Time Flies When You're Having So Much Fun

I honestly can't believe that this year is nearly over already. With six weeks to Christmas, there really is not much time left at all. This year has been very eventful to say the least as a lot of things have happened. It does seem weird to look back on this year now but, it's all just gone so fast. I received my Prince's Trust certificate today, that was a great reminder of the events earlier this year as it was such a fun course and it's good to still be in contact with most of whom I worked with. I'm well into my fourth month of employment still at the petrol station and I am still enjoying it. It can be a bit of a mad rush sometimes but, it keeps me on my toes. We have a special visitor this weekend that I'm mildly nervous about as it is the head boss and it will be the first time I get to meet him. This week, of course consisting of the big preparation.

I need to remind myself repeatedly to book the 6th of December off work completely so I can go Christmas shopping with my good friend Joanne whom I've known since secondary school. We don't see each other so often these days but, when we do we try to make the most of it and always seem to start from where we last left off. I do miss a lot of my friends at the moment. I'm surrounded by work and I don't get much of a chance to go out. I've only been working 6 hour shifts this week but, I still feel worn down from the weeks before, hence not wanting to go anywhere. I've only just managed to get my sleeping pattern back on track from alternating days and night shifts though, I will probably suffer that again this weekend for the visit. Even though I'll only be in a couple of hours in the morning, I'll be back in later for 10pm till 6am. The thought alone is quite daunting as it is. Altogether it will be maximum 11 hours...

The good news is that I like nightshifts that start at 10pm rather than midnight because I get more time to do things. Time which is much needed.

My Latest Suprise

So, as usual I have left a fair gap since my last post so I have a fair bit to write about. You all know I now have a job and have had one for the last 3-4 months. I have been quietly saving up for a new computer machine with plenty more power. I was originally contemplating spending around 300-400 on a half decent gaming/desktop pc and then sticking in another graphics card that I had donated to me by my friend out of sympathy for not having one at all for my old pc which now may as well be classed as dead. Literally, all it does is blue screen and I can't be bothered to sort it, nor do I have the time or money to waste by just trying to revive it. Long strory short, I took as it may, the easy way out and brought myself a mac. No, I'm not joking.

This is the first Apple Mac I have ever owned and that has ever been in the Keeton household. I have been sparing though, and I have thought this through. Honest.

Right, specs are as follows:

OS X Yosemite

2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz) with 3MB on-chip shared L3 cache

1TB (5400-rpm) hard drive
8GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 memory

Intel Iris Graphics

Two Thunderbolt 2 ports (up to 20 Gbps)
Four USB 3 ports (up to 5 Gbps)
HDMI port
SDXC card slot
Gigabit Ethernet port
Audio in port
Headphone port
IR receiver


All in all, a very powerful machine and very tiny. One thing I have failed to mention thus far is that I did go for the Apple Mac mini. Which basically means, its not an all in one like most Macs, which I really like. It's incredibly small and extremely powerful. Also, it came with Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iPhoto, iMovie and Garage band pre-installed.

I'm a very excited Kim!

OMG THE PIANO GUYS ARE COMING TO NOTTINGHAM, UK!!!

For those of you that don't know, I am a massive fan of TPG otherwise known as The Piano Guys. When I first discovered them it was the beginning of my second college year, when I was studying Music Performance at NCN Clarendon. It was during a composing session, when I'd dozed off to YouTube to take it easy for a while when I found Jarrod Raddnich playing two awesome piano solos on on The Piano Guys Channel. Raddnich was never really a true piano guys member though he clearly had the potential to be. As he was my first view of TPG, he set a great example and I was amazed, instantly wanting to tell friends (even though, they didn't seem to care much). On the same day, I continued to watch through all of their videos, totally engrossing in all of them. Instantly, I found a connection.

I missed out on seeing the guys live this year as they were performing too far away from home. The closest venues were in Birmingham and Manchester, UK. I'm so happy that they are finally visiting extremely local to me. It's almost like a dream. I've been waiting so long already for this and now I know that I only have to wait till June!!

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

Recording Postponed Again

So, I'm still working night shifts at the moment. I had on last might and I have another one tonight that starts in a couple more hours from 10pm till 6am. After that, I will be free for a couple of days. I will have the rest of tomorrow off as well as the following day and most of Thursday finishing the rest of the week with all night shirts. I still have a lot of things to sort out with this new PC, mostly because I lack the effort to do anything once I get back from work. For example, today when I got back I was in bed for 7am and didn't wake up till after 5pm.

I have had a couple of days off last week but, they got occupied by other stuff I had to do/go to. I will get some recording done soon! Hopefully tomorrow...

Back to Recording and Facebook

It's been a while since I have used my promotional Facebook fan page so, today I have finally 1) changed the purpose of it (because before it was a mix of everything I do and now it more focused on my music) 2) Updated the images and text to be more accurate and relevant. I should probably still remove my old photos that are still on there but, I'm not sure. Tonight, I will be out and about and these next couple of hours I will be either getting ready or installing things or transferring files that have key importance so that I can continue recording as of tomorrow. I won't be able to record all day unfortunately as I have a night shift tomorrow, though I am hoping that I can at least get my song, "Work Pays" finished or near as damn it by tomorrow afternoon.

Microsoft Wireless 800 Keyboard

I've only gone and brought myself a brand new Keyboard. I got fed up of looking for half decent ones in Charity shops and just decided to just got all out on something that I will actually like and cherish. I like it that mush I want to keep the box (The box is quite nice...). Anyway, as you may have guessed by my post title, it is a wireless keyboard but, what you may not have guessed is that it also came with a mouse. Both of them work from one USB adapter that's crazy small and fits quite snug hidden in the back of my tower. The funny thing is that my tower's OS is Windows XP and because this is a new keyboard, it seems that Microsoft are trying to remove XP from their back catalog by not stating on the box that it that the keyboard supports it. They only listed OS that are Windows 7 and above. Me not being much of a technology nerd panicked a little after I brought it but, everything is fine now.

All systems Go!

In other news, my bedroom is an absolute mess. My bookcase has wandered into the bathroom and I have stuff everywhere at the moment. Hopefully this will all be sorted by tonight and I'll be able to breathe again soon.