Saturday, December 29, 2007

Ok, finally, after a grueling set of edits and more edits, I am done with the dance film. On Wednesday, I am going to part of the tech run for the show where the film will be premiered(after I've gone back to London), so at least I will have a chance to see the film and music together.
I think that brings my total productivity for this break to 26%, or something like that.
Nevertheless, I still have just over a week before I am back to school, and I have every intention of completing that remaining 74%! Please, someone remind me of that when, in a week's time, I am making up excuses for not having met my quota.
As for my time in Winnipeg, I have something social to do every night from now until I leave. Fortunately, that gives me something of a schedule with which to work. I will work in the morning/afternoon and then socialize in the evening. I think it should be a matter of just not sleeping in too late. Sleeping the days away is really not so good.
Tonight is sushi. Maybe I should have something to eat first, there's only so much sushi I can handle, so I don't want to be hungry later on. Oooh, I have jellybellies!

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Bright and early tomorrow morning, we head back to Winnipeg. It has been a spectacular Christmas. It was nice to spend a bit of time with sister and brother-in-law, dare I say we may have even overstayed our welcome by a day...
Nevertheless, it's been great.
Last night we all gathered into the hot tub with some drinks. Now for the fun part... the hot-tub was OUTSIDE! It was awesome! Gareth and I both dunked out heads completely under the water and within minutes we were sporting iced hair-dos! It was a little nippy on the wet shoulders, but I think we were in there for at least 45 minutes and no one had frostbite or pneumonia.
I'll see what we have planned for tonight, anyway, I won't mind staying up late to finish the Dance Film music, I can sleep for the first 4 hours of the drive tomorrow anyway! If I get it done tonight, GREAT! If I need more time to finish it tomorrow after we get home, that's fine too, I'll still have it done a few days early!
I was the only one to buy something today for boxing day, aside from my mother buying some chocolates from Giant Tiger. It was so different from our normal boxing day experiences. Firstly, we all slept in quite late and were in no rush. It's Thompson, so even though the stores might have been busy, they were nowhere near the madness of Winnipeg's boxing fiestas.
I bought some nice speakers that I can hook up to my laptop, or anything else for that matter. They are quite fancy, with a control interface ON the speaker. Rather than just changing the volume of the speaker, it communicates through USB to the computer or device and changes those settings - ie, it communicates and interacts with the controls in Sibelius!

Monday, December 24, 2007

Christmas in Thompson

Well, the weather actually isn't that bad here. I mean it's cold, but not as bad as I was expecting/fearing.
My sister and her brother have both been working opposite shifts since we got here, but now they're done working. It was nice today that we were finally all together for lunch.
Having the family all together for the holidays is very nice.
The schedule around here has been crazy, last night, my brotherinlaw went to work around 7pm, the rest of us stayed in and watched movies, sister went to bed around 11 cause she worked in the morning. I ended up staying awake until about 5am working on the Christmas music as well as trying to get a fire started. I was awoken by my sister on her way out the door for work. I must have slept through my brotherinlaw coming home, but was awoken again by sister calling the house. Anyway, by the early afternoon, everyone was awake and home from work.
Since people were working, I managed to steal some time away for my own work (ish). I was making the family a Christmas soundscape to make use of the 5.1 surround sound system my sister has up here. I finished that and played it for them today so now that's out of the way.
I had a meeting the other day with my filmmaker and we discussed timings and changes to the score for that. I am now working on those, and unless I run into some huge problem, I will have that done before we drive back to Winnipeg.
I should also try to knock back on of the autumn song cycle poems while I'm up here, that or do some work on the orchestration.
I'm finding that time up here in Thompson has been very relaxing, but at the same time, I can get a fair deal of work done. Good times all around!
It's Christmas Eve Day!!!
I think I actually got all of my shopping done. I tried to be subtle, but it's hard when you are shopping with the people you're shopping for. Anyway, I really hope my sister is surprised. I asked my mom what she wanted, she replied with the thing that I was holding in my hand so I replied "that would be a silly thing to buy for Christmas, you can get that for yourself when you get back to Winnipeg", I felt bad because she looked kinda sad, but I couldn't ruin the surprise! That's what surprises are all about, making people sad so they'll be even happier later on! haha

