CIEIRMusic has always been more than entertaining songs. I strive to help people out whenever I can and this is one of the few chances I get to do so on a global scale.

Today just this afternoon I have received my first dose of the Pfizer Vaccine. It was at a pop up clinic not too far from a local high-school in my town. Not gonna lie I was very nervous. Not just because I heard about possible side effects, but because I have a crippling fear of needles.

I am gonna give you an in depth insight to what happened.

First of all the shot appointment for both the first dose and anyone going for their second dose after they taken their shot somewhere else, is only open today and tomorrow between the hours of 9AM and 9PM. So if you're in the Toronto and Scarborough Area, look for the signs they'll tell you which building to go to.

Second, there was no serious line up. To get the shot where I'm from you need a driver's license or a piece of paper that has proof of address. Bank Statements and Credit Card bills being your best bet. You of course also need your health card. They give you a checklist along with an admission ticket. Once in there the nurse asks for personal information and you answer the questions. Nothing fancy. Just any allergies or other complications that would prevent you from getting the shot.

Third, after you get in, you're taken to one of the doctors in charge of administrating the shot. They ask for your health card and once confirmed, they ask you to choose an arm. I used my right arm. They injected me and put a sticker label on my shirt and sent me to a waiting area, where I must wait for 15 minutes, until a nurse comes to confirm my information. After that they tell me when the next dose is scheduled and send me on my way with this little piece of paper.

The short end of it is the side effects warning, the astrazeneca warning in case anyone took that, the covid precautions and when the next appointment is gonna be. So far other than an itchy arm from where I was injected, I have not felt any serious side effects yet. I can assure you though I am putting my health and life on the line and I do expect some things to happen to me even if they're minor. All I can say my listeners is wish me luck.

Update 10:40 PM. While it may just be coincidence, since I went to and from the place on foot, but one of the side effects listed is tiredness. After I ate and wrote this news message I felt sleepy and lay down for a while. I just woke up only 10 minutes ago. I also found myself severely dehydrated. I've been drinking more water than I usually do. My arm kinda hurts, but it's more sore than just painful.

Update 1:29 AM. I went for a walk, mostly to stay in shape, but also to keep my mind off my arm. A little insight of my life. I go to food banks, due to limited income and while they mean well and give me enough to survive. They often give me stuff I just can't eat for one reason or another. Namely produce that is just a day or so away from expiring. So I venture off into a near by park near some woods and toss it because there's deer there and they come out every night. This night was nothing new. Since my right arm is my dominant I carry the bag full of produce with it. It hurt a little just from holding it, as well as from the weight of my jacket. So when I went home, I felt around where I was injected. There is some swelling there and as a result it's made my arm very sensitive to even the slightest of touches. I should also note, that I have also developed a strange craving for more sugar based snacks. While I do like the occasional sweet tooth, I never ever had this excess before. At least while sober.

Update May 14 7:09 AM: Swelling went down. Arm still sore, but not as bad as it was. Sugar and water cravings still at an all time high. So far aside from a strange dream, there doesn't seem to be anything unusual or severe.

I also posted a song based on it:

Update May 14 7:28 PM: Just a few hours ago I felt a huge wave of nausea. It was like nothing I ever felt before. It made me feel like I wanted to hurl my guts out but couldn't and it is very painful. I went to the nearest Pharmacy to get some Gravol. I hope it works.

Update May 15 9:36 AM: After taking some gravol and resting it off, I decided to make a song that captivated the pain, dizziness and overall feeling of dread the nausea gave me.

Update May 15 1:00 PM: The nausea returned about 2 hours before I wrote this. The Gravol did give me some temporary relief, but it didn't last long. I took two this time and it didn't work. So using what I could while still delerious from the sensations, I had what most people would call a eureka moment. This is what I would call the nuclear threshold if all else fails. I went to the store and got as many ginger ale as I can get my hands on. Preferably the Canada Dry brand as it's one of the few that actually has Ginger in it. I went home, drank as much as I could and after a bit of gas trouble, it cleared the bulk of the nausea out and even gave me a burst of energy. So in this update I will list you from my trial and error, what I call the "Vaccine Recovery kit."

1. Sugar based products. This is mostly to satisfy the cravings.
2. Over the counter pain relief. If the pain in your arm or later in your joints becomes unbearable. This is the go to thing to get. Preferences being Aspirin and Ibuprofen. The latter of which for muscle pain.
3. Plenty of fluids. Water, Juice, Pop, Gatorade, you name it, keep yourself hydrated.
4. Gravol. It does seldom work, but it comes in handy.
5. Ginger Ale. For when Gravol doesn't work. Or any ginger based beverage would do.

