vocalnick

Hey :)

For now, at least, I'm suspending entries. You won't notice all that much difference, as I was posting very seldom.

I'm not particularly enamoured with the way this blog/journal shaped up. It's a bit meandering, somewhat (extremely) self-indulgent, and incredibly dull. If people really want to know what I did on the weekend, or what I had for breakfast, or where Clare and I went for dinner last night (The Ball & Chain - great steak), then they can ask me. But I'm not going to be volunteering that stuff anymore just for the sake of sharing.

I will be keeping a "themed" journal over at http://vocalnick.blogspot.com/. Some of you are probably aware that I just finished an album with my band. Well, I'm in the throes of writing more stuff now, and I intend to do a little project of my own, stylistically somewhat different to The Third Ending, although probably with some common ground. If anyone is interested in the on-going saga of that project as it shapes up, then head on over and read. I may even talk about breakfast, but I make no promises.

It's been fun :) Vocalnick out :D

Wellll, the promo CDs are out and about (still waiting back on responses... I hope people are liking what they're hearing), and the artwork & master are on their way to their respective destinations. Upshot: In about 3 weeks or so we should be sitting on a pile of 500 CDs. Not literally, that would be uncomfortable.

I think we're getting them sent disassembled. The printing and pressing are being done by seperate people, so we'll have to insert the... umm... inserts, ourselves. So, disassembled trays makes that a little easier - we don't have to pull apart and then reconnect. Hooray.

Preparation for the live gigs continues in earnest. A good thing, because we went and booked one. Oooer. August the 2nd at Trout in North Hobart. Be there... or don't, it's up to you ;P

I have essays due on the 15th 19th and 19th respectively. That's two on the 19th, I haven't got a stutter. Stress stress stress. I'm sure it'll all seem fine once they're done, and I'll be wondering what all the fuss was about. For now, though, I worry.

I really need to clean my shit up sometimes. Pending an actual installation, I have a lovely DBX162 compressor (as used on the impending T3E release) sitting on the floor next to a bookshelf in my music room/study. I was putting my guitar back in its case, no shoes on, and stomped with my full (and not insubstantial) weight onto one of the rack ears with the heel of my left foot.

It bled.

Quite a lot.

I am very sore.

Mother fucker.

Good think I don't have to stand holding a bass guitar for 4 hours at a time, two nights in a row, or anything like that.

Oh wait... yes, yes I do infact.

You know what I was thinking I'd like to do now this album is over?

Besides, promote & tour the album of course...

Make a movie.

I can write, I can shoot, I can edit, I can do post production and visual effects. I have done all of these things professionally, except the writing, which is actually the really hard part, but you know... I think I can take it.

It would be cool to make the sort of movie that I'd love to see myself. A really interesting, intelligently written, funny, genre-spanning science fictiony type thing.

But Clare bought me the 2-disc edition of Serenity for my birthday, so I've been saved the trouble.

But seriously, that would be interesting to try.

Well, must be time for my quarterly journal entry.

I'm going to try and break this up into bolded sub-headings as I go, so as to maintain some sort of order to proceedings. It's not that a lot has happened for me to write about, but more that I have another two hours of "work" to kill, and not much to do with it other than write here. It is perhaps fitting, then, that my first sub-heading be "procrastination".

Oh, dammit, I ruined the surprise. Pretend you didn't read that yet.

Ok, here it is:

Procrastination

I know it sounds ridiculous, but I think I've exhausted the internet, vis-a-vis entertainment. Alright, that's patently absurd, I could never read everything out there, it's changing faster than I can read. However, within my (reasonably wide) list of interests, I feel as if I've read most of the wheat, and I'm sifting through chaff for something edible. Of course after a couple of hours of perusal, the realisation hits me that I'd be better spending my time actually doing something constructive rather than simply absorbing information (although you could suggest that is at least better than watching the TV). That thought brought me to my LJ page, and so now I'm at least contributing to the noise, rather than just listening to it.