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Uh Oh,
I sense that opportunities for productivity are dwindling; 2 of my friends arrived back in town in the last day or two, and I would like to see them both before I go to Thompson. Plus, one of my friends got a new puppy, so I have to go play with it this afternoon!
I also have to do my remaining Christmas shopping. I did a good chunk of it online, but I still need to get something for my dad and a few smaller things. My sister also called and asked me to pick something up for her husband's present - basically that's what's kicking my butt to go out and get stuff; my own shopping isn't enough motivation.
Anyway, I hate stores at this time of year, but I'm not organized enough to do the shopping before it gets crazy, so I'll live in my own hell-that's ok. Also, maybe going shopping and managing my time today will force me into productive mode, here's hoping!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Well, after my last post I DID try to be productive. I went to the university Saturday evening to get some work done. I got a tiny bit written. I just don't understand, it's like I have no creative juice lately. Anyway, I kept taking little breaks here and there wandering around the music building, reminiscing and reading lots of the postings people had outside their doors and whatnot. Long story short, I ended up accidentally setting off a security alarm during one of these wanderings, so I got kicked out of the building. It was late at night and I was done being productive, so it didn't bother me much, but it seemed so silly.
Regardless, I am continuing to try to force the creativity out of myself, little by little. Here's an account of my productivity so far during this break:
Orchestration- Nothing, haven't even opened the file.
Dance Commission - Nothing, waiting on instructions from the director
Voice Commission - I've set the first 2 lines of one of the poems, amounts to 1%
Piano Trio - Nothing
In conclusion, 1 % of one of my projects amounts to 0.25% completion of my December work. And I believe that 55% of the month has passed... Something doesn't quite add up, haha!

Friday, December 14, 2007

Damnit, socializing has been SUCH a bad influence on me over this break!
It hurts me on the inside to think that this month is already half over and I've done nothing towards my goals and what I need to get done during this break!
Even just Christmas shopping has been going slowly... I've only done a bit online. Anyway, I'm going to waste no more time [Famous last words] and I'm going to do some serious composition work for these Autumn Songs before I go to bed.
Autumn song cycle this weekend. I'll work on my new piano trio during next week because I'll have access to the piano. Also the Autumn cycle. While I'm in Thompson, I can do some of the sound editing as well as orchestration stuff. I'll set aside two hours a day to work on that and boom, there will be 10 hours! ish
Quick note, tonight and last night I hung out with the XIE ensemble people - I miss those people and that group. We had so much fun last year, I really want to get something like that started and going at Western, who knows...
Here I go, to see how much work I can do before passing out for the night.. it is already 2am...

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

I'm back in Winnipeg and it's surprising how much stuff there is to do which has tracked me down.
I know it's mostly the fact that it's the holiday season so there's lots going on anyway, but it makes me feel like this homecoming has been filled with love and friends and lots of good food and good company!
My sugars have not been in .... good control lately, which causes me to be irritable and I regret that that's been aimed at my parents because they're around at just those moments. The control is a mix of not having really done any walking since getting here and then the eating of holiday goodies- as much as I don't like bitching... you people with working pancreases don't know how good you have it. Most of the time, I eat foods of which I know how many carbs they contain, or generally, so I can get my dosing somewhat in the ballpark, but the holidays just kills that. And you know me, you know my belly... I lack the willpower to not jump into the deliciousness!
Surprise surprise I'm meeting with some friends for lunch today, but I'm going to walk there, so at least I'll have 20 minutes of walking.
Generally, I need to get my ass in gear. I've slipped into vacation mode, but I can't afford to do that. I've done no composing, and I have so much I need to do; I haven't started my shopping; I've generally been lazy. Bad Michael, haha. Oh well, I'll get on that starting today!

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Ok, so the tone of yesterday's post was a wee little bit negative. Today, it's a completely different story.
I was up very late last night finishing my electro piece and getting it relatively well notated. We had our class at noon, so I still got a solid 6 hours of sleep! The hardcore work I did on the piece paid off, it was fairly well received by my prof and the other student. I got a few suggestions of how to improve the piece - unfortunately I don't have time to do those before I leave, so I'll basically just have to revisit the piece when I get back.
After our performances, we went to the grad club for some drinks and pretzels. It was nice to drink and socialize with the prof. I really like the grad student relationship with profs, governed by a strong sense of respect, but sprinkled with comradery; more of a mentorship through which they are welcoming us into the world of professionalism/academia.
Later tonight, I went for Thai food with some other music grad students. It was the most delicious thing I've eaten in quite a long time. Also, socialization is something I've been missing lately; more of that will come this next month.
I leave London tomorrow evening, I'm not excited about the fact that it is currently 26 degrees colder in Winnipeg than it is in London, but oh well. I grew up there, I should be used to it...

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Just a bit stressed...

