Sometimes you have to make the same mistake multiple times before you figure things out. I've gone through a couple of cycles of one particularly stupid mistake since February or so. Not constantly, but once every couple of weeks or months.
It all starts with sleep, or lack thereof. Because I didn't get enough sleep, I cut out my morning meditation and/or yoga because I need the sleep more. Because I cut out my morning meditation and/or yoga, I don't feel as emotionally balanced, and I make foolish mistakes. Then I either can't sleep because I'm thinking about those foolish mistakes, or the foolish mistake is just deciding to stay up later to get something done, causing me to repeat the cycle. Stupid, I know, but for some reason, it's very easy for me to fall into this particular trap. And the cure for the cycle is simply to get enough sleep to return to my routine.
So, note to self: get enough sleep (or return to getting enough sleep ASAP, if something messes up my sleep cycle) and maintain my routine to stay mentally/emotionally centered!
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Monday, September 05, 2011
Housecleaning
Wife and I have been doing some serious cleaning up around our house over the last month or so. Most of the rooms in the house are now cleaner than they've been since we first bought the place. We still have some heavy duty outdoor work to do since Hurricane Irene passed through and took down three of our trees, but we now have the worst of that removed from the yard and it won't be much longer before the yard goes dormant for the fall.
Then our attention can turn to the remaining interior work, which is down to one room on our main floor plus the basement, and I'd already started on the basement in bits and pieces before this major focus began.
The cost of all of this has been that my creative work has come to a virtual standstill for the last month, which hasn't been good for my state of mind. By this time next year, though, I may actually have more time available and a better living environment to boot because we will have simplified our living area as well as cleaning it.
Then our attention can turn to the remaining interior work, which is down to one room on our main floor plus the basement, and I'd already started on the basement in bits and pieces before this major focus began.
The cost of all of this has been that my creative work has come to a virtual standstill for the last month, which hasn't been good for my state of mind. By this time next year, though, I may actually have more time available and a better living environment to boot because we will have simplified our living area as well as cleaning it.
Sunday, September 04, 2011
Splunge - 9/4
Missed writing about a session involving Nick, Sal, and myself without Jason from a couple of weeks ago. Nothing special about that one, really, apart from that we did a great job collectively holding ourselves together, even without a drummer.
So on to today's session... Jason is back on entirely acoustic drums, having decided to trade his electronic drums for someone else's acoustic kit, as their respective needs have changed. Volume, surprisingly, wasn't really a problem. Each of us (except for Jason) took a stroll out in front, and things sounded quite good there, if not as good back where our amplifiers were. I should stop mentioning that the group as a whole has tightened up, as that change seems to have permanently stuck, for the better.
Nick's confidence in his vocals continues to improve, though he's still the slowest of us at learning songs, which is hardly surprising in light of his relative inexperience. He is now singing lead on just a shade over a third of the material. Harmonies are still a problem unless someone else is singing lead and I'm singing harmony.
No special standout songs this time, except for "Help Me Rhonda" being spectacularly bad again because Nick has trouble sticking to the harmony part. "Losing My Religion" has stabilized now that I'm singing lead on it, though that's cost us the harmony part I was singing. I'll teach it to Nick once he is more certain of his guitar part on it. "Surrender" was new for this session, and okay for a first try, though I really miss the harmonies on it. Nick will be taking over lead on it so I can sing a harmony part to make it sound more like it should. And lest any readers think I'm unnecessarily busting on Nick, he's doing a consistently good job on the new group favorite "Celluloid Heroes", and it was Jason's idea to have Nick sing lead on "Surrender" because he thinks Nick's voice suits it better.
We're at 29 songs after having added "Surrender" and "Space Oddity" and dropping "Once Bitten Twice Shy". No particular group goal in sight, and honestly, I'm getting bored of playing the same songs. I'm not getting instrumentally challenged, and can't be very much as long as I'm singing so much lead. I've been writing original songs, some of which has some interest from the group, so that's a possible avenue to keep me involved. It's ironic that even as the group has hit a new level of collective skill, my interest has waned for the moment.
So on to today's session... Jason is back on entirely acoustic drums, having decided to trade his electronic drums for someone else's acoustic kit, as their respective needs have changed. Volume, surprisingly, wasn't really a problem. Each of us (except for Jason) took a stroll out in front, and things sounded quite good there, if not as good back where our amplifiers were. I should stop mentioning that the group as a whole has tightened up, as that change seems to have permanently stuck, for the better.
Nick's confidence in his vocals continues to improve, though he's still the slowest of us at learning songs, which is hardly surprising in light of his relative inexperience. He is now singing lead on just a shade over a third of the material. Harmonies are still a problem unless someone else is singing lead and I'm singing harmony.
No special standout songs this time, except for "Help Me Rhonda" being spectacularly bad again because Nick has trouble sticking to the harmony part. "Losing My Religion" has stabilized now that I'm singing lead on it, though that's cost us the harmony part I was singing. I'll teach it to Nick once he is more certain of his guitar part on it. "Surrender" was new for this session, and okay for a first try, though I really miss the harmonies on it. Nick will be taking over lead on it so I can sing a harmony part to make it sound more like it should. And lest any readers think I'm unnecessarily busting on Nick, he's doing a consistently good job on the new group favorite "Celluloid Heroes", and it was Jason's idea to have Nick sing lead on "Surrender" because he thinks Nick's voice suits it better.
We're at 29 songs after having added "Surrender" and "Space Oddity" and dropping "Once Bitten Twice Shy". No particular group goal in sight, and honestly, I'm getting bored of playing the same songs. I'm not getting instrumentally challenged, and can't be very much as long as I'm singing so much lead. I've been writing original songs, some of which has some interest from the group, so that's a possible avenue to keep me involved. It's ironic that even as the group has hit a new level of collective skill, my interest has waned for the moment.
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