So... My job is finally over; yesterday was my last day. They bought us pizza. Yay... I'll be collecting severance pay for the next few weeks. I have no idea what my next job will be. I have a feeling it's going to suck. I wish I could make a living making movies, animations, and music. I have a novel that I need to finish too, but I just feel so burned out all the time. I have so much to do! I still have some recordings of Rob Lowe that I need to animate, so there will definitely be more KR47's in the future, even though I don't work with him anymore. I also have lots of scripts that still need to be recorded in addition to those. We were talking about adding some new characters and transforming the series so that it takes place outside of the bookstore...

Anyway... For the first week in which I will receive severance, I'm planning on recording a song that I've meant to record for a long time. My job would often make it hard for me to get in to a recording mood, because I'd be tired from working all day. Exhaustion doesn't help a person's creative side. So, yeah, there's that. The KR47 movie, as far as I know, is finished being filmed. Pete Q is editing it. He's a member here on NG. His name is "Kenshin1913," if you're interested in that project and want to ask him questions. I'm working on animating the opening credits sequence now. I'm also recording the music for the opening credits sequence. Recording is a real bitch. No matter how good I sound when I'm not recording myself, I suddenly sound terrible once I play back what I've recorded. And what's worse is, once I've gone through a whole frustrating day of recording, when I listen to a professionally-recorded album by a band that I really like, I start hearing all the minute flaws in that album, and I can't even enjoy that.

The music I'm using for the KR47 movie is a song that I am in the process of writing. I don't have any lyrics for it right now; I'm just using the guitar riffs for the movie. When I finish that first song, I'll develop the new one more. Lyric writing has always been hard for me, because I don't feel as if I've had a whole lot of life experience. I don't have shit to talk about. I don't have stuff to complain about... Aside from being poor and being disappointed with my life, that is. But I can only write so many songs about that. I have like eight of them already, and it's starting to get tired. I'm not nearly pretentious enough to write those preachy folk songs that every single singer/songwriting poser writes in order to look and sound like a wise, hard-bitten, worldly traveler. So I don't preach, and I don't wear old faded jeans and take black and white pictures of my gloomy mug, held high at 45 degree angle. Anyway, I digress... One day, I was here on Newgrounds, and I started thinking about the name, "Newgrounds," and what it means to me. So I started thinking that that was song-worthy. I decided to call the song "Newground," or "New Ground." I was thinking that some of the other songs I've written would be good to put in my online music store that is on Ghostyfilms.com and on my Myspace site. This "Newground" song would be free on Newgrounds. That way, people could get a feel for the stuff I play, and, if they liked the free song, maybe they'd go to my website and buy some of my other music. Marketing... I guess... But that's weeks away, maybe months...

I did acquire a copy of Flash CS3. So I've been putting some of my cartoons on Youtube. It's strange how I've heard other Flash animators talk about how great Youtube is, and how, on Youtube, you can reach a much larger audience. When I started here on NG, I wasn't well known, (or known at all) and I felt as if I had to work pretty hard to get any recognition. I don't really have a lot of recognition now, but my fan count has risen quite a bit since Tom gave me the series page. Also, thanks to Tom, my website has just about doubled the number of hits I used to get. And that's not entirely accurate, because, on an average day, I get about double what I used to get on the best days. So thanks again, Tom! (He probably doesn't read this.) Anyway, on Youtube, it's the same situation. I'm just starting out there, and no one knows who I am there. But that's the way it goes. So, at this point, it is my conclusion that those other authors are wrong, and that Youtube doesn't seem to be better or anymore advantageous than Newgrounds.

Chanter Tales is not coming out this month. A new KR47 will be. I feel sort of guilty, because CT is my baby. Some day, I'm going to need to just stop everything else and finish it. I need to start pushing my friend, Brian --Loric-- to meet with me so I can record him. Then I can finish scene three. I've moved onto scene four, and I've gotten a little bit done. After that, I'll have one, possibly two more scenes to go, and then it's time to record the music... Which will be agony... So I'll need to practice my folk material so I can record.

Anyway... I feel as if I've gotten a lot off of my chest. So hopefully the fans I have don't think I'm just goofing off all day...