Shake Things Up

Since today is an office day for me and I am in a state of near panic over the current status of my RPM Challenge project, I decided to screw up my daily routine. Instead of getting up early and getting my daily exercise in, I got up early and recorded some guitar parts. I didn’t get up as early as I had planned, so I didn’t get through as much tracking as I had planned, but I did add rhythm (acoustic 12-string) guitars to one song and lead (electric 6-string) guitars to two. Actually, one song got both.

Acoustic guitar…

Electric guitar (which also serves as today’s photo a day challenge picture, 178/365)…

There is a very good chance I am going to make the same change tomorrow as it too is an in the office day. I am out of control and it’s all RPM’s fault!

Pre-Work Music

Did I mention that I did some car music this morning? My weird, random bout of insomnia last night meant I was up super early and had more than enough time to drive out to the movie theater parking lot to record vocals. I made it through five songs. One of them had the lyrics and the melody written on the spot. I haven’t done that in quite a while. I still have two more songs to add vocals to. I am going to be in the office the next two days (Tuesday and Wednesday) so hopefully I’ll have them all ready to go by Thursday morning.

The RPM Challenge is stressing me out big time this year, and none of the songs are any good. It has me questioning whether it’s all worth it or not. I still think so… but by how much? Who knows.

Obligatory Clock pic from the drive home which will act as today’s photo a day challenge picture:

Anchors Away

We used drywall anchors and they worked!

Fun with Depth of Field

Sometimes I am such a nerd.

Foreground in focus and background blurry…

Background in focus and foreground blurry…

It’s fun knowing how to do stuff like this with your camera. Seriously. Knowledge is both power and a source of goofy entertainment.

I did play some guitar before work today. I noodled out a new song idea on the 12 string. Acoustic madness in 3/4 time, if you will.

Sneaky

I was sneaky this morning and I did something that if I were smart and responsible I probably would not have done. I did not oversleep at all, which is kind of miraculous. That means I was able to get my morning exercise in nice and early. It’s an in-the-office work day today and usually on those days I start packing up and getting ready to go as soon as the exercise is over.

Because I finished early I decided to sneak in a little guitar playing. I put two tracks of acoustic guitar onto one RPM Challenge song. It was the one that I started working on last night. Now it’s on the list of songs that are ready for tomorrow’s expected singing in the car session. Nice. If I had more time I would have tried to sneak in a second song, but that would have been pressing my luck. I smartly didn’t even try.

I did take today’s photo a day picture. Day 172/365, to be exact. It’s a guitar pic, of course.

This wasn’t the pic I had planned though. The pic I had planned ended up being awful, as you can see here:

Oh well. Here’s hoping I can write some lyrics and some melodies so that I can have a lot of stuff ready for singing in the car on my vacation day tomorrow. Fingers crossed I can make the time for it tonight.

Photo a Day

Today’s Photo a Day pic is a guitar, again. I recorded rhythm tracks for two songs before work this morning. I wanted more, but I struggled quite a bit and it slowed me down.

Day 171/365…

Here’s an extra pic, just for fun.

Spring Training

I missed the big day. I had too many other things going on to notice it. Boston Red Sox pitchers and catchers reported for Spring Training two days ago. Later that night they signed the biggest free agent on the market, Alex Bregman. We have a few new pitchers this year, including one who looks like an ace in the making, and now we have a power hitting infielder with a couple of World Series rings to bolster the lineup.

Know something? The Red Sox might not suck this year. Are they World Series contenders? Maybe, but probably not. Might they make a run at the American League East title? They might. Given that my beloved Bruins are more or less shitting the bed this year after years of excellence (in the regular season, at least), and the Red Sox have been a gigantic suck-fest for the last few years… a reversal of fortune is timely. I wish my dad were still around to see one more good season. He suffered through so many awful Red Sox teams in his life that it would have been nice to go out with a winning team. Okay, now I am equal parts excited for the new season and sad for the past. Shit.

Anyway, I snuck in a photo before I left the house to go to work this morning so that I could make sure I had something for the photo a day challenge. Here it is… it sucks even more than the Bruins.

Another Screwy Day

Today is Thursday and much like yesterday and the day before it is turning out to be a screwy day. Fun.

I overslept this morning. I had a bunch of things I wanted to do before the work day started and then I overslept and screwed up all of my plans. I did get the big things in, my day’s worth of goofy exercise, breakfast, routine stuff like that, and I managed to sneak in a little bit of guitar playing. I put rhythm guitars onto one RPM Challenge song. Not much but better than nothing.

We got a little snow last night. Probably less than an inch. The snow turned into rain and now we have a driveway covered in a nightmare of slush. At some point later today the temperature is going to drop and that nightmare of slush is going to turn into a nightmare of ice and I don’t know if I am going to have time to clear any of it before it freezes. I am super happy about that. Really. There’s not an ounce of sarcasm here. I am thrilled to the teeth by this potential outcome*.

It’s not even noon yet and the work day has been just as crazy as yesterday. Not bad, but a weird combination of hectic and frustrating. It’s looking like tomorrow will be similar, but after that things should settle again. Here’s hoping at least.

In closing, here’s a few guitar pictures from this morning because I am insane.

*Contrary to the above statement, I was in fact being sarcastic. Extremely sarcastic. My words were dripping with venomous sarcasm. Just call me a sarcasm machine.