Hey everybody I made it back to Canada in one piece! 

From January 12th-February 12th I spent an entire month in Philly (mostly at the NG office with TomFulp, Spazkid, JohnnyUtah and BrenTheMan) trying to focus on my art FULL TIME for the first time ever. HUGE thanks to TomFulp for allowing me to freeload at the office for so long. I can't express how grateful I am becuase this trip wouldn't have been possible otherwise! Anyway, while I was there, I finished a couple of commissions, tried to do some sort of daily art study (posted some to my gallery here) and got to partake in a lot of really cool creative projects. Some of those include 2 Sleepycabin/Sleepycast guest episodes, a livestream with TheShadling and Spazkid, a youtube short with LyleMcDouchebag and Oney (picture below), and a bunch of art trades with fellow Newgrounds pals!

From the 23rd-26th of Jan, the Newgrounds guys and I checked out MAGfest in National Harbor with Nackem, which was a total blast. A lot of it was a total blur for various alcohol-related reasons. hahah While I was there, I got to meet DigsBot, GentTrooper, Dudul, CatFat, EsquireBob, Michael Azzi, and many other insanely cool, talented people... for the first time!! Everyone was super inspiring to be around and I feel great having had the chance to hear about all of their creative endeavors. The Sleepycabin panel (picture below) ended up having a great turnout despite being a fairly new studio-- Stamper ended up grabbing a fan's butt, Psychicpebble/Zach got Digsbot to sit in on the panel in his place, and JohnnyUtah bear-hugged someone for a 20$ Wawa gift card. Overall it was a good show! The next day was the Newgrounds panel which was celebrating 20 years as a company and website (picture below). Tom got Spazkid, Stamper and Ricepirate to sit in on the Q&A panel with him so there were plenty of questions pertaining to the future of NG, present-day happenings, and other exciting deets pertaining to Castle Crashers, Alien Hominid and BattleBlock Theatre! ... Anywho, that was four straight days of pure unbridled FUN, so if any of you guys are on the fence about going next year, JUST FREAKING DO IT, YOU'LL HAVE A BLAST. I totally reccommend it -- and I only went for the PEOPLE!

Once Magfest ended, JohnnyUtah, RicePirate, and LyleMcDouchebag and I braved "hurricane Juno" -- some big storm that the media was playing up to sound like the apocalypse -- and road-tripped back to Philly. Turns out it was the pussiest storm in the history of America so we were all worried about nothing.

When we got back to the NG office, Dudul, CatFat and RicepirateMick worked their FACES off for like four days straight on an animation project with a deadline. They barely got to see the light of day until that got done. Thankfully we still had plenty of time to hang out and enjoy each others company before everybody had to catch their flights back home.  

...So yeah! At some point I also spent a weekend at Casa Del Stamper (Stamper's sweet new house) and relaxed for a few days. Watched movies and hung out to work on more commissions. 'Barely got any done, but HEY! I had fun just being around everybody at the house (Shad, Luis, and CosmicDeath and Sushi!).  

...

AHH gosh, this turned out to be a really long post and I've got to get to bed.

ANYWAY, THAT WAS THE GIST OF MY TRIP! I HAD WAY TOO MUCH FUN AND I FEEL LIKE THIS WAS EASILY ONE OF THE MOST INSPIRING TRIPS I'VE TAKEN YET.

ALSO I'M GOING TO PICO DAY, SO MAYBE I'LL SEEYA THERE TOO! 

______________________________________________________________________

Group photo from a video we shot with Dudul, Oney, Fleadom, Psychicpebble (hidden by hands), Niall, myself, and (foreground) LyleMcDouchebag:

_______________________________________________________________________

The Newgrounds panel at MAGfest ft. Spazkid, Ricepirate, TomFulp, and Stamper:

_______________________________________________________________________

Sleepycabin Panel at MAGfest featuring JohnnyUtah, Spazkid, Stamper, Niall, Chris, Ricepirate and Digsbot.

________________________________________________________________________

Group picture from my last day in Philly and Ricepirate/Mick's first day in Philly!