To begin, I wish everyone a blessed New Year 2014. 2013 has had its ups and downs, but we have pulled through -- and let us hope and pray for greater things to come.

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The bodhrán solo I've been recording is now out! Oof, it really tuckered me out. I enjoyed it very much though, and I hope you do enjoy it as much as I do! By the way, no idea why it exported in 16:9 as opposed to 4:3, which was the camera size...

On that note, Seán (the friend who recorded this) is a fellow bodhrán player, and he and I talked about christening (in other words, naming) our instruments. I don't know if it's an Irish thing or not, but in his own words, "it's an inanimate object; it's meant to have a woman's name." To this point I only knew that ships and planes, and wreckages of ships and planes, were referred to as "she" or by some close-to-feminine name.

Technically my instrument has already been christened -- I had my bodhrán blessed close to the end of 2012, as I said in the video -- but I will gladly go through the formality of giving her a name.

The next time you see me ever mention the name 'Siobhan' (pronounced shi-VAHN), I'm referring to my instrument. Siobhan is the Irish form of 'Jeanne', a name I wanted to take at my Confirmation years ago.

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As for updates, I will be posting periodically as always, so do stay tuned to hear, and perhaps see, new stuff coming from this low-key end. See you all soon!

Have a blessed New Year,

T. x

Two people have effectively requested, over FB, that I do a piece of music in response to all the chocolate, wine and whisky I received over the early days of Christmastide. Trouble with this, I told them, is that this piece is going to sound heavily Irishified.

Yep, there's going to be a bodhrán solo coming up.

Didn't think there would be one since April, now, did you?

.........yeah. I am really, really nervous.

Truth be told, I would like to have this done over video, but I don't know if it'll be feasible over the next few days. Reason as to why I would like it done on video is because

1. we've got fine-looking Christmas lights.
2. I really, really want to rock one of my intended stage outfits while sharing this piece with you.
3. I would love for everyone to partake in this passion of mine, not just through what they hear, but also through the expressions they see.

I'll try, but if push comes to shove, it's going to be yet another audio recording. We'll see what happens.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and I am very much looking forward to the great celebration that is Christmastide. It's just... I've been given great joy over Christmases in years past, and I do not doubt that it'll be the same this year.

It's been a wild, wild December so far. Carol services, crib-making, composing special songs, doing special drawings, handling my really important case, and meeting friends... oh my!

On the subject of crib-making... a friend received these yarn figures from his mother, and he and I decided to get together and make a crib for two young children who are very dear to us. Now my camera's broken and I have to take pictures by estimation, but this is what I've managed to capture...

See the full list of pictures here.

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My Audio Secret Santa submission is near complete, and so is the Newgrounds Christmas/Holiday Art Worm. I'll be updating links to both when these get uploaded on NG. Once again, thanks a lot to TurkeyOnAStick for first asking me to come up with something for the project. The track for the Art Worm, In Anticipation, has been listened to by the members of the project (sometimes even for hours on end) -- I did it through hours of uncertainty, but I'm just glad it's touched you guys.

In addition to these, I'm uploading three bonus songs, all Christmas carols -- A Solis Ortus, What Child is This and Gaudete. As with the major projects, I'll be posting links when these are ready. They're not the best renditions out there, but I do know I poured myself out for these.

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Those of you in Preston Centre, Lancaster or the surrounding areas: if you would like to meet me anytime soon, I invite you to come meet me at Saint Wilfrid's Church for the Christmas Vigil Mass tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. Not only will it be the meeting to make this time of the year memorable. I'll be singing there too! ^_^

That's it from me for now.

A blessed Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

T. x

This is only the traditional half of it. Black Sharpie, magic pens, standard A4 paper. There's still quite a bit of editing to do yet on GIMP. I actually dread it, not because of how tedious it is -- but because of how much slowdown this will cause. Still, though, I enjoyed doing this WIP.

I have been listening to a bit of Genki Rockets lately, and hence the motivation for this piece came. I enjoy their music, but really can't stomach their lyrics. Japlish galore.

To see the rest of my WIPs and attempts at improving, do visit my art thread.

Okay, long story short. My firmware version is 6.20 and that's the version needed to run Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. I would like to do a Let's Play of the game, but in order to have a video out, Remotejoy's the best bet.

I have next to no idea on how to install it. Help please?

