morg

hey guys, this post is a couple days late, sowwy :p

i've been really busy with work and then I was running around all weekend in the state of New Jersey and then moving my last few things from the old house. I didn't really have the chance to play games or anything this week so this post will be formatted a little differently than normal.

this weekend I hung out with two of my buddies in the middle of New Jersey, specifically in a part ive never been before. it was very windy and I almost fell asleep on the drive there but I also tried Tim Horton's for the first time which was pretty cool. I didn't even know jersey had Tim Horton's let alone a Tim Horton's in a gas station but it wasn't bad at all :3

after my little Tim Horton's excursion, I went on a little walk in the middle of some farmland with someone else who kinda lives in that same area and it was great. afterwards we smoked up and then I drove home and listened to Land of Pines by Sugar, Cherry and I started thinking about a lot of things. Sugar, Cherry, aka Rozey, actually used to be a friend of mine a long time ago and I remember him for being a very cool, albeit somewhat unhinged guy, who taught me what open tunings were for the first time which completely changed the way I write music. And of course, years later, Rozey went on to befriend Quadeca and even work with him and it just reminded me of all these strange connections and memories ive made throughout my life.

I thought about Rozey some more and then I thought about the sunset over the field earlier that day as I walked alongside my friend. the rays of light blocked most of my vision but as we walked I could still see her silhouette and a strange feeling washed over me. I've had this feeling so many times before but could never put my finger on it until now. these small little moments, these vignettes, these little slices of adventure and discovery that fit between the cracks of the mundanity, these moments are why we're alive. whether the moments be fleeting, like a silhouette briefly illuminated by the sun, or forever, I'll always hold these things close to me.

I drove home that night and passed out on the couch instantly. the next day, I test rode a new bicycle, fell off it and ate shit, and then went to my old childhood home to grab my last couple of things.

it was so empty. I could feel myself almost visualizing everything that had happened here. all the good and all the bad. its bittersweet, but I'm happy to turn the page on this chapter and move forward.

of course, I got some great lifts in these week and my body is feeling really great. been trying out lifting four days a week and I'm getting into a really great groove lately and seeing a lot of old muscle come back. also, ended up buying the bike I test rode and I'm really excited to start cycling again. I used to cycle almost everyday from around November-December, but it was stolen in January around when I started couch surfing due to some conditions going on at home. ultimately this was somewhat of a blessing in disguise since that bike kinda sucked and this new one I bought is pretty sweet :p

here she is. decided to name her Marceline.

and now onto the music portion of this week's post :p I have some interesting things to talk about.

worked on some stuff with the other two members of Yucatan Mexico the past week and ended up with a pretty cool song that I think some of you might like :p working with other people in person again reminded me a lot about how much fun just experimenting with and trying random things in a play-like way can be and it's something I've been trying to focus on a lot more.

I also finally got my first digital audio player which is something I've been wanting to do for a very long time now. there's a ton of reasons behind this, probably a lot more than I really feel like writing about right now, but ultimately a lot of it comes down to intentionality of media consumption, actually owning what I consume, and not supporting shitty streaming business models. so far it's been a great experience and I highly recommend giving a DAP a shot.

last but not least, here's some stuff I made the last week:

hey guys, post is a day late since i’ve been working a lot of late shifts and i was really tired last night but im feeling refreshed now :p

this week has been kind of an interesting one for me in terms of getting used to working full time and just reflecting on a lot of things but i didn’t let any of that stop me from having another solid week of making some cool music, gaming, and lifting :3

on the topic of lifting, something a lot of people may not know is that outside of music, lifting has probably been one of my biggest passions the past 3ish years. my fitness goals have changed a lot since the start and i’m coming off a year of being very inconsistent, but i’ve been very consistent with my training again and genuinely having a ton of fun and even seeing a lot of the old gains come back. exercise and lifting has always been a really great outlet and form of meditation for me especially during more difficult times in my life and i’m falling in love with it all over again which i’m really happy about. a few months ago i also really fell in love with cycling but my bike got stolen about a month back so im treating myself to a much nicer one very soon :p im really excited for a warm spring and summer filled with riding my bicycle and motorcycle >:3

of course, this wouldn’t be a weekly tumblr post without talking about what games i’ve been playing recently. just last night, i finished my first full playthrough of Ico and i have a lot to say about it.

Ico is a game i have a funny history with because ive actually tried it and bounced off of it multiple times at this point. the last time i tried Ico i believe i was finishing high school and i had a really hard time getting behind the clunky combat and controls but even so i still found something about this game to be so compelling for years after giving up on it more than once.

Ico was an early PS2 game that was released in 2001, developed by Team Ico, who are now more well known for their two later games, Shadow of the Colossus (a game i deeply love) and the Last Guardian. Ico is an incredibly influential game and would go on to influence a lot of really iconic games such as Demon’s Souls, The Last of Us, Nier, Halo 4, and a plethora of other games whose popularity far overshadow that of Ico.

