I wasn't expecting much response, if at all to my last post. Well, I was wrong. I don't even know what to say besides, thank you.

For anyone who doesn't know what happened, the last few months leading up to this have been a shitshow.

TLDR version: I bought a used car in October, moved apartments, lost my job in December, bailed my sister and family out of rent trouble over Christmas, and I've been door dashing for cash ever since. I can thank my girlfriend for that, since Dasher wasn't accepting drivers in our area. She's been awesome.

Anyway, I was strapped, but I was making it. The next couple months were working on music, trying to get my girlfriend and myself moved in together. Had to help her a few times, and she helped me some others. Looked like I had some time to breathe for a while, and then, car trouble happened.

Wasn't something I could fix, so I took the car to Midas and got shafted. The repair was supposed to be $600-800, but it ended up being $1800 bucks. I had to take out a predatory loan to get my car back.

That loan would become like $5600 if I couldn't pay it in 100 days.

I thought I could handle it if I knuckled down. I'd just have to cut expenses, quit music for a few months, door dash up the money, and limp my (still not fixed) car along until I could get it to someone who wasn't a complete crook.

Then my phone died.

Without my phone, I couldn't pay bills or really, anything. I was completely fucked. So, I asked for help.

I expected nothing, but you guys delivered.

Now, including my savings, we're about 70% of the way to knocking this out. That's ludicrous to me.

Seriously, I don't think I deserve how much you've helped me. I couldn't believe it at first. I screamed. I cried.

Thank you, not just for the donations, but the front page news, the kind words, advice, reviews and … everything.

Just, thank you.

This stuff messed me up so bad, I couldn't think straight. I didn't even get to the part about how all this happened right before my birthday. I dunno, felt too dramatic I guess.

Well, if not for you guys, my birthday would have totally sucked, but I had a nice, low-key celebration this weekend. I sat with my girlfriend, had a steak grilled cheese burrito from Taco Bell, a single beer, and watched a couple episodes of Xena: S3E12, The Bitter Suite, and S2E4 Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

It was a nice, chill $20 wind-down, and none of it would be possible without you.

So, happy Dirty 30 to me, and thank you so much to everyone who has helped me get through it, including but not limited to:

@Aalasteir

@AED-4

@BrandyBuizel

@Droid

@FarFromSundown

@liljim

@jimmythecaterpillar

@KI1

@TeffyD and the Mall Music Collab Team

@theOve

@TomFulp

@Whirlguy and the Newgrounds 30th Anniversary Collab team

@zeroizeroizero

@Yatsufusa

And many more people who have shown interest, downloaded my sample packs, or sent kind words.

Even for those of you who can't donate, thank you. I was feeling really alone and hopeless. This whole experience has made me realize, I have a lot more friends than I think!

Plans for the future and other updates

Firstly, if you've checked on me and I haven't replied, feel free to bump. I've gotten back to most everyone since I've been away, but sometimes I accidentally leave something on read, especially if I get interrupted while typing a reply.

I still have to get my car fixed, since Midas didn't even solve the original issue, but financially speaking, I can probably afford to return to collabs, samples and sample instruments in May. That's about a month and a half away.

I've been working on a music production help compendium whenever I'm stuck at home. I plan to release it on Gumroad when I've cleaned up the headers and organized a little better. Right now it's like 30 pages and hard to navigate.

I also released a remix I did before all this happened over on YouTube.

I planned to record the vocals myself, get a cover license, and post it here, but for obvious reasons, that didn't happen. The end result is good enough, some of y'all might dig it anyway. When I get back into the saddle, I'll put this on a maybe list.

Thanks to your help, I have a semi-working phone, so my Venmo, CashApp, and PayPal are accessible. If you wanted to donate before but were waiting on that, send me a DM!

Ko-fi and Gumroad stuff -- I'll be keeping the former up to date to reflect any new donations or surprises, including any cash I can pull up myself.

I think it's only fair to do that; I don't expect everyone else to drag me out of this financial ditch.

I also wanted to note: Gumroad takes a commission fee from any sales; the best thing to do on there is choose a product you want to donate on, then download the rest for free.

I have some plans for new downloads, like unreleased demos and tracks that I can't post to NG for copyright reasons. Please remind me to do that, because I probably will forget.

Anyway, thanks again.

I literally couldn't do this without you, at least not without eating peas for two months straight and stressing out about having to eat peas. I was sitting here wondering how I was going to afford gas, take phone calls and use Map Quest for my appointments, or handle 24 months of payments if I couldn't get this loan paid off in the next 100 days. I can't express how much you've saved my ass. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

Thank you so, so much. If there's ever anything I can do to return the favor, just say the word.

-A