Late-night musings
Less than a week til my driving test. I'm starting to get a bad case of nerves: I've failed twice already, gave it up for years, and I've just recently picked it back up again. I really don't feel ready, not after my mock test last week where I got four major faults and a few minors. I have another mock test at 9am, I can't sleep, and since I hardly slept last night either (stayed up all night to read Half-Blood Prince, which I hadn't read and which was excellent, in preparation for reading Deathly Hallows) I'm going to be absolutely shattered - which really isn't going to help my performance at all.
[edit] The lesson actually went rather well. We went over all the points I failed on in my last mock test, and my instructor was pretty pleased at the end - "If you drive like that on your test, you'll pass." So, yay.
I've been rather enjoying having all my stuff up north. We've shifted stuff around the flat and now have a study set up, with both our computers, plus all my music gear. It's almost like a little studio - Nate has his art workstation with a scanner and graphics tablet, and I have my music workstation with my MIDI keyboard, guitar and drum pads all plugged in and ready to go whenever I get the inspiration. And, for a change, I have both inspiration and the means to capture it.
I've been wanting to record a song with guitar parts again for a long time, but I had trouble with my sound card crackling when recording; then when that problem seemed to go away, so did my inspiration. Now I'm using my Ozone as both MIDI keyboard and sound card, which means that unlike my previous setup I can have everything permanently plugged in, so if I feel like laying down a guitar part I can just do it, rather than rerouting cables and fiddling with mixer settings and - once everything's finally set up - realising that I've taken too long and my inspiration's drained away. Having the MIDI keyboard is awesome too - as well as making note entry in Reason so much faster (no more manually drawing notes on the piano roll!) I can also lay down much more natural-sounding parts.
I'm almost considering adding vocals to the song, but I have a few obstacles - namely, my total inability to write decent lyrics, and the fact that I've come to really dislike my own singing voice - and besides, the song would probably sound better with a female singer.
Anyway, I'll probably release it once I've let it mature for a bit - either that, or come to hate it, and bury it forever. I also have a couple of other pieces which have been stewing for months because I feel like they're missing something but I can't figure out what it is.
Apart from the music, I'm also working on a Perl CMS back-end for Dad's surgery website, which is coming along alright, and applying for jobs. I actually got an interview for one - first a telephone interview, then a trip to the company's HR agency in Linlithgow for a rather gruelling face-to-face interview involving several multiple-choice tests (general IQ test, Java knowledge, and personality) then a videoed interview, then a five-minute presentation (with the topic picked from a short list just before the start - I chose Pros and Cons of Hashtables). Apparently it went alright, because they sent my details off to the company itself rather than rejecting me outright, but I haven't heard anything back in a week and a half.
Now, let's try this whole sleeping business again and see if it sticks this time...
PS: anyone who has stuff on my web hosting should note that I'm changing hosts to Dreamhost in a few days - if you keep your email on the server, it might be a good idea to download it to somewhere handy. I've already copied all the sites' content over, and I'll copy the databases over just before I switch the site to the new host.
[edit] The lesson actually went rather well. We went over all the points I failed on in my last mock test, and my instructor was pretty pleased at the end - "If you drive like that on your test, you'll pass." So, yay.
I've been rather enjoying having all my stuff up north. We've shifted stuff around the flat and now have a study set up, with both our computers, plus all my music gear. It's almost like a little studio - Nate has his art workstation with a scanner and graphics tablet, and I have my music workstation with my MIDI keyboard, guitar and drum pads all plugged in and ready to go whenever I get the inspiration. And, for a change, I have both inspiration and the means to capture it.
I've been wanting to record a song with guitar parts again for a long time, but I had trouble with my sound card crackling when recording; then when that problem seemed to go away, so did my inspiration. Now I'm using my Ozone as both MIDI keyboard and sound card, which means that unlike my previous setup I can have everything permanently plugged in, so if I feel like laying down a guitar part I can just do it, rather than rerouting cables and fiddling with mixer settings and - once everything's finally set up - realising that I've taken too long and my inspiration's drained away. Having the MIDI keyboard is awesome too - as well as making note entry in Reason so much faster (no more manually drawing notes on the piano roll!) I can also lay down much more natural-sounding parts.
I'm almost considering adding vocals to the song, but I have a few obstacles - namely, my total inability to write decent lyrics, and the fact that I've come to really dislike my own singing voice - and besides, the song would probably sound better with a female singer.
Anyway, I'll probably release it once I've let it mature for a bit - either that, or come to hate it, and bury it forever. I also have a couple of other pieces which have been stewing for months because I feel like they're missing something but I can't figure out what it is.
Apart from the music, I'm also working on a Perl CMS back-end for Dad's surgery website, which is coming along alright, and applying for jobs. I actually got an interview for one - first a telephone interview, then a trip to the company's HR agency in Linlithgow for a rather gruelling face-to-face interview involving several multiple-choice tests (general IQ test, Java knowledge, and personality) then a videoed interview, then a five-minute presentation (with the topic picked from a short list just before the start - I chose Pros and Cons of Hashtables). Apparently it went alright, because they sent my details off to the company itself rather than rejecting me outright, but I haven't heard anything back in a week and a half.
Now, let's try this whole sleeping business again and see if it sticks this time...
PS: anyone who has stuff on my web hosting should note that I'm changing hosts to Dreamhost in a few days - if you keep your email on the server, it might be a good idea to download it to somewhere handy. I've already copied all the sites' content over, and I'll copy the databases over just before I switch the site to the new host.