Happy Fun Times since 1993!

A little thank-you for @fivetail and @veggieblt, who played through Featherbent together on 4/13, and then the following stream went over some behind the scenes stuff from that last unreleased chapter.

chapter 4 overview because it never happened and we're reworking it into an original IP so a lot of it is being reworked.

come check it out.

And he raised his eyebrow at me. We'd been discussing addictive medications a few minutes before, like the Tramadol I finally got from the pain specialist to take once a week or so to give me a break from my chronic pain, so I reassured him that methylpenidate (Ritalin/Concerta) is not addictive (at least not in people with ADHD).

His response? To raise his eyebrow even harder and say "Well it sure SOUNDS like it's addictive!"

And I had to explain to this man - who works in a healthcare related job by the way - that just because medication makes you feel good and helps you, just because you look forward to taking it, that doesn't make it addictive or dangerous. And he wasn't convinced.

The simple fact that I was excited to take a daily pill that has literally changed my life, after decades of fighting to get that medication, made him think I shouldn't be taking it so often. That it must inherently be dangerous.

I'm not even in America, but I'm pretty sure this attitude began there and then spread over here to Europe. This Puritan idea of "if something feels good, you must beware of it. Pleasure is dangerous, it is sinful, it is addiction, it is evil."

I know too many people who subconsciously believe that pleasure = addictive = dangerous = bad. Joy is a slippery slope to hell.

So here is your reminder for today that you don't need to be afraid of feeling good. If something improves your life, use it. Even if it is addictive - learn what that addiction means, whether the addiction is inherently dangerous or not, and whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks and risks.

My ADHD meds are, in fact, not addictive. But I will take them every day because they make my life orders of magnitude easier. I will enjoy them every time I take them.

My tramadol is addictive. I will still take it. I will keep it on a schedule to avoid becoming addicted, primarily because addiction in this case would mean reduced effectiveness. But I am not afraid of my painkillers. They are life changing.

and that's not even addressing direct aid or organizations that take continuous donations for distribution of food, menstrual products, etc. the PCRF has raised $16,000,000 of their target goal of $20,000,000 to fund current aid and long-term relief efforts in gaza. ANERA's febuary 13th update discusses the material ways they helped palestinians today:

(ANERA donate link)

my point is, it often feels like the world is turning a blind eye to palestine. but i would like to point out that there is an important difference between "the world" and "western political leaders and media narratives". a breathtaking amount of real people, the people who make up the world, are trying to help. in the face of israel attempting to commit genocide, the world is saying No. These people deserve to live. and literally sending millions of dollars internationally, through the internet connection that israel has desperately been trying to destroy.

Here’s my demo:

Also if you wanna support but not necessarily commission, I’m available on kofi as well

okay so being real here, as an independent musician, playlists are cool and serve a purpose - for making a driving mix or an exercise mix, or careful curation of music with similar themes or within similar genres. that's the power of playlists - the personalisation aspect and also the sharing aspect.

but albums, albums my beloveds ! sometimes it's more a collection of music made at a similar time; sometimes there's a real cohesion and storytelling aspect. concept albums go 110% on this ! an album is an entire art piece made up of smaller art pieces.

some music is destined to get released as a single as it stands strong on its own as well as within that album. other music belongs entirely to that album. this is also where you get all the beautiful interludes and connections.

the real kicker here is a full album is expensive to produce and will make far less than if you release that same number of tracks as singles to get on playlists. this is why the EP is so popular now as it lets you do the album thing without losing a ton of money, and there's usually 1-2 singles you can get off it.

merch is the saving grace for many artists, so if you love albums or you want to get into albums and you want to support your favourite bands, go buy a t-shirt and a CD at their next show.

buy a CD player if you don't have one, or get an optical drive for your desktop/laptop. rip that CD and then you can put those files on whatever device you want and you still have the original physical copy <3