Mostly, I haven't been unreasonably stressed as the term has been winding up.
Today, I was.
I need to have my electro piece finished for tomorrow. The only available time was today from 12-5. I made myself a schedule of what to do in that time. After 2 hours, I had only done what I needed to do in the first. Anyway, things were coming along, I changed the piece altogether so that one of those hours just disappeared.
Skipping the boring parts - Just before 5, I had reached a point where I could be done in the lab, I needed to make it into an audio file so I could take it home and finish notation. At some point in the afternoon, I had renamed the file... apparently this cause the save function to not be usable, only 'save as'. When I went to save the audio file onto my flash drive, the program froze; I waited - nothing happened. Finally I force-quitted the program. When I re-opened the file, I was expecting to lose maybe 10 minutes of work which I could redo without too much guff. As it happens, everytime I hit apple-S or whatever, it did nothing and I had lost over an hours worth of work.
I was expecting the other guy booked in the room to show up any minute, but I was devastated, I literally threw myself off of the chair and onto the ground. Anticlimactic - I didn't burst into tears, I just thought, "Wow, that was overdramatic". Anyway, the next guy didn't show up til 6pm, so I managed to rectify things, but it was horrible. I couldn't recall what exactly I had done, in what order, or how exactly I did everything, so there are a few minor changes. I listened to it a few times, each time noticing another thing that I had forgotten.

Tonight - I have to fill in the gaps that not having given myself enough time has caused in my piece. I also need to notate it - I haven't decided whether or not I should do it in Sibelius. Maybe I'll start with the outer sections in there and see how easily that comes.
I'm not excited about how much work I need to do tonight, but I will do it and I will be a better person for it. And tomorrow, it will all be over, yay!!!

Monday, December 03, 2007

Damnit, I need an ice-tray.
Tonight was a long evening of class with a lot to digest, therefore I would love to drink something on the rocks. I have Rye, but no rocks. I wonder if it would work with frozen veggies.

I got in over an hour of walking today, I walked home in the late morning from my first part of the day. Then I walked about 20 minutes before I hopped on the bus that takes me very close to home.

I really have nothing new for my composition lesson tomorrow. My prof gave me one very specific task to do on the piece and I wasn't able to do it. I spent most of the week on orchestration. I sat down at a piano to do that task three times during the week and it just didn't come. I'm not sure if this is writer's block or what, but I feel guilty about it. I will try again tonight and tomorrow morning, otherwise I'm certain there will be something we can discuss in terms of composition in general, what I should focus on over the break, or some such thing.

As of right now, teaching and orchestration are done for the term. Tomorrow afternoon, I will have finished with comp lessons for the term, then all that remains to finish up is my electro piece.
Of course, I say all of this like the work will magically end once classes end... NOT!
this is going to be probably the busiest 'breaks' I've ever had. Let me list:
1)Orchestration - making yet more decisions and making the score and parts all pretty
B)Composition - ever developing, I'll have to force myself to do that task once I'm in a house with a piano.
iii)Commission 1- I need to edit the dance film soundtrack to better fit the timings of the film. I have a feeling this might be more work than I had anticipated on doing, but I think my work in the electro course has given me better ideas and tools to make things go more smoothly.
d)Commission 2- The Autumn song cycle; I've done a lot of the prep work and now I just need to write the music. Like B) I have a feeling that when I'm in a house with a piano, things should start to flow. Not having a piano in my apartment is a bad thing. I think I thrive on comfort - that of my own piano or the pianos at U of M. UWO doesn't have that for me. I think I need to invest in a good digital piano next year (eek money) which I can use both as an instrument as well as midi input for notation.

As well as that work element, I need to do lots of knitting and socializing while I'm in Winnipeg. As daunting as it may seem, I'm excited for the change of pace that December will bring. The pace will be changing in both directions, interesting...

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Post number 601!

Wow, I don't regularly pay attention to how many posts I have made, but my eye caught the number this time... SIX HUNDRED posts!
How much time have I wasted on blogging?!? It's really unfathomable. I'm going to see if I can download all my blogging posts so that I can somehow do a word-count and see just how many novels I could have written.
Someday, I'll be able to save a biographer the trouble of even asking questions about this portion of my life, pretty much everything has been detailed online... or has it?!?
This blog has been with me through a lot of development over the past few years. I've learned the responsibilities of publicly posting information and it's resulted in a veil which separates the blog version of Michael from the real version.
Anyway, I shouldn't get so philosophical about this, this is a happy occasion!

Cue balloons and champagne!

Other happy news - I just finished my Orchestration assignment. 'Finished' is a very subjective term here; there will be much editing, but I have somehow translated all(ish) of the piano version into my orchestrated version. I have my class tomorrow during which I hope to learn what I've done wrong, what I've done well and what things I need to reconsider and fix.

I spent a LOT of time on this orchestration assignment this weekend and over the last week especially. Unfortunately, I feel that I have spent less time on my other work as a result of it. Composition especially - my piece seems to have reached a plateau, my prof had really amazing suggestions last lesson and I was excited about them and ... I just never did those things and I'm not sure how much I can do before my lesson on Tuesday. Regardless, I will spend my free time tomorrow working on that piece of my electro.

Calculations - Let's say that above is an average length for a Michael Post - I will now plug that into MS Word and get a word count:

315 words
times 600 posts
=
189,000 words.

According to random internet statistics, the average novel is from 60-100,000 words in length... that means, I've written between 2 and 3 novels through this blog!
Maybe over the break, I'll find a real word count.