Update May 16 2021 11:49 PM: So far the nausea hasn't returned. The pain in my arm is long gone, but I am very cautious. While I was able to recover from this, that specific symptom threw me off guard. It was like nothing I've felt before. As I mentioned to RipCatcha in the comment the sensation was similar to that iconic scene from Alien, only no chest bursting. I fear the day I take the second dose I may relive this or worse. On the plus side, I may be better prepared for it. I just hope the overall journey has given you warning, learning and above all else hope that you'll make it through this pandemic.

Update May 19 2021 4:03 AM:

It has been exactly one week since I first took the first dose. My sugar cravings aside I have not felt any of the effects I've mentioned in the past couple of days and seem to be officially recovered. In celebration of said recovery I present the last part of my vaccine song trilogy.

Ok now that I've vented and gotten that out of my system I can move on. While I continue to protest the contest, I am not gonna let that stop me from doing what I do best. The benefits of reacting with extreme emotion, whether it's anger, sadness or in my case a little of both, is that it causes the brain to fire up and come up with new ideas. So while I was wallowing in both I came up with and posted a new idea of mine. After the successful reaction to these beauties:

I decided to do a short audio drama. By short I mean one track long. I call it Immortality Blues:

It's a lamentation drama about a 1000 year old immortal who has been cursed with a gift of eternal life. No matter what he does, he cannot die. And it's been hurting him ever since.

I also made a seperate post for the music I made to go with it as seen here:

Which I also put together in a mini-album here: Immortality Blues

I hope you all enjoy it.

As most of you know, there's a contest going on called the 2021 Art Inspired Music Contest, which started in April 16. The idea of the contest was that you make a song inspired by a piece of art from the Newgrounds Art Portal. We could do a song about anything so long as it's not rated A art and that the song was original work. As in no remixes, no covers etc. It also states that the songs should be between 3 - 6 minutes. So getting inspired I made a song based on @OddJorge7's picture: Battle Damaged Gojira

So getting inspired I created a song based on that picture as seen here:

Probably one of the best things I've ever done and what made me the most happy about it was that @OddJorge7 liked the work when he could have easily destroyed me.

I submitted my work to the contest, I got rejected. Their reason? Because it was 40 seconds over the 6 minute maximum. 40 fucking seconds. Now I wouldn't have minded that so much and even told my fans and listeners not to get mad should they happen to like this song. The person was doing their job and enforcing their rules. However there's something I didn't tell you all which I feel needs to be addressed. The host informed me through private message, that it's not the quality of my work they do not like, but rather if I wanted to stay in the contest, they'd give me a leniency of 20 seconds over 6 minutes. Needless to say that didn't make me feel any better. I refused because I felt if I altered this song in any way to fit in with their rules, I'd ruin the work. Music I've worked so hard on in making. So I just labelled it rejected and tried to move on. With quiet, dignity and grace. However much like Fredrick Frankenstein, said quiet dignity and grace only lasted for so long. While I respected their decision to reject me and do not blame them personally. I do feel as though there is something inherently wrong with rules like this. It also gives me the impression that the host cares not for the quality of one's work, so long as they conform to their rules. What kind of crap is that? I was raised to believe that art in all forms, is an expression of one's self. Their views, their dreams, their goals. Music is no exception. Nothing is too long as long as you got great quality in your work.

So while I do genuinely wish my fellow musicians luck on the contest, I formally protest it. No one should sacrifice their artistic freedom just to win a prize and if you value your own artistic freedom, you should protest too. I will not review, vote, fave or add to the playlist any music that's been entered save for what I've done before my rejection. I don't care if your stuff is good or if it helps me level up. I do not support this contest and I think the rules of the song's length is probably the most petty thing I've ever heard.

And from a site like this that started off as Anti-Establishment, it's probably the most hypocritical thing I've ever heard.

My internet got knocked out due to an error by a technician, so while I was waiting I took more time to add a few more to my art.

First, Blood Sucking Alien:

My first attempt at a comedic comic here.

Second, One Way Out:

My first attempt at 3D Art, with something I did for kicks.

Third, the Badge of Fate:

Meant to post this one on April 13, but couldn't. Fate in it's simplest form.

Fourth, Creeping March of War:

First loop song on here and one of the few times I'm afraid of my own creation.

Normally I would probably save any news page for if I gotten to higher level numbers. However, like 12, I hold the number 13 in high regard. While most people consider the number 13 to be an unlucky number, I consider it the opposite. For whenever I see the number I've often got the best luck. So to celebrate my levelling up to 13 I created a song. A song that takes all the bad luck and paranoia of bad luck and puts it into a tense synth experience. I present to you: Lucky 13.

To celebrate my achieving Level 12, since 12 is both a lucky and a religious number depending on what you believe, I posted my recent badge as seen here:

Making it my 12th CIEIR Badge.

However it just hit me, while I have ideas of my own regarding these badges, I was wondering if there are other concepts you all suggest could try to cover with these. I only ask that you follow the following guidelines.

