Hey there, Newgrounds!

I've been a bit of a silent lurker lately, reading the news on The Tank Tribune and occasionally going through my feed to see what the people I follow have posted.

I was delighted to see that David Firth came out with a new animation. Plastic Hand is less ambitious in some ways than the later Salad Fingers episodes, but that doesn't make it less memorable or interesting. For me, David's animations seem to work on a subconscious level. They're uncomfortable, but it's not always clear why. Anyway, it's great to see new work from him. If you want to support David, consider joining his Patreon.

Here is my usual update on my personal life and the creative projects I've been working on. There's a video you can watch, or you can read the text below if you prefer that medium. I hope you enjoy it.

Playing The Piano For High School Students

February and March were particularly busy months. This was to be as expected, since they are usually my most active time of the year for piano performances.

This is because I participate in an event called the University Interscholastic League (UIL), which is a competition for high school and middle school students. These young musicians perform difficult music and get evaluated by judges. I have been doing a lot of piano playing as an accompanist for that.

I also participated in an event called the Cedar Park High School Young Artists competition, which took up a lot of my time and energy in March.

However, I have managed to make time for other things as well. I have been jamming with friends, and performing each week at the Trinity Church of Austin. I have also enjoyed the occasional performance with other people too. For example, I recently accompanied mezzo-soprano Liz Cass on a concert called Songs in the Skyspace, at UT Austin.

Composing Music For Games

I participated in a couple of game jams recently, which was fun.

If you don't know what a game jam is, it's an event (usually online) where game developers make a game in a very short amount of time.

As a composer, I have participated in game jams before by going into the Discord chat and offering to write original music.

These new tracks will be available on my website and YouTube channel.

Getting Better At YouTube

I've decided to work on my YouTube channel and get better at making entertaining, useful videos.

Although I've been slow to realize it, I've noticed that I use YouTube a lot. It's probably the website that I visit the most. Educational content on YouTube in particular has added a lot to my life. I've learned a lot, and there is a lot of very good, creative work coming from that platform. I think I want to be a part of that.

I've organized my videos into playlists:

• Full concerts and albums
• Piano Bites, for short performances and clips
• Short Compositions, "for people in a hurry"
• Personal updates, these more personal videos about how things are going in general

In the future I'd like to make a playlist for stories and animations, as well as one for more "composing on camera" videos and a playlist for content by my students.

I also have some more experimental ideas for future projects. One of my students came up with the idea of creating long piano tracks for relaxation, which I might try, and I'd like to produce some commentary content where I explore topics in philosophy, history and the arts.

Using Lessons To Raise Money For Charity

This is just a quick update on the charitable efforts I've mentioned in the past.

I'm continuing to give regularly to GiveWell, an organization that redistributes charitable funds to improve as many lives per dollar as possible.

I give one dollar for every lesson I teach. Right now, I'm teaching around twenty lessons per week, so that's about $80 a month. If you're one of my students reading this, every time we meet you're helping to improve the life of someone across the world, probably a child. GiveWell's top charity is currently Malaria Consortium, which distributes antimalarial drugs to children 3 to 59 months old.

If you'd like to join me in this effort, go to givewell.org, where you can donate to the "top charities fund" or support to a specific top charity you prefer.

Setting Aside Some Music For Website Subscribers

A lot of the music I put out is available for free. But if anyone wants to support me, I have a subscriber option available on my website for a few dollars per month.

As a thank you for subscribing, I regularly set aside exclusive content on a password-protected page. Recently I've added recordings from my performances at Trinity Church, tracks from those game jams I participated in, arrangements I've made for students, and piano recordings from the classes I serve at Ballet Austin.

The sign-up process is straightforward, and unsubscribing is just as easy. (I hate it when services continue to charge you long after you've stopped using them...if you decide that you no longer want to support me, just send me an email.)

And that concludes this update. Thanks for reading and feel free to keep in touch!