https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html Blog and studio of Tyler Balkcom — fiction, music, and miscellany. en-us Thu, 27 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT Tyler Balkcom https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=2026-summer-post-mortem https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=2026-summer-post-mortem Thu, 27 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT journal music health We've got a few days until the meteorological first day of fall. But as the fall semester has begun for my teaching load, we're going to say goodbye to summer and check in on those "would be nice if these happened"s. So, here's my 2026 Summer "Would Be Cool If These Happened"s If they are red, I didn't finish them. If they are blue, I did. https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=mix-breakdown-ricky-ricardo https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=mix-breakdown-ricky-ricardo Sun, 12 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT journal music engineering My band released a song yesterday. It's called Ricky Ricardo. Here's exactly how I mixed it. https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=website-design-audit https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=website-design-audit Thu, 09 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT journal dev design Summer is a good time to clean out your junk drawers, reset your scorched garden, or audit the design and feel of your website. So you know where my head is: I'm listening to Sam Fender's record People Watching and drinking a poorly brewed cup of Eight O'clock Bean. My window curtains are open. It's 96°F outside. I'm waiting to hear back about a job. I'm Schrödinger's MFA grad, superpositioned… https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=the-death-of-good-taste https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=the-death-of-good-taste Wed, 17 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT journal culture writing "The hard truth of the situation is that the American oligarchy has become interested in cultural power." https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=2026-summer-would-be-cool https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=2026-summer-would-be-cool Mon, 01 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT journal music reading games June 1st is the first day of meteorological summer. June 21st is the first day of astronomical summer, or the summer solstice, or the day when the fire nation will be at the peak of their power. I'm not a fire bender, so I mostly use the meteorological calendar for tracking seasons, though I do wonder what things I am missing out on by not aligning myself with the spirit world's calendar. In an… https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=2026-summer-reading-list https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=2026-summer-reading-list Mon, 01 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT reading journal list Books I want to get through this summer: - A Visitation of Spirits by Randall Kenan - Borne by Jeff Vandermeer - Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro - Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson - Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler - Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman Started & need to finish these: - Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata - Golden Son by Pierce Brown - House of Le… https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=update-2026-05-28 https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=update-2026-05-28 Thu, 28 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT journal music health dev Let's see. Since I last updated the blog I graduated my MFA, released that High Press cover we were working on, benched 225lbs, and started some side projects (as one does when they are unemployed). https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=strongt https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=strongt Sun, 22 Mar 2026 12:00:00 GMT journal health music reading TLDR: I started taking testosterone, High Press went a little viral on Instagram, Julep released a new song, and I’ve been reading fervently. https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=auditingmyderegulatedlife https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=auditingmyderegulatedlife Wed, 21 Jan 2026 12:00:00 GMT journal music health productivity Audit I’m feeling a bit unclear on the projects I’m juggling. So, let’s take a look at what I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks: - High Press is writing music again. We have a delusionally ambitious goal for this batch of songs. We’d like to write and release the best emo single of 2026. Not the best single for us—the best single released by any band in the genre for the year. The… https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=2025yearly https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=2025yearly Thu, 01 Jan 2026 12:00:00 GMT journal writing yearly health My 2025 yearly theme was The Year of Routine. Did I stick to a routine? No! But I did get addicted to cigarettes. What else did I do? Gatebound - MFA Thesis Novel I set a goal to write 100k words in 2025. I’m ending the year with 84,406 words written for my debut novel, Gatebound. My current draft has 60k words. C’s get degrees and baby, 84% is a B. Let’s look at some stats regarding the writin… https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=oncigarettes https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=oncigarettes Sat, 20 Dec 2025 12:00:00 GMT journal dad health My father’s shirts always had chest pockets. Inside, he’d keep a lighter, a pack of Marlboro Reds, and occasionally a stubby carpenter pencil poorly sharpened by a dull Milwaukee razor blade. For Valentine’s Day, or Christmas, or his birthday, my mother would buy him a pack or a carton, depending on how lean our finances were at the time. He was always a Marlboro man. In that, I mean he always… https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=introducingthestudio https://sleepytyler.neocities.org/home.html?post=introducingthestudio Fri, 19 Dec 2025 12:00:00 GMT journal dev Turns out, if you don’t pay your ghost.io subscription payment for a few months, they will quite literally delete your blog and all the writing within it. Nifty little feature they got there. So, now my blog lives here. This is better anyway. Now I have full control of a website, because I’m building it, and God knows I needed another distraction from writing my book.