Hey guys, I dunno how to tell you this, but life is kicking me in my non-existent balls right now. It's looking like I'll be moving between August and October. Not exactly news, since I planned to do that anyway, keyword being eventually.
I'm still going to be judging Re-Remix Me and shooting for NGUAC, but if you're wondering where I've been the past week, I've been packing slash working up cash for rent and deposit... and I have some bad news.
I'm gonna be hard to reach for a bit. On top of moving, I found out my mom is about to lose her house to taxes.
Mom has been behind on them since she got laid off, her husband died, and my grandma got seriously ill, needing constant and expensive medical care up until her death, which was also her burden to manage.
Mom's up in years. She's technically supposed to be tax exempt, but she lacks one last payment before the exemption kicks in. Meanwhile, some rich asshole bought her house in the tax sale. Meaning, if she can't afford to pay her last round of property taxes, she'll be on the street.
I can't let that happen.
Without naming names, this property sniping crook has already taken two houses from my family. He's known for it, snapping up homes from the poor and unfortunate and renting them out for more than they're worth.
My mom doesn't deserve that. She bought this house from her grandparents and worked hard for every penny. It was the first thing that was truly hers, that really meant something. I'm not letting him have it.
Like the rest of my family, it's been through a lot. For 50 years, someone has always been there -- growing up, planting flowers, leaving treasure, burying beloved pets, coming, going, and yes, dying.
It's been struck by lightning (three times), burned down, rebuilt, swarmed with bees, sacrificed a porch awning to appease a tornado, and been the site of many, many fond memories -- like Verniece's violets, which bloom every so often.
Verniece worked for my great-grandma at the dry-cleaners and cared for my mom and her brothers. Our families were very, very close, which was scandalous, because our town was still pretty racist back then.
Verniece died before I was born, but my mother talks about her and her beautiful violets often. She and her children were frequent guests.
Several generations later, everybody's kids are gone, and mom is old. She's struggling to hold onto the only thing she has left: her home, where she lives with my disabled uncle. They have nowhere to go and no family (besides me) who can help.
So, I'm trying to make an extra $1000 doing gig work before the end of the month. That's what I'll need to make things happen AND cover my own ass.
The kind of hours I'll need to pull it off are brutal, so just suffice to say I'll be extra, extra busy.
As a hail mary, in case there is some other catastrophe, my girlfriend has been looking at aid programs for mom. She also made a GoFundMe, which will go directly to her expenses.
I'm also looking at getting a loan to be triple sure she's covered. Though I dread going into debt, knocking out her last year of house taxes will mean she can support herself for as long as she's with us and remain financially independent. For as many people as she's fed and clothed through the years, I feel like I owe her that much.
But please don't feel obligated to give. You guys have helped me out so much already with my car situation. It's because of you that I can even do this. I just needed to finally let it all out. So thank you again!
The only thing I'm worried about is...
Depending on how things go for the next couple months, the prize money for Re-Remix Me may be delayed or partially distributed until September/October. I don't want that to happen, but @KI1, @G2961, @anthonyragus, @Jotrocken, @monsanto64, @3manonmusic -- be advised. I will absolutely get that done though.
PS, you have until the 11th to submit your tracks!
Just... Jeez, what a crazy year.
I moved twice. Looking at moving again. Girlfriend's tires exploded right after replacing my own. Still haven't fixed my car, which is... not exactly thriving, but still driving. Then my girlfriend got run over during a delivery, by her own car. It took out the garage and pinned her to the customer's vehicle.
Absolutely nuts.
PSA: Buyer beware, insurance companies are SUPER crafty about not doing the job you pay them for. If you don't have ride-share in your policy, they will not cover anything, even if your accident is only tertiarily related to ride-share activities.
I think that should be illegal. Unless there's a passenger in your car, picking up Taco Bell for some rando is no different than doing it for yourself. Thank God for that poor lady's house insurance, or my gf be out $1000 for the garage.
Anyway, I'm still working on as many projects as I can manage while holding down the bills.
I would have been utterly screwed without you guys. Just, I'm really grateful to still be left standing after everything.
The big things I'm working on are soundfonts for AFMD in my spare time. Programming them consistently is a challenge, but we're making it. I'm renaming the samples to better work in polyphone, organizing the chops and grooves, adding some new cymbals, and cleaning everything up, including cutting and pasting releases with iZotope's repair tools.
Since the original pack was something like 400 samples, and I've added more since, it's gonna take a while, but it's getting there.
I've also started condensing my book down into more easily digestible sections and ironing out tables of contents and so on for each big section. I'm considering making it an open document, so y'all can read it while I work -- just in case it does end up taking a year or longer to write!
But that's about it. Without repeating stuff I said last time around, at least!
PS, happy late 4th. Here's a picture of a kitten that jumped out in front of my roommate's car and is now officially ours.
G2961
It's a pity that you're getting into trouble again. I hope that everything will be resolved very quickly.
I hate assholes like that, who profit from those who don't know all the nuances and take advantage of it brazenly.
ADR3-N
Hopefully once this is all over, that will be the end of family catastrophes for now! I've just had a string of bad luck this year with pretty much having to rescue everyone close to me. Even where I'm living now, I moved in to help by splitting rent while maintaining my own independence, as opposed to moving back 2 and a half hours away with mom.
In hindsight, I probably should have gone home to mom to save money, but I've also grown accustomed to the city I live in now, where I made so many friends. I feel mixed emotions about it all.