diff --git a/apps/shell/bash/aliases b/apps/shell/bash/aliases
index 3b3e243..3fb7047 100644
--- a/apps/shell/bash/aliases
+++ b/apps/shell/bash/aliases
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ alias tree='tree -Csuh'
 alias f='fzf'
 alias cp="rsync -ah --progress"
 alias year="cal $(date +%Y)"
+alias y="year"
 
 # gets the newest function for the current directory (or the specified directory
 # if one is provided)
diff --git a/bin/archive b/bin/archive
index 31d8517..dba3675 100755
--- a/bin/archive
+++ b/bin/archive
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
-archive_name="${1}.tar.gz"; shift
-tar czvf "${archive_name}" ${@}
+archive_name="${1}.tar.zstd"; shift
+tar --zstd -cvf "${archive_name}" ${@}
 echo "Archive created at: ${archive_name}"
diff --git a/bin/compress b/bin/compress
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..b7cfcf4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/compress
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+zstd "$@"
diff --git a/bin/decompress b/bin/decompress
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..f47ea85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/decompress
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+unzstd "$@"
diff --git a/bin/email-via-mailgun-smtp b/bin/email-via-mailgun-smtp
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..2b2dfb5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/email-via-mailgun-smtp
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+err() {
+	errpre=""
+	errpost=""
+	if test -t 1; then
+    ncolors=$(tput colors)
+		if test -n "$ncolors" && test $ncolors -ge 8; then
+			errpre="$(tput setaf 1)"
+			errpost="$(tput setaf 7)"
+		fi
+	fi
+	>&2 echo "${errpre}ERROR: $@${errpost}"; usage; exit 1
+}
+
+warn() {
+	pre=""
+	post=""
+	if test -t 1; then
+    ncolors=$(tput colors)
+		if test -n "$ncolors" && test $ncolors -ge 8; then
+			pre="$(tput setaf 3)"
+			post="$(tput setaf 7)"
+		fi
+	fi
+	>&2 echo "${pre}WARNING: $@${post}"
+}
+
+usage() { >&2 cat <<USAGEDOC
+usage:
+	email-via-mailgun-smtp [recipient] [subject] [username] [password] <<< 'Hello, world!'
+
+email-via-mailgun-smtp will read all the input from stdin and use the contents as the body of the email.
+recipient will default to DEFAULT_MAILGUN_SMTP_RECIPIENT if not set
+username will default to DEFAULT_MAILGUN_SMTP_USERNAME if not set
+password will default to DEFAULT_MAILGUN_SMTP_PASSWORD if not set
+subject will default to DEFAULT_MAILGUN_SMTP_SUBJECT if not set
+USAGEDOC
+}
+
+recipient="${1:-$DEFAULT_MAILGUN_SMTP_RECIPIENT}"; shift
+[[ -z $recipient ]] && err 'No recipient provided.'
+
+subject="${1:-$DEFAULT_MAILGUN_SMTP_SUBJECT}"; shift
+[[ -z $subject ]] && warn 'No subject provided. Leaving blank.'
+
+username="${1:-$DEFAULT_MAILGUN_SMTP_USERNAME}"; shift
+[[ -z $username ]] && err 'No username provided.'
+
+password="${1:-$DEFAULT_MAILGUN_SMTP_PASSWORD}"; shift
+[[ -z $password ]] && err 'No password provided.'
+
+warn "Reading email body from stdin..."
+
+body=""
+while read -r line; do
+	body="${body}\n${line}"
+done
+
+[[ -z $body ]] && err 'Body was blank.'
+
+echo "Recipient: $recipient"
+
+>&2 echo "Finished reading body. Sending email..."
+
+swaks --auth \
+	--server smtp.mailgun.org \
+	--au "$username" \
+	--ap "$password" \
+	--to "$recipient" \
+	--h-Subject: "$subject" \
+	--body "$body"
+
diff --git a/bin/lib/arch-linux/provisioning/2-essentials.bash b/bin/lib/arch-linux/provisioning/2-essentials.bash
index f002f52..51ada51 100755
--- a/bin/lib/arch-linux/provisioning/2-essentials.bash
+++ b/bin/lib/arch-linux/provisioning/2-essentials.bash
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ pacaur --needed -S \
 	docker docker-compose `# Yummy containers` \
 	inotify-tools `# Watching` \
 	luajit lua luarocks `# Lua` \
+	swaks `# SMTP CLI` \
 	--noconfirm --noedit
 
 # install rxvt-unicode script for resizing font on-the-fly
diff --git a/bin/unarchive b/bin/unarchive
index 6b64366..65b9901 100755
--- a/bin/unarchive
+++ b/bin/unarchive
@@ -4,6 +4,6 @@ archive_name="${1}"; shift
 to_dir="$(basename $archive_name)"
 mkdir -p "${to_dir}"
 pushd "${to_dir}"
-tar xzvf "${archive_name}"
+tar --zstd -xvf "${archive_name}"
 echo "Unarchived to: ${to_dir}"
 popd