How can I add a message and possibly a jpeg to the blockchain?

What's the deal with adding messages to the blockchain? like, can I just drop "#happyepsteinday" in there? Do I need any special software for this?

You gotta be careful. Bitcoin Knots doesn't relay that kind of transaction by default. You might want to try it on the testnet first. Just grab the UniSat wallet, get some test coins, and go to their inscribe feature. It’s pretty simple.

Nah, I'm looking to do it on the mainnet though... I’m on a 29.2 core, and really wanna do it directly via CLI or bitcoinqt. I thought they updated for this purpose, right? It's about not being censored, so how do I actually do it?

Have you checked out Electrum? It lets you do it, just keep in mind the syntax changed in the latest version. You need to convert your message to hex like this: "#happyepsteinday" becomes 2368617070796570737465696e646179. Then you build your transaction around that.

LOL why would you even wanna put that on the blockchain? Like, why not use a calendar app instead or just jot it down in a notebook? If it's just for testing, go with testnet. The blockchain isn't really made for this stuff, right?

For OP_RETURN, there's a nice guide online that walks you through it. Just a heads up, if you’re messing with witness data, it gets tricky. You could lose your funds if you’re not careful with your raw transactions.

You can actually do that pretty easily now. Just use the new send command in Bitcoin Core. Just include your hex-encoded message or image in the outputs. It’ll handle the rest for you, so check out the docs for more info.