A Working Day

Friday: Generally,my day off work as well as any Saturday and Monday but, today I certainly haven't put it to waste. This morning I got up at around half past nine and I was straight at my desk and loaded up Garageband. I didn't really have many plans for the day, originally I thought about getting my hair cut around mid day because my hair is longer than I'm comfortable with. I hate it when my hair irritates my eyes. I kept thinking about it but, decided it can either wait for tomorrow or maybe even Monday at this rate with the workload that I am creating for myself.

A screenshot from todays filming session.
Guitar: Washburn MG-74.

So, at the start of the day I got back to work with my pop punk song titled "I Don't Care". Very anarchy. I managed to write some more lyrics and record all of the vocals for the track in one morning session. I had to keep taking the drum track here and there but, its nearly finished now. It just needs a little more guitar work. I filmed myself singing when I recorded the vocals, this will be used in the music video for the song all being well. I'm thinking of making a black and white video for now but,  I managed to get some nice shots in with my guitar too. Plenty of selection!

A screenshot of "I Don't Care".

After about hours into the session, I decided to end it for a while and take a break on my PS4. I played The Legend of Kay 20th Anniversary for a while, pretty much until my mum got back from work. My pre order came from amazon today at the same time as when my mum got home, so I didn't have to go to the door. It was my copy of Simple Plan's new album, "Taking One For The Team". Of course, the first thing I did was finish up on my game, struggle to open the CD wrapping due to over excitement and then whack it into my suppressive to stick on my iTunes... then my iPod of course.

Later on, when my dad got home we all went shopping together. This was the perfect opportunity for my to listen to their new album to the full extent with simply no interruptions. When we were on our way back home, I had a thought that I could make a mashup of their new album. I wouldn't include all of the songs, just a select few and I wanted to challenge myself to see how far I could come tonight with it all. Simple Plan announce that they we're doing live responses on Twitter at 5pm EST so that would mean around 10pm in the UK where I am. We got back a little after 7pm and I wanted to see how far I could get in those three hours.

A screen shot of all the exported
drum tracks.

I started by selecting tracks that I wanted to include in the mashup and told myself that I would use all of them. After that, I imported them into Garageband with separate tracks to align them into an order that I would like to listen to them too and then I started shifting about the timing. All the tempos were different so it was important that the transition didn't sound wrong but, sounded natural. After I got the layout about right and I knew what needed to be done I started to create the first drum track. I had to do one for each song that I had chosen so I knew it wasn't going to be a quick job. The most difficult part of this was trying to figure out the correct tempo and match it completely to the song again and again. Some songs were much easier than others but, one in particular took me at least 45 minutes just because it had a slight swing to it. It took a while to get it as perfect as I needed it to be.

And here I am now. All I have finished tonight in regards to the Simple Plan Mashup are the many drum tracks which have now had to have been exported so that I can use them all together in Garageband without the metronome throwing a hissyfit because of all the tempo changes.

2014: A Look Back At The Good And The Bad

This year has been a bit of a crazy one, to say the least. Having had a break from the education system does still feel a little weird, it is of course one of the steps I needed to take in my young adult life to find a job. Gone are the days of dossing around playing video games all of the time, as I can hardly find the time for it now despite my massive collection.

The beginning of this year seems a bit of a blur to me now and feels like much longer ago than it actually was. Around January/February time when I was still with the dreaded JobCentre I remember doing some work experience for a month at a shop in Ripley called 'The Original Factory Shop'. It was nice there and I got on with everyone just fine, it was just a pain because of the travel everyday and the fact that I technically wasn't getting paid for it. Though, I did start to learn to drive around this time too. It took me a couple of weeks to get to grips with the basic controls and many months to find more confidence in myself on the roads. I'm still very pleased with myself about my first time passes on both my Practical and Theory. Though, it wasn't till May-time that I actually passed and this was the same time as I was taking part in The Princes Trust Team Programme, which was quite an intense 12 week course. I met many new friends whom I still get on with very well though the Team Programme and hope that before this year comes to an end, that we could all meet up one last time before this year continues on into the next. This year has gone way too fast, it only seems like yesterday it was July.

July was the month I completely ditched the job centre. I was so proud of myself that I had finally gotten myself a job. I had applied for the position before but not given it for god-knows-what reason, I just never heard back the first time around. The second time around I think I got a tad lucky. I had lots of help with mock interviews and I knew just what to talk about. That and I made a point that I had applied before, just to be on the safe side. I still enjoy my job, its just that I'm like most people and don't really enjoy being told off when I feel like I'm working hard, trying my best and most importantly not really doing anything wrong. It may sound a bit cocky but, it's not like I misbehave or indeed that I am a thief. I would never do such a thing. Any money I handle, I look at it and think that it has no value to me apart from my job. It is the price of my job and it's what I get paid for.

This last month coming into Christmas admittedly has been a bit crappy with having so many hours at work. The week of Christmas was especially exhausting as I worked everyday. Yes, everyday. It's my first working Christmas and because it wasn't that busy I actually just found it to be boring. Businesses are slowly seeming to awaken as we now drift away from the festive period and enter into a new year which thankfully means, I will no longer be bored at work.