EDIT 15.12.13: I'm putting this question out there again. ANYONE EXPERIENCED WITH USING REMOTEJOY, ESPECIALLY ON A LATER FIRMWARE VERSION? I need help installing it into the PSP. Thanks.

The ordeal which I spoke of in my previous post is not over, and I ask for your continued thoughts and prayers. Meetings and interviews to attend, and loads more other things which I won't disclose. It would be so easy for my spirits to be broken by fear and worry. But in the midst of all this, I'm doing my best to remain cheerful.

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Now let me take the opportunity to wish everyone a happy Advent!

In other news, I am preparing three tracks, and may even consider completing more depending on the situation I've got. But these three take priority--

1. A track for the Newgrounds Holiday Art Worm. At the moment, I've got a buildup section of sorts, and that's all. But I'm psyched to see what the entire track will be like. On that note, I've also taken a look at the art pieces for the art worm -- and so far, so good.
2. A track for Audio Secret Santa 2014! The request has been well in my league but the pressure is mounting, too, because that runs on a deadline close to Christmas Eve.
3. A singable English version of Terre des Hommes Libres! Truth be told, it is finished, but this computer is slow and I can't put my tracks up without me knowing of the progress. Special thanks to Usagiflower for coming up with these lyrics. <3

I have a few other Christmas carols I would like to record, namely We Three Kings (backlog from last year), What Child is This, A Solis Ortus and Gaudete -- but whether I get to them immediately or not depends on what I'm up to this month.

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I want to ask something real quick -- just how old is Newgrounds? And I don't mean the initial efforts of Tom Fulp, I mean this site proper. Would it be right for me to count from 1998, or must I take some other date?

That's it from me for now.

Dominus vobiscum,

T. x

...I am fighting an intense battle for my future, my dreams, my life and my liberty. Basically, who I am as a person is at stake; my freedoms are at stake.

I cannot explain the full circumstances on this post but I have already explained it to a few of you (you know who you are). Please, spare some thoughts and prayers for me and all who are helping me out during this time -- and for this situation.

Background information -- I haven't been doing too much on the internet of late, and the e-mails I've sent were very limited (in fact, limited to only two people at this point). Suddenly I get a notification that my account was blocked due to 'suspicious activity on my account'.

Perhaps someone tried to infiltrate my e-mail inbox, but it could be that someone's trying to monitor what I'm sending -- would it be possible to find out, at all, the IP address of the person who tried to do this and use it as evidence? If so, how?

I ask this because... well, I won't divulge much, but this is something very important to me.

NOTE: I AM STILL IN DIRE STRAITS. I thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers, and I ask you to keep them coming. This post is an update on what MIGHT happen, if things go smoothly. Until then, I have still got limited internet and things look bleak. But the best thing is to chip away at it, no?

I seem to be flitting from one community radio station to another -- from Radio Verulam, down when I was still in Hertfordshire, to Preston FM, up here. Just the thought of working at a radio station still delights me.

Just a few days ago I stopped over at Preston FM, and I was allowed to see how things work. Mics, mixing desks, radio player thingymabobbers, Spotify, the list goes on and on. A friend of mine has a radio show there: those of you who live in Preston or the surrounding areas might be aware of a show titled 'The Weekend Ends Here'.

After a while I shared my works -- Terre des Hommes Libres, Sleep Wrapped in Love and the instrumental stuff on NG.

He took a liking to it and suggested I come up with a fortnightly radio show over at Preston FM!

Now whether I do this, or not, depends on what the next few days hold for me. As I said earlier, things look fairly bleak. But I don't know what doors this may open. This has to be pursued on the side, along with a day job. At least, this is what I see......................

Well, there's that. I'll get back to you when I hear new stuff.

Thanks to all of you who have stuck around with me thus far.

T. x

I must iterate that the reason why I haven't been posting any music or artwork of late is because I haven't been in the best of times, financially and in other areas. Still, I am persisting, I am fighting for the future I believe in.

Please, pray for me, and/or send some good thoughts to me. These will be much appreciated. <3

UPDATE 20.09.2013 at 15:16 BST:

I have since moved north; this seems to be the only way I could see forward. Many are doubting me but some believe that something wonderful will come up for me. Regardless, I am fighting still. I trust in the good Lord. Suffering is my friend.

I am logging in from one of the public libraries, and I will not be online as much as I would like to. Which means, for a time, there will be no songs or artwork coming from me.

Please, keep the prayers and good thoughts coming. I beg this of you...

T. x