1. No fanart or fanart characters. These badges are meant to represent real life concepts, not be used as an extension of your love of fictional characters. Not that I judge.
2. Don't suggest what I already covered. To further explain, what I mean is that don't suggest a badge that is already there. Nor do anything sneaky by using synonyms. For example. Don't suggest a Badge of Hate when there's already a Badge of Anger which covers hate as well.
3. Don't suggest how I should draw these badges. You can suggest which concept I could cover Rule 2 aside, but these badges are how I view these concepts. If you want your view to be expressed, then make your own.
4. No NSFW stuff. Nothing against those that like it, but this project is meant to be seen by everyone.
5. Most importantly, the other four aside, have fun.

I look forward to hearing your suggestions.

The past three months on this site, I've been doing nothing but Promoting My Work, helping others promote theirs and most importantly: Reviewing and Voting for other's works. Now I have mentioned once before, that my reviews and votes are honest. Even if I don't write full paragraphs. That has been nothing but the truth. However, that being said, in the past three months I have been getting to know the features on the site, to better do those tasks above and more. Through that I discovered a vary peculiar quirk on the site. The Level System. When I first voted I saw that the words "2 XP" which I guess means "Experience Points." I thought that was odd. Then I kept doing it seeing that I can only do it a certain amount of times a day. I've seldom done it and it's why it often takes me long to review and vote for the works on the people I followed or got added as friends. Rest assure I plan to vote and review every single one of them. In the past three months I went up to 11 levels. With 150 points to go to get to 12. 3 Months and 11 to 12 levels as I write this. If I go at this rate I could reach the highest level in 15 more months.

I personally thinks this makes the site more fun. It's like we're all our own personal RPG game characters. We level up our own way. But I was wondering what the significance of it is. As well as wondering what the other parts were.

For example I figured out that EXP: Rank was counting down. Hence why the higher levels are in the thousands.

However I never understood the voting power part. I was wondering if anyone who's been on here longer than I have could tell me.

After a great conclusion of the contest which can be seen here, I didn't win, but I did have the honor of my entries being placed in Xinxinix's collection. Which is much appreciated. Over the past month and a half I've been trying to expand on my previous entry. A lot of ideas flooded to me that day. One of which was simple. Making more badges and selling them as merchandise. So while I waited until the contest was officially over, I made other concept badges. Right now I'm only selling them as digital posters, but if I play my cards right I could actually make buttons out of them.

CIEIR Music proudly presents: The First Four CIEIR Badges.

The Badge of Love:

The Badge of Life:

The Badge of Courage:

The Badge of Wealth:

The Badge of Defense:

The Badge of Attack:

The Badge of Music:

The Badge of Death:

The Badge of Knowledge:

The Badge of Anger:

The Badge of Dreams:

The Badge of Luck:

There will be more coming soon, when I think of other aspects to cover.

If you want a copy of these lovely posters click here:

CIEIR Music Ko-Fi Shop

Each one $1 each.

Within the last month I entered an art contest. The theme of the contest, was to come up with your own concept of love. So long as it was an original idea or you had original characters, the sky wast he limit on how your concept would be. While I do not expect to win, mainly because I've had bad luck in contests before. Not even a consolation prize, that bad. It has however inspired me to not only create my own concept as seen here. It has also inspired me to make a song based on said concept, as well as do my first foray into merchandising. Which I have been told before, would help get more people interested in buying my music. As mentioned in my previous news post, I use Ko-Fi as a tip jar. I found out that I could also use it as a shop, to sell any merchandise I want in an effort to increase interest in my brand. So I thought the first thing I'd do would be to sell this concept as a digital poster as seen here. Should this prove successful I plan on expanding this concept to other mediums. Such as T-Shirts, Buttons/Badges, and so on. Maybe even come up with sequel concepts based on other aspects of life. On top of advertising this, I would like the people following me to tell me what they think.

When I was a kid, one thing that often entertained me was seeing street musicians. Whether it's one lone person on a guitar or a full band, it was always entertaining to see. With the pandemic happening as well as the world changing and converting to adapt to the digital age, it's often more difficult for any musician for that matter, be it on the streets or at home to make money in their work, let alone tips.

When I first started CIEIRMusic, one of my first goals was to invoke my love for street musicians in all aspects including the money-making aspects and encourage fellow musicians to do the same. I believe no musician should be without a tip jar.

On my official website I have invoked this love by setting up a section dedicated for me to use various funding sites, as a form of tip jar on the digital level.

As seen here which leads to here and in turn leads to sites such as this and that.

On top of advertising my Tip Jar, I propose to my fellow musicians and artists, that you do the same thing in similar manners. That you all get tip jars of your own. A very wise person once told me that $5 here and $10 there can get you very far in the long run even if you're not selling anything, because it all eventually accumulates to at worst extra money in your pocket for the bare essentials and at best a vast amounts of great wealth. It's one of the reasons why I advertise my songs so cheap. I suggest that all who follow me, use whatever crowd funding site they feel comfortable using, to do this. No artist should be without a tip jar.