I have a lot of things to think about next year. I am still pondering about trying to decide whether or not to go back to college/uni, for what its worth I'm really unsure. I really would love to work within the music industry but how can I sustain an income and learn full time at the same time. It seems impossible though, some do manage I feel that I will be one of the ones that will not despite experiences. I'm very stressed at the moment from the amount of hours I'm given, as it seems there are no longer any hours in the day left for myself. Aye, maybe this is just the working way but, it sure isn't any fun.

I hope for another great year next year. As things stand I have no idea what is going to happen. I will probably buy a few things, sell a few things and maybe even get a different job. I really don't know but, it would be nice to have a fixed hourly contract rather than worry about having to work 50 hours a week, its a killer.

All the best for 2015 - Kim

EP Postponed Till idk.

So, over the last 3 months with working at the petrol station I have not been able to even start work on my upcoming EP: Alone or even practice all that much. I originally promised that my EP would be ready by around late August but, I simply have not had the chance to record. I am still in the process of making my new studio set up work purely because of a problem PC which, trust me has many problems leading to BSOD that I still don't know the exact reason for. It will work fine for a while, then after a bit it will blue screen.

I am truly hoping to get this EP out before Christmas if not, then I may have more fun making it in the new year with even more tech behind me. I feel so luck have my job, the hours are alot but, it pays well plus work can be a challenge on it's own. I get to train a new member of staff tomorrow who is on his third week of training. It makes me feel so proud where I stand now that I am in a position to help others.

I'm not going to set any dates this time because I know that I will most probably surpass them. I still have a lot of work to do towards this I just really hope that I can find the time and effort after all these long days at work.

Thanks for reading

Work In Progress

Today I started work on a new song. The riffs and licks were inspired by my first ever full size guitar, my jax ville strat as I picked it up for the first time in a while. I have wrote a few lyrics for but, so far I have only managed to record a short acoustic clip without vocals.

Here are the lyrics I have so so far for this song:

Walking down this lonely road,
I'll drive myself insane.
Doinf nothing but, working, playing hard,
Everyday is the same.

It's been so long since I had a day,
Where I just do stuff for me.
I just need a break, not to stay the same,
Don't take this personally.

Here is the link to listen:

https://soundcloud.com/kimkeeton/060814-work-in-progress

Excellent News!

Not to long ago I told you all that I got randomly selected for the Derbyshire Mandatory Youth Activity Programme and that I wasn't very happy with this because I was blackmailed into thinking I would be free of any more of these courses that the JobCentre would direct me too. The Princes Trust Course Turned out to be a great experience but this other one I just knew would have been bad. The main aim of the course being to get involved helping out the community. I myself, am already a volunteer for The British Heart Foundation and in a way was quite offended that I should be doing more. Generally, I guess this course is aimed at people that do nothing whist on JSA who are people I frown upon. I'm not saying everyone that does it is lazy but, it seems that what the 'course' suggests.

I never did really explain fully about the course content. Basically, for eight weeks you will be sent to a charity organisation and work with them for that amount of time whilst receiving help job searching for a couple of hours a week. I think my message is getting more and more clearer of why I though this was all a waste of time but, hey. Now, to explain the good news.

Not long ago, I had an interview at the ESSO Petrol Station on Nottingham Road, Ilkeston. I have had an interview for work there before so the manager knew my name and to my amazement remembered me. The interview went really well and he told me that if I have been succesful I would hear back from him within a couple of days. On Thursday, mid whist I was running around like a headless chicken on behalf of the stupid DMYAP I had a call just before ten in the morning from the manager of the Petrol Station asking for my National Insurance Number. Lets just say things we looking up at this point. Later on in the day he called me back to tell me that he wants me to pop in so that he can tell me the good news. I was ecstatic. I might not have shown it but, this really lightened my mood from all of the stress the JobCentre had put me under.

The next day, I wandered down to 'Work Pays' which is the most ironic name for the company that provides the DMYAP course and I basically told them the good news. I was also told that I was very good at keeping in contact with them, I just kind of thought to myself that it was mostly because the office was just down the road from where I live but at least I got a compliment out of them in saying I am more organised than them. Before my second to last PassPlus lesson, I drove up to the Ilkeston Jobcentre to tell them I could no longer do the programme. At first I thought the adviser I had the meeting with was going to say that I couldn't not do it. Not as a general assumption either, he displayed that in his knowledge I would still have to do the DMYAP. This made me nervous for a second but, then he wandered off to talk to two other members of staff that went on to say that if it is going to benefit me more that it is allowed. I'm just glad I'm nearly rid of them.

One thing that has annoyed me is that for my training, the JobCentre will still be paying me JSA as if I was on WORK EXPERIENCE. The thing is, I'm not on work experience, I'm on training and they will take it under their statistic that another young person has gained employment through me doing 'work experience' though the 'JobCentre' when really it's all a lie. I found this job myself and I do feel like they are taking away a part of my independence by partially claiming that they found this for me. At the end of the day, I'm just another false statistic they will use to encourage someone else to do work experience and it is still all good news.