i find it tough to keep track of events that occur in my life since things move kind of quickly what with work and school and all. right now i'm working ~30 hours a week on top of a 17 credit semester on TOP of the normal life stuff people have to do. my partner has been a massive help in helping me navigate my own self-sustainability and personal development. i really think i would've burned out by now if it wasn't for her.
anyways, i want to start doing these monthly recaps for a couple reasons. for one, i want to post here more, since i think its pretty barren. i read westley winks' interview on people and blogs recently. he mentioned something giles turnbull said about a blog being "your brain, over time, on the internet." i think the simple act of posting more will make this place into something more of a reflection of my time on earth. the way i see it, i'm taking pictures of how i think, write, and feel and making a digital scrapbook from all of that.
alright, preamble over
...
i think it'll be nice to separate things into three sections for readability and also so i actually get this post written. those sections are:
social
pretty self explanatory. i'm really weird when it comes to social stuff and i think about it a LOT, so i'm gonna make a place for me to put all of those thoughts.
aspirations
i have some dreams! this is gonna be the progress of those. hopefully in a couple years this section will be combined with the next one.
the grind
i need to make money, so i go to work. i don't like to view my time spent at work as purely drone time though because that makes me sad. i'm gonna detail the goings ons there... here.
...
i've been spending a lot more time with friends that i regretted not spending time with in years passed. i went to my friend dean's(instagram // why disclose?) show with the berklee harry styles ensemble(instagram). it was a mind-blowing performance. some of the things that were interesting were: a horn section, including a couple solos; a string quartet for one of my partner's favorite songs(apple music); and a mashup of watermelon sugar and adore you with a switching duet-style vocal performance*. when i say this shit was crazy i mean it. i'm not a huge harry styles fan and i didn't know many of the songs, but i still enjoyed the show all the same. i bring this up because afterwards we hung out for the first time in a while. it was very nice to talk again, catch up, all that jazz.
*rapid fire: vocal percussion solo, ballerina (???), wild expressivity, super tight and well executed choreo, etc.
that's one of the biggest things of my friends' that i went to this month, though many of my compatriots certainly have more to offer and more to come(instagram).
i had a very enlightening meeting with one of my professors, jean-luc. we talked about what needs to be done in order to have a successful application for a games sound design internship, with all the deadlines coming up next month. he also opened my mind to the concept of technical sound design. he mentioned that there aren't many at berklee that have pursued that path and that they make about as much money as a programmer or director at the senior level.
this was all very inspirational, so i begun work on my reel. i have 2 clips done so far and i plan to do 5. i'll probably post it here with some session reports when i'm done.
all of my sound design stuff has been going pretty well. i left live music behind to a certain extent. i think that was all a very good decision considering i'm able to have more time to develop my chops as a designer. ... as far as school itself, though, midterms were this month. they were hard. i had one major one in my max/msp class where i had to design an instrument, learn to play it, then develop repertoire for it all in the span of 3 weeks. it was a great time. i'm not really coming around to max like i thought i would, though. i think the graphical side of it is sort of what kills me. i'd prefer to be typing, though i don't exactly know how the same flows would be integrated in an easy-to-keep-track-of way.
my other midterms were deceptively difficult. i ended up being stopped midway through my conducting midterm and immediately given an A. that was pretty representative of how most of my core class midterms went.
this month was great for the development of my aspirations. i look forward to another of the same kind.
i work as a runner/busser in an upscale restaurant in back bay. it's pretty stressful, but i love the fast pace of my job. i also make a LOT of money and there arent many places that can allow me to be in the place that i am in the same way.
i've been conflicted this month since i'm gunning for a promotion to be a server, at which point i'd be making ~$100k a year, which is absolutely insane for my age. the thing that makes me conflicted, though, is that i'd have to sacrifice a good amount of time for this goal. thinking about it a little, i think it might not be too bad an idea to be a server for a couple months, then find some place that will allow for a more flexible schedule... but its also a LOT of money.
i did the math a little, and i would have ~$46,000 by the time i enter my final semester at berklee, if i continue to live within my means, that is. i think realistically i could blow $10k of that easily on stuff i (probably) don't need that badly. EVEN AFTER THAT, id be left with THIRTY SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS, provided i make the average tips a server typically makes there.
that would be more than enough to get my life started with my partner wherever we end up going. having that security would allow me to solely focus on school and job applications for my final semester, which would be a luxury i don't want to pass up.
the primary caveat of my plan, though, is that it requires a great deal of patience. i consider myself to be a somewhat patient person, though i have my pitfalls like all others. i think if i lock the hell in and get all of that done, i'll be in good shape. all i can do is hope.
organizing these three things like this has made me look at my life in a more disconnected way, which helps a lot of the time since it can provide new perspective. october was pretty crazy work-wise, but i think the "worst" of it is over. november shows promise to be a somewhat less stressful month, though we'll see how things unfold.