Ico is an incredibly simple game. There’s very little dialogue, next to no UI or HUD, and the environments are incredibly stripped back. it’s a game that’s the antithesis of modern game design tropes we’ve come to know as it opts to show far more than it tells and leaves the vast majority of details hidden and up to the imagination. for such a short and simple game, i found Ico to really resonate with me this time around and the focus on Ico and Yorda’s relationship throughout the game with the simple mechanic of having to hold Yorda’s hand was really effective.

it definitely took me a little bit to get into, but i really loved this game. the biggest thing that really sucked me in was the environmental design. as someone who ardently loved the infamous dark souls 2 BECAUSE of how beautiful its environments are, im an absolute sucker for games that focus on it and Ico is absolutely rich with minimalistic yet beautiful environments. i have a lot more thoughts on the game but im saving them for a video im writing on Ico, very excited to get to work on that :D

now that i’ve finished Ico, i decided to move onto the newly released Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined. dragon quest is a series i’ve tried to get into for a very long time. growing up i was always a huge rpg and fantasy fan so dragon quest really should’ve been the perfect series for me, but i could just never really seem to get it. i played a decent amount of dragon quest 8 when i was younger but each time i attempted to play it, id usually very quickly fall off with it.

now that i’m a bit older and have a lot more patience for games, i think now is the perfect time in my life for dragon quest. now that im working full time in healthcare and i have bills to take care of and such, i think im the perfect audience for a slow, long, and cozy jrpg. something about the world of dragon quest is so incredibly relaxing and so far im loving my time with dragon quest 7 and im really excited to spend more time with it.

and of course before i forget, here are some beats and stuff that i worked on this week:

mostly did covers this week but i’ve also been experimenting a lot with sampling myself and chopping things up so hopefully next week i have more of that to share.

i’m at a point right now where im not even entirely sure if ill ever release music again. for now im content with making things i enjoy for fun and helping my friends with their own projects in the background, but im taking things a day at a time.

i’m tired as shit from working all the time so i’m gonna go enjoy my weekend now. hope you all have a great week :3

hey guys, welcome to my second weekly Tumblr post :p

been grinding at work, getting back into the flow of creating consistently and generally getting back to my old self which has been really great. the good old self doubt creeps in now and then but I won't let it stop me from making cool things, playing cool games, and getting paid :p

in the last week I finally finished KH1 on proud mode which I'm really happy about. Kingdom Hearts has always been a favorite series of mine but I rarely ever fully replay 1. proud mode has a lot of rough edges and downright unenjoyable parts but it really made me develop a new appreciation for the game and its a very deeply important one for me. I think the first game really nails the core concepts of friendship and finding strength in those bonds more than any of the other games in the series. sora making friends in every corner of the universe, some of which he sees rarely and some never again, really mirrors a lot of what life is about. no matter how long or how short some friends are in our lives, we always carry a small piece of them with us that shapes us wherever we go :)

on the topic of games, i've been enjoying a lot more laidback experiences lately and have been playing a couple of chill games in my free time when I'm not working. one of these games is ico (pictured above), which I actually plan on making my first YouTube video in a very long time on. I have a lot of really cool plans for the video and the channel going forward such as writing all my own background music and I'm really excited to get those ideas moving forward.

although not everyone would categorize it as a chill game, monster hunter wilds has been one of those games for me lately. I loved wilds when it came out and I'm a really long-time monster hunter fan, so i've been really happy to go back to it lately and grind hunts for an hour or two with some buddies after work to unwind. the monster hunter series is so charming and I've come to really appreciate how streamlined wilds is because it allows me to enjoy jumping in and grinding the big hunts while not having to stress about a lot of the resource management in between.

I've also really been enjoying a little idle/clicker game called rusty's retirement. I actually used to have rusty's running a lot in the background a year ago while either playing Morrowind, marvel rivals, or hanging out at the firehouse I volunteer at. its been a great companion lately while working on music and it's really satisfying slowly seeing my little farm come together as I work on other tasks.

speaking of music, I have some more snippets to share :p

been really enjoying the stuff I'm making a lot lately while also feeling zero pressure to release it which is really the best feeling :D

been having my fair share of tough moments here and there, but all in all I'm feeling the best I have in a really long while and enjoying my life of working, hanging with da kitty, making music, lifting, and playing games :3

hey guys, welcome to my first tumbler post- gonna try posting here once a week and talk about what I've been doing creatively, in my hobbies, etc. :p

for anyone that knows me personally or is familiar with my creative work, I've been pretty inactive for a while- almost for a year at this point. to make a really long story short, I was stuck in a pretty bad living situation and went on to couch surf for a little bit until I got my feet under me. this made a lot of things I like doing like playing video games, going to the gym, being an active volunteer firefighter, and what most people know me for, making music, very difficult if not impossible. I'm really happy to say though that ive locked in a really awesome apartment for me and my cats and ive really been enjoying making it nice and cozy :p

now that I'm in a more stable spot ive been able to reengage with a lot of what I love doing and I'm really excited to show some of my output. on that topic, my good buddy lands just dropped a really great project that I produced some tracks on (tracks 1, 2, and 4) that you guys should give a listen to :3

on the topic of music, i've been forcing myself to make at least one thing a day for a little bit now and have come up with some pretty cool stuff. I don't really have any big musical ideas or projects brewing and I'm just seeing where the sounds go before committing to anything. for those curious, I'll drop some recent snippets below:

it's been really fun and exciting to finally be back to making music and flexing my creative muscles and there might even be a potential new YouTube video in the works :p

ive also had a ton of fun playing games on the steam deck recently and have been slowly working my way through proud mode on kingdom hearts 1

all in all, I'm deeply thankful for my lovely and wonderful friends and family who have helped me get myself out of a really bad spot and have stuck by me through one of the darkest periods of my life. its been great to enjoy a degree of peace and also enjoy all the things I love again and I'm excited to continue to grow, create art, and build a life that I'm proud of. also, I am especially thankful for anyone that has ever supported me or my art, your support means far more than you'll ever know. ive been rambling for long enough so I'll close this one out. hope anyone reading this has a great weekend :3