Music

We're so damn close to finishing this CD. Hurrah and yippee and such! Probably one more quick critique session with Curtis, he'll tweak the mixes, we'll look at Knotty's latest draft of the cover art, and then it's more or less complete. At this point the abject paralysing fear sets in. Fear of actually showing the thing to people, of having to justify the three+ years we've spent working on it. Not non-stop, mind you... we're not Guns and Roses. But still, it's been a long time coming, and the fact that it's going to be heard and critiqued by people is as scary as it is exciting.

Although, it has just occurred to me, not half as scary as the idea that we've spent this long and now nobody will hear it!

So, I ask myself, with the air of a slightly informal magazine interviewer, what are you hoping for with this release?

I'm glad you asked. I think it would be grossly over-confident of me to suggest that we'll be retiring, or even launching a career with this CD. However, within it's niche, I think it's a very solid product, and as good as many of the "professional" releases out there. The fact that we've recorded the whole thing on pretty much zero budget bodes well for us, as any revenue raised is pretty much clear profit. Not that I'm hoping to retire to the Maldives or anything (Where the fuck are the Maldives? Why did I just type that?) but the dream would be to make enough money that we could actually take time to do album two under better conditions, with less compromise in terms of fitting around work & study. And, of course, it would be great to sell enough that we could justify some sort of travelling around playing to people arrangement. Hell yes indeed.

Where the fuck are the Maldives?

A group of islands in the Indian Ocean. Looks nice, but not really my cup of tea. I can confirm my previous comment, then, that I have no desire to retire there.

Fake domain names

Should this be a sub-heading of "Computers"? A conundrum indeed, and one that I intend to ignore completely once I finish this sentence. No, ok but this one definitely.

Yep.

So, I just went to look up the Maldives on wikipedia, but my clumsy ham-like typing this evening led me to enter "wikibedia". Good one Nick. No matter, I'll get one of those redirection messages. "You tried to go to an address that doesn't exist, loser, did you mean wikiPEDIA? Ok then, Click on the hyperlink to go there, as you clearly can't be trusted with a keyboard". No, instead I get one of those "parked domain" sites, covered in ads. Who registers these things? How do you decide which typos to anticipate? I have this image of someone drinking a couple of six-packs, trying to type the names of a hundred popular websites into notepad, and then registering the contents in the morning.

At least that's what I'll tell Clare I'm doing next time she comes home and I'm sitting at the computer with a dozen empty beers on the desk.

I'm kidding :)

Computers

Disk free space has dropped below the minimum threshold. Free up space on your hard disk drive by:
1. Backing up your data to a tape backup, ZIP or network drive.
2. Delete unused files.

How the fuck has this machine got this full? And what can I safely delete on a shared machine at work? I'm scared to touch anything, so I'm left with clearing the cache on Firefox, which kills the out of space message for about half an hour.

"Z" vs "S"

Why do residents of the USA insist on replacing half of the instances of the letter "S" in English words with the letter "Z"? It occurred to me as I was typing "magazine" back there, and I was wondering why we don't spell it "magasine". Probably because it looks really stupid, and makes you sound a little bit like Arnold Schwarzenegger if you say it out loud. Well, at least if you say it out loud with an Austrian accent.

Damn

I ran out of things to say. That'll do for now, I suppose.

Wow, how did I leave it over two months between entries?

I'm not even going to try to catch up. I'll just make a new start, and shall kick it off with the following:

I hate bogans.

This may seem to be over-stating my point, but I sincerely do wish pain and misfortune upon a few select individuals. Starting with the charming folks who removed several thousand dollars worth of drums, hardware, microphones, stands, and electronics from the back of Knotty's car late last week. Then we'll move on to whomever was kind enough to liberate me of my car and contents (including my best bass and electric guitar) back in 2004. Special mention must go to whoever lit the car fire at the top of quarry road last night. Hey, no harm done, it's only adjacent to several square km of bushland reserve, and it's not as if it's summer... oh no, hang on, yes it is. I can only hope they perished in the fire.

