Good Times

Howdy.

Caitlin and I are having a blast this weekend with some great friends who're visiting us for a few days.  So great to have some company after being pretty much locked away in a cave for the past month or so.  We made pizza from scratch last night (the most delicious stuff EVER) and tonight we're having chili and garlic bread (also from scratch).  Also watching The Shining after realizing I've never seen it.  Don't judge, haters.

I realized today that confronting your problems head on can sometimes be surprisingly beneficial.  I was, shall we say, "disrespected" at work by my supervisor in front of some customers.  I know, right?!  To make a somewhat long story short, I let my supervisor know, later that day, that I didn't appreciate the unnecessary behavior (oh, so pleasantly), ESPECIALLY in front of customers.  Now, I'm honestly a little intimidated by this particular employee and I'm not one for confrontation, so confronting this person wasn't easy for me.  I thought I'd get yelled at, maybe written up, sent home, or perhaps backhanded.  To my surprise, my supervisor admitted that he was totally out of line, apologized about 3 times before I left, and promised to take the situation to heart.  A pleasant surprise, to say the least.   I could have easily just bottled it all up and constantly hated on my boss for...well...ever, but instead I barked back and solved things.  A nice change.  I'm not saying I'm going to go around telling people to shove it, but I think problems in general should be confronted instead of avoided.

Thanks for reading, folks.

Work and More...

I follow only a few blogs so far.  I'm still pretty new to the blog world, really, so I only really follow people I'm pretty large fans of.  As most of you know, I'm a HUGE Thrice fan.  Their drummer, Riley Breckenridge, has a blog called Trawling The Grey Matter, where he mostly posts random sports related findings and music know-how.  Just figured out he's also got a Bandcamp with a musical piece you HAVE to listen to.  Very cool.  

Things have been quite busy lately.  Scheduled for about 50 (ish) hours this week and I'm sure next week won't be far from that.  The guys and I finished a demo version of our latest song called Teeth, which is about the zombie apocalypse.  After resting our ears and brains from recording 4+ hours of vocal tracks, there are things we need to change.  It's funny how much time goes into music.  Maybe not everyone works as hard, but I know we really have effort behind what we've been doing.  I can't wait for all of you to hear it.  When we get some shows going, I'll be sure and post on here where it's at and such.

My next addition to the lineup:

 

For all the gearheads:  It's one of the only delays I've seen with a tap tempo function along with an analog circuitry system.  You can also use an expression pedal for various uses and select between 1/4 notes, dotted 8th notes, 1/4 note triplets, 8th notes, 8th note triplets, and 16th notes.  Pretty stoked to say the least.


Thanks for reading!

Good News!

Hey guys.

 Wanted to take a second and tell you about some exciting news.  Caitlin started her own shop on Etsy called Seventh Hand.  Thought you might want to check it out.  You can also just visit her blog for her shop here.

Check her site often, she's going to consistently add and sell different items as the days progress, so you don't want to miss anything!

Things have been pretty busy for me lately.  I've been working non-stop and trying to write music for both Sleepy Head and my band (we're deciding on a name) while trying to spend quality time at home.  December's just a crazy month for me in general.  I assume it's most people's busy month of the year as well, though.

Off I go to bed for another packed day tomorrow.  Thanks for reading and I'll talk to you all soon.

This Time Of Year...

We set up the tree!  I was going to wait to show pictures, but I'm pretty stoked :)  This year was my first year with a fake tree, but I thought it turned out really cool.  Here's some views:

Sway and Clementine by the tree.  Took me at least 15 pictures to get Sway to stay still.  Clementine on the other hand sat in this chair ALL DAY.

Clementine and her one-eyed-laser-vision.

Finished product!

T-REX!  RAAAAWWRR!

 

Thanks for reading!  I'll take pictures of the rest of the house and post them later.  See you all tomorrow!

Busy busy busy....

Howdy folks.

Took a much deserved day off today.  Work has been quite hectic lately with a recent promotion and extended hours, so I haven't had much free time.  I mean, I work 6 days this week!  UHH!

Made good use of the free time, though.  I wrote the first Sleepy Head song in a year today.  I think it turned out extremely well and I can't wait for everyone to hear it.  I've got to invest in an interface worth using and a good microphone first so I can get it sounding ok, then I can post it on here so it's listenable.  It's called "Mistletoe".  A little bit different than the vibe I've had for a while, so I'd say it's a great start to a new E.P. (say whaaaat?), which might take a little time.  Like I said, things have been hectic.

My "children" decided they'd lounge around with me today.

Thanks for reading!  See you all tomorrow.

Snow!

Last night was our first snow of the year.  Everyone got pretty excited and started playing immediately.  It really slowed down the day at work, though.  A couple of the guys and I found ourselves just kind of standing around for about 3 hours.  Didn't hear of any wrecks, though.  Glad to hear everyone decided to be safe snow drivers for a change!  

One of the families in my apartment building decided to make snowmen with the little snow we got.  As you can see here, it took all of the snow around them.  Maybe we'll get a few more inches next snow.

 

 

In music news, my band and I are finishing up a new song today.  I've got to finish lyrics and a vocal melody for some finishing touches and we'll record the demo track at the band room.  It's about the zombie apocalypse.  Pretty righteous.

I hope to get up and running with the production studio I mentioned a couple days ago in mid January.  I'll get my Christmas paycheck then!  More news on that stuff to come.  Thanks for reading!

Is It Over Yet??

Bruce Willis once said "Anger, by and large, is a useless emotion.  Take 5 minutes.  You can get as angry as you want.  Bust up the joint.  Throw things around, but after that you’ve just got to accept it, move on, and try to learn from it.”  Almost everyone of us tends to get angry about the same things throughout life over and over again.  I'm a terrible culprit of this.  Road rage, situations with people at work, relationships, all of these are times when people get angry for whatever reason.  Then these people go on with their days, irritating other people because they've got to vent somehow.  Then it just becomes a huge chain reaction and before you know it, everyone around you is angry for no real reason.  That happened at work today.  Wasn't pretty.  Everyone was angry for no reason and they all just let it linger around.  The weirdest part was at the end of the night everyone was totally cool with each other.  !?!?!?!  Confusion.

I don't have much of a point to this.  So in summary:

Anger is useless.  Learn from it, rather than let it linger.  And Bruce Willis is the man.  Thanks for reading.

And Slowly It Goes...

I recently decided to begin writing my own music again.  It's been almost a year - or maybe a year and a half - since I suddenly halted production, so to speak, to be in the band I'm in now.  I know that it takes a lot of time, dedication, and money *shudder* to be involved in two different musical ventures, but I have to do what feels right in my heart (which is not always what seems right logically).  Right now, that means giving this thing a real go.  I've been getting prices together to start building a production station for writing at home.  Going to be pretty costly, but the end result is going to be fantastic.  I figure if I had a fully functioning production/writing area with modeling software, keyboards, guitars, etc. at my disposal, I'd almost never have to touch the ole PS2 out of boredom again.  I'm starting to wonder how the neighbors are going to react, though.  Writing music in an apartment building doesn't always work as well as one would hope.  I had a spurt of creativity one night so sudden that I couldn't wait and just write it down for later.  No, I had to work it out right then...at 1AM.  The relationship I had with this one was so passionate, I didn't realize how loud I was being at all.  Upon leaving the apartment the next day, lo and behold!  The most dramatic "quiet down" letter I'd ever received.  So.  Music at 1AM.  Bad.  Got it.

Practiced all the old songs today after work.  It felt great to release all of those familiar feelings again.  This road will hopefully be a long and fulfilling one.  

Thanks for reading.