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Daily writing prompt
Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?
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So… “Bloganuary.” Okay. I wonder, did someone get paid to come up with that name? I mean… if so, I hope they didn’t get paid much. Whatever. 

Do I play in my daily life. I play guitar. Once in a while I play a video game. I guess the answer is yes then. I guess I can stop writing about today’s writing prompt then, eh?

What says playtime to me? This:

123/366 - January 1st

Honestly it’s a pretty good thing that today’s prompt was uninspiring. It is the first post-holidays work day today and I overslept a bit. Not enough to make me late for work, but enough that I have to hurry through my morning routine. I ran in place (yogged) for 45 minutes and I am eating a little breakfast as I type this. Next up is to shower and shave and then punch into work for the day. It helps that I won’t be spending much time on this post. 

Bloganuary, indeed.

January Music Goals

Right then. It’s 2024. Enough of that crap that was 2023. Let’s get our shit together and make some music. In February I will dive head first back into the RPM Challenge, but until then what am I going to force upon myself to jump start creativity and make me feel like I can be a musician for a few weeks. 

In other words, what are my musical goals for January 2024? There are three.

First and foremost, we are hoping to start auditioning singers for the cover band. My playing is utter shite right now so I need to get into shape. I need to find out what songs we are going to use for the audition and practice the holy hell out of them. They all used to be second nature but that was almost four years ago. I have to make them second nature again.

Second and second most, my 1979 Gibson ES-335 Pro needs to go into the shop. The same shop my Les Paul Custom spent time in a few months ago. I think it needs new frets, and I think it might need a new wiring harness as well. I need to get things going this month so that the guitar will be available for me to use on February’s RPM Challenge album.

Third and third most, it is time to get back to The Great 2015 Re-Recording Project, where I take old songs from old writing projects and clean them up, edit them, rewrite where necessary, and then record a slightly higher quality version. This project is also known as Quarantine Tunes. There are six Quarantine Tunes albums on my alonetone page. I told myself that I was stopping at six but then about a year and a half ago I started work on volume seven and also sort of started thinking about volume eight. What can I say, I am a nerd about this stuff. Last night I added two more songs to the volume seven to-do list. I plan to spend January working on volume seven and hopefully finishing it. That should put my brain into a good recording and playing space in time for February. 

I am also slightly overwhelmed by a scary compulsion to go out and buy a new guitar. I need to fight that urge. I want a Les Paul Junior or a Firebird, but I don’t need them. Hopefully playing the shit out of the guitars I already own will calm me down on the online shopping front… hopefully… I think.

So there you go. Practice, get the 335 fixed up, and record. My three musical goals for January.

Bring ’em on.

Bah Humbug Day

It’s New Year’s Day. Is everyone having a nice holiday today? I hope so.

This is the day that we celebrate the new year by getting rid of all of the xmas decorations. It is the time for me to embrace my inner scrooge or my inner grinch and put an end to the season and put the house back to normal. Insert the sound of my sigh of relief here.

My initial plan was to wait for Harry to get out of bed at some point in the early afternoon and then Jen and Harry and I could just crank our way through all of the decorations together. It would take no time at all. Then when I finished my morning routine I decided to bring a couple of the boxes we store the decorations in upstairs with me and I’d pick off a few things on my own. Next thing I knew the tree was gone. Jen went from room to room and pulled most of the rest of the stuff out and stacked it on the dining room table. I took a break for some water and some meds and some real estate shopping TV show episodes and then brought a few more boxes upstairs and… next thing we knew, everything was gone. The house has been 100% de-xmased. 

It is glorious.

I still need to move some furniture around in the living room, move a bunch of empty amazon shipping boxes to the cellar, put a new cat tree together, and then help Jen cook a super fancy dinner. That is a long to-do list, but it is fine because the decorations are done.

Again… glorious, said the grinchy scrooge. 

Fun with Time Management

Daily writing prompt
What are your biggest challenges?
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My biggest challenge is always getting around my innate need to procrastinate. There are things to do, so does Robert do them? Eventually, but for now? He does something else that is entirely unrelated. 

I feel as though the whole post-gastric bypass plan to establish an exercise and eating/drinking routine has helped but it hasn’t fixed my brain entirely yet. I may get there someday but it’s going to take time and effort. Also, I can’t procrastinate through the process. You understand, of course.

And there you have it, the first daily writing prompt of 2024. That doesn’t mean anything, I am just trying to get into the habit of typing 2024 instead of 2023. It’s going to take a while to burn the new year into my tiny little brain. You understand, of course.