I'm in a good mood today ;P

We can't report our employment income online this week. We also apparently can't report it over the phone, as the file is locked out by someone in Hobart doing a random review. It's not a major deal, as we're not even eligible for a payment this week (I'm earning too much money with WIN & Southern Cross), but I am nevertheless left sitting by the phone, waiting for someone to call and inform me that my non-payment will be non-delivered at the appropriate time, and in accordance with policy.

A shout out, though, to Selma at the Queensland call-centre, who has been friendly and helpful throughout the process so far. There are still one or two human beings working for the service arm of the government, it would seem.

Wonder how long that's going to last?

I just discovered a little tube of mini M&Ms in my lunch. Not that big a deal, but in my current tired and somewhat fragile state, it made my day :)

Thanks Clare, you rock :)

NiAlWriMo?

I've decided to take a leaf out of the "Nanowrimo" book. November is the National Novel Writing Month, where thousands of people around the world resolve to write a 50,000+ word novel in one month. No doubt a lot of dreck is written, but a few published works have come out of it. More importantly, content is produced. The idea is to break the procrastination cycle and just DO it, writing around 1700 words each day. I keep meaning to give it a bash, but I've had exams the last couple of Novembers, so I keep putting it off. Procrastination is hard to shake off...

Ok, so what the hell am I talking about this for? Well, I have this band, you see. We've been working on an album for a few years now (a frightening timeframe now I come to type it out), and we've all spent that time bringing musical ideas to the table. Lots are used, but as many, if not more, are discarded. So I have a pretty sizeable stock-pile of musical snippets that are, for one reason or another, not suitable for us to use. I keep meaning to work them up into full songs, but I'll sit and fiddle for 15 minutes, get bored, and resolve to do it later when I'm not quite so busy/apathetic/distracted/lazy. Not productive use of time, I've decided.

So, I hereby declare December to be NiAlWriMo - "Nick's Album Writing Month". By the end of December I vow to have wrangled all these little ideas (and anything else I come up with) into a cohesive dozen or so tunes which I can then record. Even if they're crap songs (and with that timeframe I suspect some of them will be) they will at least be real songs, rather than nebulous riffs and melodies. I can then either discard or revise from there.

This is a thing I've always had trouble with... When I'm writing, I tend to roll the the first and final draft processes together, revising my writing a sentence at a time. It's hard to get into a creative flow, and the result is usually pretty choppy. Musically I'm the same. I'll get hung up on one riff or idea, and develop it into the ground. I end up with a well-recorded & arranged 4 bars, but no song to put it in. What I'm trying to do with this self-imposed deadline is limit the amount that I can afford to trip out and start re-doing things over and over. If average recording/performance quality is a given, then hopefully I can push through, just let the ideas flow, and fix the mistakes later.

In January, perhaps.

In other news, I played Friday night at the Maypole Tavern in New Town, worked yesterday, played last night at the Vic Tavern, and am at work today. I'm quite tired. I have the same routine the next two weekends (although the venues change). Not good for the sleep-cycle, but it should pay for Christmas shopping. Only two more half-days to go, and then I have three glorious days off. Hurrah :)

The Hobart Christmas Pageant is on today. Mucho merriment and folks walking the streets in Christmas garb. Gaudy and tacky, but the kids love it.

Southern Cross television is smack bang in the middle of the parade route. So of course we're affected by the road closures. I've just informed one of our highly professional journalist types that we'll be effectively marooned until mid-day, when they re-open the streets, and she is currently engaged in an attack of panicked histrionics. "Why didn't somebody tell me!? I didn't know?! Shit! Shit!"

Well, nobody told me either... I looked it up, using my 1337 research skills, typing "Hobart Christmas Pageant" into google, and linking to the media release and parade map. Now this strikes me as the type of initiative that one might expect a journalist to posess. Perhaps that's just in my crazy utopian world where people are at least base-line competent to do their jobs.

