Tag: update

Midweek PSAT Update

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As noted on Monday, yours portly has been tied up with some major life stuff—all good, but all quite time-consuming.  Indeed, today marks one month to my wedding!  Dr. Fiancée and I are excited, and most of the details have been hammered out (I know that I will regret writing that overly optimistic assessment).  At this point, it’s mostly just paying the vendors.

I’m also gearing up for the Spooktacular, which is this Saturday, 25 October 2025.  Yours portly is not the best about maintaining a clean home, as it’s not a high priority to me.  As long as the kitchen counters are disinfected and the toilet is scrubbed, I’m content.  Naturally, dust and crumbs accumulate like the ash from a volcano; somehow, I’m incapable of eating breakfast without leaving a trail of breadcrumbs.  Murphy and I both do our share of shedding, too.  I imagine the tops of my ceiling fans would give housewives the hives.

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Midweek Preview of Coming Attractions

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Pickup my newest releases, Säx and Electrock III: Euroclydon!  Get 50% off with promo code storm.  That’s 50% off ANYTHING and EVERYTHING on my Bandcamp page, including the album, full discography purchases, merch, etc.!

Want to play the sax?  Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.

As my grasping promo paragraphs suggest, yours portly has some new music out there, with Triple Deluxe releasing this Monday, 15 September on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms.  I’m also currently working on Spooky Season IV, which is running a little behind schedule—gulp!

SSIV likely won’t be as long as SSIII, which clocked in at nearly forty-two minutes.  But it will hopefully capture the fun, spooky, ghostly feel of Halloween.

My fiction writing has cooled considerably, but I did finish a draft of “Tap, Tap, Tap,” a creepy little short story about a telepathic beetle that feeds on human emotions; I’ll likely upload that as a PDF and/or in-body text for paid subscribers in the near future.  I’m also working on a pulpy barbarian story, although I have not been putting in my daily quota of words in weeks.

Otherwise, I’ve been keeping busy with school.  I’ve got two solid ensembles this year, and my Middle School Music Ensemble in particular has impressed me with their musicality.  The High School Music Ensemble is doing well, too, tackling pieces like Supertramp’s “The Logical Song” (which features irregular phrasing of ten and then eleven measures) and Herbie Hancock’s fusion classic “Chameleon.”

As a bit a preview for SSIV, here’s the short piece “Red Ghost”:

I wrote the main theme in F major by hand, and it feels rather truncated.  Inspiration struck, through, and I wrote a three-voice fugue section in D minor, which I think came out quite well.

More updates to come, dear readers.  Thanks for your support!

Happy Wednesday!

—TPP

Midweek Summertime Update

The Portly Politico2 Comments

Yours portly has been busy at work on wedding planning, and generally getting things squared away on that front.  I’m also using this week to knock out all of those quotidian little things that make up life:  dental cleanings, haircuts, oil changes, etc.  July is the slowest month of the year for lessons, and this week is particularly dead:  I’ve already taught all of my lessons for the week!  So it’s the ideal time to take care of things that need doing, but which get pushed onto the backburner the rest of the year.

The blog has been running daily for over 6.5 years at this point; I believe that 1 January 2026 will mark seven years of daily posting.  That is pretty wild to contemplate.

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Thank You for 100,000 Views!

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At some point on Wednesday, 9 April 2025, I surpassed 100,000 views on this blog.  I logged in yesterday to morning and saw this notification buried amongst the usual ones that pop up in my WordPress feed:

That was a pleasant surprise!  I’ve been blogging daily for (as of today’s post) 2294 consecutive days.  That’s approximately 6.28 years, or roughly six years, 102 days, four hours, and forty-eight minutes.  Shew!

So I wanted to take today to say “thank you” to all of my readers, commenters, subscribers, etc.  Thank you for helping me reach this milestone, and thanks for taking the time to read, share, like, and comment upon my self-indulgent output.

Godspeed, and Happy Friday!

—TPP

TBT: Concert Week!

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Tomorrow night is the big Spring Concert at school, so my kids will playing their hearts out.  Indeed, tonight is the school play, so yours portly will be working hard to flip everything from the play over to the concert.

The concert is coming a few weeks earlier this year than last year, but I am looking forward to getting it done a bit earlier in the season.  It makes the rest of the school year a bit more manageable.

Not much more to say at this point, but I’ll have a full review of the concert done soon.  In the meantime, I’ve got two very long, grueling days ahead of me.  Gulp!

With that, here is 29 April 2024’s “Concert Week!“:

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Poisoned!

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Yesterday I had to take a rare sick day; I am, according to Dr. Girlfriend, suffering from a bad bout of food poisoning.

As I am writing this post—Tuesday afternoon—I’m feeling extremely lethargic, although the constant flow of fluids from both ends of my body has subsided somewhat.  I’m hoping to be back at work today, but we’ll see.

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Rainy Sunday Update

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Pickup my newest release: The Galactic Menagerie!  Use promo code obesekangaroos to take an additional 20% off all purchases on Bandcamp!  Code expires at 11:59 PM UTC on Friday, 4 April 2025.

Want to play the sax?  Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.

Yours portly has just finished a grueling two weeks of work.  My students attended the SCISA Music Festival this past Thursday, and the preparation for that event dominated my time.  The week prior, I was editing four chapters of a book my pastor needed to finish to get to his publisher.  His original editor fell through, so I knocked out one chapter a night over the course of four nights.  I probably spent around 12-15 hours in total editing, and one night nearly fell asleep while doing so!

But now there is a bit of a lull.  Middle School students will be in testing most of this week, and the Spring Concert is about three weeks away.  There is much to do in preparation for the Concert, but I’ll have a chance to catch my breath.

It’s raining hard at Dr. Girlfriend’s place, and Murphy and I will be hitting the road in a bit to head home.  Hopefully it’s not storming the entire way, but we’ll take our time.

How’s everyone doing out there in the blogosphere?  Any fun Saint Patrick’s Day plans?

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

PRISM on Apple Music

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My latest album, PRISM, released back on 7 February 2025. However, it somehow failed to deliver to Apple Music/iTunes. I had to submit a support ticket to my distributor, CD Baby, but that takes some time. I figured it would not release on Apple Music until my next album, The Galactic Menagerie, releases on 7 March.

I checked today and PRISM is now on Apple Music! Glad to see it on all platforms now.

I’m slowly making my way home, so, again, the blog is way behind schedule. Hope to get back in the regular groove again soon.

—TPP