A St. Patty's day Update.

I'm not feeling very Irish today. Just not feeling it. No green, no beer, no green beer.

So it's been a while since I posted anything other than lyrics. But I've been busy. The job thingy takes a little more time and since I bought the recorder I've been pretty much non stop writing and playing.

The bill paying time sucking endeavor (job) is going well. It's still a temp job but hopefully that will change. I like it and it fits. The one thing that's always interesting about jobs is how many unnecessary games get played. I think probably since it's the only thing going on for most people they need to make it interesting. Elevating inconsequential to panic and business as usual to panic and urgency. I've gotten pretty adept at not playing over the years. You have to endure a bit of peer pressure at first but eventually it all works out. The lesson is nobody can have power over you that you don't give them. It does piss them off a bit, but gradually they find different more receptive targets. I rather enjoy watching how people react to me when they push the buttons and they don't get the response they want. I like the persistent ones. Eventually I start making fun of them. That's probably not a good idea. The payoff of course is that soon the entire operation starts running through you as your the only calm grounded one in the group. Unless they decide to simply eat you.

Track coaching started on Monday. What a great week to start it on. Beautiful weather, no snow on the track, and no mush in the grass. I think the State School league finally after umpteen years figured out that spring sports shouldn't start in winter. They moved the start date back two weeks. I believe in three days we are easily a week ahead of schedule in training. I will be coaching the high jump again, of course what else would a short chubby guy coach right? I love it and I think am pretty good at it. I'm hoping I'll get a little more responsibility at coaching other stuff. At one point or another I've coached it all so I'm good with whatever they need me to do.

Writing. I'm having a blast with it. I'm slowly getting better at the recording process. It is really all about patience and balance. I'm slowly forcing myself to redo things which are clearly not good enough and finding ways to balance a song so that they still work even if the bass doesn't make it out the little teeny computer speakers most people listen on. It really does put me at a disadvantage. I'm a bass player and I think I come up with some pretty spot on bass lines but you can't even hear what I'm doing unless you've got decent speakers. With my voice I need mid to low range behind me or it gets all nakey. It's just not pretty enough for that. One unfortunate outcome is that I lose so much time in the process I can't write as much as I'd like, but the flip side is that it makes it more interesting so that I keep on doing it.

Originally I went on reverb nation just for hosting so that my people who read my lyrics on my blog might have an idea of what the song might sound like. I really wasn't thinking many people would be listening to it. But listen they are. And so the recording process has become more important, I can't count on strangers to have a critical ear and listen to the writing rather than the performance. And so in order to grow my audience i need to think about that. Plus really the more I do it, the less tedious it becomes. Soon it won't be more than a few hours to represent the writing decently instead of the days it takes now.

There is really nothing else happening. The book thing is kind of on hold as I'm immersed in the writing and now track season, but I know once track season starts winding down, and garage sale season starts the fever to accumulate will attack.

That brings up another thing. Last year was all about reconnecting to my passions. This year is about stepping those things up in a meaningful way. Balance will have to come into play. I've envisioned seasons. Different parts of the year having a different focus. It seems to suit my shifting interests. We'll see how that all goes. It might just be there is not enough time for everything and something goes. Who knows.

Later.