I've been thinking of upgrading my mobile phone (cell phone for you US folk) for a while, and yesterday I finally bit the bullet and got a Nokia 6230i. Video recording & playback, MP3 player, voice recorder, 1.3 megapixel camera. And, y'know... you can talk to people on it.

Best of all, it was free. Just had to renew my contract with Telstra for 24 months, which I would have done anyway. Had a play around last night with the encoding software for it, and it looks like I should be able to fit about an hour of "more or less acceptably crap" video on the included 64MB MMC card. If I spring for a larger card (they're available up to 2GB now I believe) then the amount & quality go up. Hurrah, I can catch up on my TV watching on the bus.

Who needs a video iPod, huh? :) :P

Well actually... I would rather like the iPod. Still, this'll do nicely for now :)

... that bloody song is cycling around my head, and won't get out. Stupid Jimmy Barnes. I quite like it, but it's uninvited.

Not a bad show last night - certainly there are worse ways to earn $35 an hour :) I was on a little podium with a chair next to it as a step-up. I was going to sit on the chair at one point, but some fat bastard with a bottle of coke had arranged himself around it, and I figured he needed the support more than I did.

Work-wise, I didn't get much chance to relax - gotta keep the camera very tight, and follow the musicians around the stage, jumping between Jimmy & the soloists. I was the only camera on, so there was no respite - my output was being seen on the screens the whole evening. Ack! I actually ended up framing off the screen (with occasional viewfinder checks for focus) - much more comfortable than staring at a teeny monochrome viewfinder all night.


Stage with camera viewfinder in foreground.
This is not a deliberate attempt at avant-garde soft focus, but rather, a vivid reminder as to the limitations of my camera-phone. You can see the screens above and on either side of the stage. Amazing - what an exciting and glamorous life I lead. The envy of my friends, and the life of the party. Girls want me, and guys want to be me. And stuff....

In more exciting news, I've got my last exam for the semseter tomorrow. Hurrah! :) I'm a little apprehensive, but very much looking forward to having it over and done with for the year. I plan to drink wine and/or beer tomorrow evening - an activity I have missed of late :)

I seem to begin each post with an apology lately. Well it's time for that to change, and in accordance with me newfound lack of remorse, I can proudly state that I am not at all sorry that I'm writing this many weeks after I intended to. Not even the faintest shadow of guilt has crossed my mind with regard to my continued absence from this, the home of my web-based ruminations.

I can't back that up. I do feel bad. Between university, work (including the odd gig), finishing keyboards for the album, trying to work on lyrics for the same, and attempting some semblance of a home life, I have been quite busy. Of course it doesn't take all that long to sit down and write a quick entry, but it somehow keeps slipping down the list.

No doubt my group of 5 ardent readers will have been missing me...

'Ardent' is probably a bit strong. What's the word I'm after? It does start with an 'a'. Oh, 'ambivalent', that's it.

I am running the camera feeding the big-screen at a Jimmy Barnes concert this Saturday night. Should be a nice way to earn a few dollars. Certainly a lot better than dealing with numbskull egomaniacal television folk - who I hope don't read this. If you are from a television station where I've worked, I certainly don't think all of the people there posess an over inflated sense of their own importance. Whoever you are, I'm almost certainly not talking about you, right?

So anyway, Barnesy. Should be fun. Clare's parents don't like him ("that's not singing, it's just screaming. Nothing but noise") but, as common-law in-laws, it's their duty to disagree with me on at least some issues, and at least this one can be argued about without anyone getting too invested. I do quite like him, and that's the important bit in this instance. If I get the chance to say hi to him at soundcheck or something, I really must let him know just how frustrating he's made life for Aussie cover band musicians.

YOB: "Play Khe Sanh, Play Flame Trees"
ME: "You like Cold Chisel do you mate?"
YOB: "Yeaaahhhh, Bow River!!"
ME: You got all their albums at home have you buddy?"
YOB: "Yeahh!!!"
ME: "Well why don't you fuck off home and listen to them. Hey, stop hitting me. Hey!"

