Thomas Ashcom is a Filipino-American pianist, vocalist, and composer. Both he and his older sister were adopted at only a few months of age, and both strongly identify with the LGBT community. Online, he has created and produced music under the username ZipZipper since 2009, occasionally collaborating with other musicians or designing incidental music for flash animations and theatrical productions. He graduated with his Associate of Arts and worked in varying positions of the service industry before moving to Los Angeles, California for further study in film scoring. But, the COVID-19 pandemic and other personal matters enticed him to move back to his native state, Maryland. Musically, he volunteers at two different nonprofit organizations: the WMGSO, a localized orchestra dedicated to video-game music, and Harmonic Introductions, a vocal ensemble specializing in the exploration of overtone singing. He currently presides as a supporting front-end manager for the widely recognizable Target Corporation. It is his time spent working in retail, especially during these unique circumstances, that fueled his brief and zany stress-a-me suite; a reflection on how a wellspring of stress can become so predictably unpredictable that your only comfort is laughing in expectation of more.