I'm gonna get this out right up front. Living in Minnesota, I've never been more proud of my state for not only enduring this federally ordered occupation and assault, but also doing it with dignity. This month has felt so long and it has really worn me down. It's hard to tear away from the flood of news when it's happening miles or even blocks from your home.
That being said, I started the month with great aspirations. Quite a lot of progress was made on things, so that's good.
I rearranged the drive folder. Put all the 2025 stuff in a ZIP file to keep things clean. At some point, I'll make this whole system a lot better.
Music
Into the Wind - This was the 33rd volume of the Two Hour Album Challenge, the theme was Scatter. I had the vision of dandelion fuzz flying away in the breeze. I really like this one.
Into the Tomb - Jan 20th was the ten year anniversary of me starting to do Two Hour Track Challenges. It felt like an opportunity I couldn't pass up. This one is a bit rough around the edges, but still has a lot of fun charm.
Jim Infantino - Shadow Boxing (Abstraction's Blocklist Remix) - Jim released a solo album Assemble Yourself late last year. He reached out to people about doing remixes and his original song Shadow Boxing really resonated with me. I was struggling to produce a proper remix of this song, but during a bout of insomnia late December yielded the idea of the perspective of the other person on the end of the social media posts. I'm still not super happy with these vocals. I've tried a few different presentations and there is a good middle ground in there. One of these days I'll figure out how to process my voice in a way that doesn't drive me nuts.
Carcinisation - This was my monthly co-stream with Soopurkul to make a song by passing tracks back and forth (he gave permission to share his version Crabs on the Dance Floor). We have one more to do together before we clean them up into an album.
Troubadeck Weekly Song - My friend Charlie McCarron decided to start pulling a random Troubadeck card every week. It has been a lot of fun to spend a few hours making a little loop. I uploaded five new songs in this series. I really like Week 4 - Cloak of Darkness.
Game Development
I set myself a goal to try to finish Fever Break by February 13th. I've made huge progress on the game, which is encouraging. It's at the point where it could be called "done", but definitely not polished.
Looking forward to sharing more about this in a few weeks.
From Feb 15-22 is the Brackeys Game Jam, which is something I want to participate in again. Jumping into another small project will be a lot of fun. It really depends on what theme is chosen though.
Keeping on
Doing my best to keep moving. February is busy with a lot of things. I have a handful of small commissioned projects to work on. Also, going to be focused more on game development.
Oh! The book is done with the first draft and I'm working on the first round of edits. I'll be doing another round after that and then sending it to a few people who are better than me at editing. So that's exciting.
I'm off to do some donations and rest my brain a bit. Take care friends and be safe <3
-ben