You know you made it when people start making fan art! Not allowed to share it as art, as it was made by @FcoSG and not myself, but I'm totally tickled pink:

Since the better part of a year, I've been the singer for a skatepunk band called Aandrang ("Urge") - it started as a reincarnation of a bunch of guys' previous band, doing Dutch cover songs à la Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. And now we decided to write our own material, and I suddenly find myself the primary lyricist - and I've only really ever written lyrics in English :S

So now I find myself having written a couple of verses for one of our first songs, and I decided to look for guinea pigs to see how they trigger people. Congratulations, you've made the list!

Here's the English translation, original Dutch text which actually rhymes and fits a meter below. Appreciate if any of you take the time to write what they read and feel in these words. Thanks.

I ran into you on the coast, with your head held high you stood among the breakers, staring out over the sea

I came ashore to recuperate, but awoke on the cliffs of change, the tide dragging me along

And my heart screams 'yes you want this', and my soul whispers 'no'

So I examine my map, which will lead me to calmer beaches, untormented by the wind

I pray for safe voyage, but my dreams are full of undiscovered lands where I'll find all the treasures

That my soul doesn't want to accept, yet my heart cherishes so

After so many years on open water your words sound like a siren's call, promise extends

The water calm, the wind favorable, yet in the meantime my seaman's legs are shaking, as if bewitched by the sound

Of the calm before the storm that's brewing on the horizon

You know, I've told you, you're phenomenal but there's someone else and my bridges have been burnt

The course set, the helm is straight and my hope vested in the heaviness of the anchor, yet it gnaws at my sensibility

Mocks my intentions and leads me by the hand.

==============================================================================

Ik kwam je tegen aan de kust

Je hoofd opgeheven stond je in de branding

En je staarde over zee

Aan wal gekomen voor mijn rust

Maar ontwakend op de klippen van verandering

Het getijde sleurt me mee

En mijn hart schreeuwt ja dit wil je

En mijn ziel fluistert van nee

Dus buig ik me over de kaart

Die me loodsen zal naar rustigere stranden

Ongeteisterd door de wind

Ik bid voor een behouden vaart

Maar m'n dromen vol van onontdekte landen

Waar ik alle schatten vind

Die mijn ziel niet wil aanvaarden

En mijn hart zozeer bemint

Na zoveel jaar op volle zee

Klinken jouw woorden als de roep van een sirene,

De belofte strekt zich uit

Het water kalm, de wind zit mee

Maar ondertussen tril ik op m'n zeemansbenen

Als betoverd door 't geluid

Van de stilte voor de storm

Die aan de horizon ontluikt

Je weet ik heb het je gezegd

Je bent fenomenaal maar ja er is een ander

En m'n schepen zijn verbrand

De koers gezet, het roer staat recht

M'n hoop gevestigd op de zwaarte van het anker,

Maar het vreet aan m'n verstand

Steekt de draak met mijn intenties

En het leidt me aan de hand

I never loved the color yellow as much as I do since yesterday:

As in this case it marks my acceptance as NG forum moderator!

I applied to be one last month, with a clear and simple purpose: to increase community love for the voice acting discipline. I was introduced to Newgrounds by @Hyptosis way back in 2014 because I had plans to do some VA work for him, which unfortunately never went anywhere. Then by sheer coincidence I dropped back in here late 2020, the stars aligned and I've been actively working on VA projects, of my own as well as of others, and having a total fucking blast doing so.

Now the VA forum, especially compared to other sections, is a little on the quiet side, and I aim to grasp the clutch and shove it into the next gear. I'll be more active on the forum than I already was, for starters, and I think I know a couple of people who could make some amazing contributions there as well, so I'll start harassing them. And that's only phase one of my plan for world dom- er, increased VA exposure.

Actually, no - phase one was getting VA a spot on the featured audio list on the frontpage, and whaddaya know:

Still not sure whether I can actually take credit for this, but until proven otherwise, why, yes, I made this happen - how nice of you to notice :D

So, all of you, if you have questions, comments, suggestions, anything pertaining to the voice acting forum, you know where to find me. Any other moderator-related stuff, like complaints on other users' behavior or questions you know you should really know the answer to, sure, I can take those as well. But @Fro thrives on that shit, and the twinkle in his eye as he responds to your every whine is just priceless. See, Fro? I'm learning from the best.

Hope to see you all around on the VA Forum! Take care,

D

Ok, so no VYOC update this week, unfortunately - most of the household, myself included, came down with COVID and although I actually feel fine, I'm just about the only one meaning the entire housekeeping has been silently moved onto my own to-do list. Stay tuned, as I'm confident I'll be back in the running again next week. To be continued!

About a month ago, I took a big bite out of the art forum and over the past holidays I've been pondering on how to chew it all up. Going by @MrBendoodle's example I dared the artist community to submit their OC's for me to voice. Being used to the (lack of) activity on the VA forum, I expected three submissions at most. When I hit 25 in about a week, I posted a submission stop, to keep things manageable. When they still kept coming in, I asked a mod to lock the topic so as not to disappoint too many people. I am incredibly grateful - and slightly intimidated - by the huge amount of response!

What with New Year's resolutions and stuff, I decided to go about working all this out in a planned and controlled manner. Starting next week, I'm planning time each week to write and record for at least one of the submissions. I had great fun with the first two skits:

...and the exercise in writing, acting and sound design/production is really welcome. I'll tackle the submissions in whatever order I see fit (i.e. leaving the difficult ones for later, to keep the train running), but I'm determined to publish each and every one of them in the next half a year.

So @Gimpmastermind, @Sparkey10984, @Chipsoapart, @soopking64, @z0i, @BaconBob9000, @NxJ, @theorangeguydotjpg, @Techy621, @Azorat, @mrg19998, @LordDaviddoffski, @Lee33e, @MDL3wisAnimations, @ChromaCee, @MiskoMakesStuff, @Bluerasb3rry, @Skoops, @theslxl, @BlueKnightSkeleton, @EmanresuEvitaerc, @yixaline, @JBMINERLOL and @SmokingChameleon: keep your eyes peeled. You'll be next before you know it.

And @MaxyNorsky, @ProtoBeetle97 and @grassbud, although you were technically too late, I'll manage to squeeze you in there somewhere as well.

I will only update the forum post sporadically with a couple of new entries, if the mods allow me, so watch those notifications or just throw a dog a bone and follow me.

Thank you all! To be continued, and continued, and continued...

Oh my GLOB! <3

Although I can be a total elitist snob when it comes to music, Christmas tunes will forever hold a special place in my heart. So here's to spreading the cheer with my Spotify XMAS playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4o9WnNIUUVgZIwH3YMAePM

Enjoy the ride, and feel free to leave any suggestions for expansion in the comments. Merry!

First time I'm celebrating, and very honored to do so by being featured in a @LexRodent bluesy rock track. I took a year of singing lessons as well as some inspiration by Soundgarden, Kyuss, Tool and Deftones to the writing table and for the lyrics ran with the idea that we have surrounded ourselves by robots to the extent that we are losing our humanity and are slowly being assimilated, in a societal sense.

So Lex, thanks for inviting me, I had a ton of fun doing this and the experience is really welcome. And to all listeners out there, hope you enjoy and feel free to leave a message.

Spending some of my summer holiday trying to write lyrics for various songs I have lying around. So knowing there's a poetry contest being held, I figured I'd simply go about it the same way I would any of the songs. This is what happened:

https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1473818/2#bbspost26980238_post_text

Judging 111 'Professional Amateur' submissions for the NGUAC Tryouts round. Having taken several hours worth of gardening work inside, this should actually be a lot less intense than I expected...