separate, commission-based project, and I'll see about maybe sharing bits and pieces of that when it's finished, as well. I completed the original version using my previous DAW, but the opportunity to recreate and retool the entire project in FL was too good to pass up. I've also been fortunate enough to get some phenomenal feedback and assistance from the estimable and ridiculously talented Halcyonic Falcon X (aka Phyrnna). What can I say? She rocks.

Well, that's pretty much it from me for now. Let me know if there's a particular favorite song of mine that you'd like to hear me recreate in FL Studio. I'll definitely be doing some of that, pretty much just because I can. Out.

I just popped my 2013 audio cherry! Go on and give it a listen. You Were There (ICO)

My goal this year is to beat my total number of audio submissions from 2012. I'm thinking that it probably won't be hard to accomplish since there were only five. If I were trying the same thing using 2011 as the year to beat instead, I would almost certainly fail. Sixty submissions in a single year? Well, I guess that's what happens when you have a massive backlog of stuff that's just been sitting there, waiting to be shared with an unsuspecting world. I'm pretty sure I've got some more unreleased stuff gathering dust somewhere around here, and if I happen to find any worth sharing, I will do so.

Besides that highly attainable goal, I am happy to announce that I've managed to work through a variety of fun and exciting (not really) technical difficulties so that I can start cranking out music like a maniac again. Or not. It all depends on my muse. All things considered, I'm rather hoping to be quite a bit more productive on the musical side than last year. I would also love to expand my repertoire here on Newgrounds, but we'll just have to wait and see what time allows.

Incidentally, if you happen to be Mayan, I'm coming to end your world right now. No, not really. But I am. Kidding, that is! Except that I'm not. Or am I? By the time you figure out the truth, it will already be too late...

So yeah, obviously the Newgrounds redesign is up and running (for the most part). It looks pretty and all, but just like everyone else I've got beef over a couple of the changes. Several items aren't working properly yet, including those important little icons at the top of the screen next to the user name, but those are bugs that will be ironed out in due time and have probably been brought up by everyone else already. The thumbnail images for movies and games are nice, but having to mouse over everything to see the title and rating is a bit of a mixed bag. I also miss being able to view the current score of a submission, but I'm thinking that it was probably designed that way so user won't make all their decisions on what to watch and vote for based upon that.

What makes me thoroughly unhappy is losing all of my nifty little audio icons. Sure, the bigger and better size will be great going forward, but all but a select few of my submission icons are 46x46 per the previous design scheme. Those are now gone, and they're simply not big enough to use anymore. I had sixty submissions before the redesign, but there are plenty of other artists with more. It's admittedly a rather superficial gripe, but I spent enough time selecting, sizing, and cropping images to earn the right to nitpick.

I won't be replacing all those artistic little icons that were quite likely unappreciated anyway. It was a lot of extra work that now amounts to fuck all. Perhaps I'll do what so many other artists have done and simply create an artist icon for future submissions; something that symbolizes my music. Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

Good talk. We'll have to do this again sometime.

I just finished submitting two new songs to the audio portal for your listening pleasure. The first one is something that's been sitting on my desk for a while, just waiting for me to master it and give it a good home:
Anticipation
The second one is an homage to Final Fantasy:
Prelude Finality

Besides that, how are things going with you? Did you get that raise you wanted at work? If not, have you murdered your boss and dropped his severed head into the water cooler yet? Maybe that painful, burning itch went away thanks to the topical ointment you got from the drugstore? Is there something bizarre that you're planning to do this Halloween that may or may not be entirely legal? C'mon, let's hear some strange and interesting Tales of Newgrounders!

Well, feel free to talk amongst yourselves. I'm off to grab a cold one.

Summer may be on its way out (boo), but it's not over yet! A friend and I got together to make a fun new audio submission in the seldom-heard category of Surf Rock. You should totally check it out!

Ocean Eyes

Check out some of my other audio submissions when you get the chance. Enjoy the rest of your Summer!

-=Destiny=-
Drop on by and check it out!

Listens are good.
Votes are even better.
Reviews are awesome, and I will respond to each and every one as I get to them.

Hey, and if you like what you hear please take a few minutes to check out some other submissions!
Well, I guess that's pretty much all I have to say for now.
Carry on.