I've just had a thought... I suppose we could actually play some Cold Chisel songs. It's a tad bit passé I suppose, but a damn sight better than the top-40 crap that we do play. I must have a think about that. I'm sure there's a pressing reason not to, but it's eluding me right now.

Alright, time to be off for now. I have an exam on "Post 1945 German Film" on Monday, and I'm working all weekend, so my revision time is pretty much... well, pretty much now. I probably should do that then. 'Til next time then!

I always do this... start a journal when I'm bored, then abandon it when I'm busy.

Well I'm NOT going to abandon this one... um.. at least not permanently. Short summary, life is pretty good, I'm very very busy with uni. Looks like I might have a look-in to write some short features for the youth/pop culture section of the paper here, which would be great for folio building and possibly extra dollars.

Also, the band are playing our first live performance EVER tomorrow night in a band comp. It's a pay-to-enter deal, which I plan NEVER to do again, but even though I think the competition is a dead loss and a rort for all concerned, it's been great as a catalyst to get us all together in a room making music again. We've been far too bogged down in the details of doing this CD, and it's nice to actually PLAY.

Ok, gotta finish this essay before rehearsal if I can (errrk, that gives me a whole 2.5 hours). Shall post details of the gig, and an actual proof-read entry after the weekend.

Yay :)

Screeeeeeeech, thump *crack*

'wha was tha?'
'I dunno... the bus?'
I got up and looked out the window, and couldn't really see, except HEY, it snowed! Probably not such a big deal for some of the international, or even inter-state readers, but snow down to near sea level is a rare thing indeed down here! Clare got up too, and said 'isn't that the bus there?'

Seems they didn't reckon with the slipperyness of the road, and the bus decided it wanted to go sideways today. No-one hurt, although I imagine the driver & passengers were a tad bit shitscared (and the tree in our front yard lost a limb)

You should be able to click on these for a bigger version :)




Sadly, the sun is out now, and it's all melting away. Just a shower, really... I'm still not real keen to drive in it, as it's pretty icy. I know you folk overseas who get "real" snow all the time wouldn't think twice, but it's such a rare occurrence here that we're just not equipped for it. Wrong tyres, and very little in the way of bad-weather driving practice.

It's a sad indictment on the state of an organisation when a client has a more thorough knowledge of their policy than their call-centre operators do. Of course the call centre folk have the authority, so apparently they are right 100% of the time.

Even when they're wrong.




Like they were today.




Fuckers.

How can music be bad? :P :)

I like personal quotes that nobody understands.

So, Clare's away tonight. She has to give her parents a lift to the airport insanely early tomorrow morning, so she's staying with them tonight. In her absence, I am having a beer, and recording keyboards for the album. It's sounding great :D

I just made a journal entry on the band site, so rather than repeat myself, I'll simply link you to it.

Cheers :)

I've been a lazy lazy boy. My last LJ post was almost a fortnight ago. In my defence, I've been really really really busy, and not exactly overflowing with days off. I've been working my last days at the Uni job, working weekends at Southern Cross, and playing a few gigs as well (two last weekend, two this weekend coming).

Monday the 4th of July is the date I get to have an entire day to myself, and my god I'm looking forward to it.

Oh, also, the landlord has decided to re-paint most of the house... at once, so it's been fairly well unviable as a dwelling. We've been camping out at Clare's parents place, so the onlinedness hasn't been up to much. And now this week I've been training my replacement at uni, and I'm having trouble reconciling myself with the notion of typing my LJ while he watches, eagerly taking notes.

Aww shit, I'm all incoherent and stuff. I'm sorry about that, and I fully intend to be in full articulalte blog frenzy mode once this seemingly endless run of work grinds to a halt. For now? I just neeeeeed some sleeeeeeeeeeep :(

Headache is dissipating nicely. I am electing to blame cheap cask wine.

Not to put too fine a point on it... I have a headache and I'm not happy.