Life update…

Hey what’s up reader! It’s SuperBowl Sunday and I’m looking forward to the big game. Really I’m looking forward to the good food me and the wife got to eat while we watch. We’re going to be watching on Paramount+ since we don’t have cable TV or a real streaming TV service. I’m glad they are showing the game and the price for the service is super cheap per month.

Life has been the same, just working, living life and enjoying music. I’ve been working on my MPC a lot. I’m actually thinking to go sell my Roland SP 404 mk2 today. I don’t use it since I can take my MPC to work with me and its just sitting there not being used. I was all about the 404 mk2 for a while, but it is just a bastard version of what the MPC can offer. Also, Akai is going to be releasing stems for the standalone MPC pretty soon, so the 404 mk2 is left behind in the dust.

Once Akai releases stems for the standalone modern MPCs, its going to be a game changer. I’ll be able to take parts of a song I download to sample from off Tracklib and manipulate that part how I want to. I can get rid of drums I don’t want in the sample, or vocals, or isolate vocals. It’s going to be amazing. I can’t wait to try it out and even if they charged 9.99 per month for it, I would be willing to pay. I hear it’s going to be a one time charge of $10 which is a steal.

I went to the record shoppe the other day and grabbed some records out of the bargain bin to sample from. Even those records you’ll be able to stem parts out which will be really cool and open up creative possibilities. I’m looking forward to it seriously and I can’t wait until they release it!

Work has been… well… work. A lot of demands are placed on you as an IT tech and people can be very impatient. They want what they want NOW. I’ve never been that type of person to put demands on other people like that. I ask my wife to make me a cup of coffee when I come home from work, but only because when I’m at home in the AM when she is, I’ll make her coffee every time. It’s a give and take you know? But I’ve never been impatient with people or demanded a lot from people working in a “service” position.

I have my biopsy coming up in March and I’m 100% positive it will be negative. I am a strong, healthy, athletically built guy and I have been strong since this diagnosis. I am going to get in really good shape pretty soon and I’ll start playing basketball again. I was able to dunk back in like 2009 when I was working at the cable company and in really good shape. I want to be one of those older guys that people marvel at how fit they are. I’ll get there for sure. It’s hard to get up super early and go to the gym, but I have to figure something out. Maybe I can do body weight exercises in the AM at home.

I’m still working on my beat tape. Getting a job has kind of taken a lot of precedence over doing that right now. By the end of the work week I’m tired and Saturday is my day to decompress, then Sunday I have to prepare for the upcoming work week by doing laundry and going grocery shopping with my wife. It’s a grind and it feels like we barely get a lot of time to ourselves. No complaints though, just keep hustling and keep pushing forward. I have faith that one day things will get better and I’ll be able to get more enjoyment out of life, not that I don’t get some already, I just wish I could get more.

That’s it for this blog entry, have a great Superbowl Sunday and enjoy your incoming work week. Be cool, be patient, don’t let them stress you out, and find some time for you hobbies. L8r!

Lyrically ninjas can’t see me….

So I’ve had the thought that I want to start writing lyrics to my beats. I love re-listening to my songs, but something is missing from them, and I feel like it’s vocals. When I was in college, I was a very good creative writer. I’ve always been my entire life. I’m thinking to re-hone that skill and start writing lyrics every day to whatever beat I’m working on at the moment. I know writing “rap” lyrics isn’t the same as writing a term paper or essay, but I think some of the skills do convert.

I want to spend at least 45 minutes a day after work and more time on the weekends just writing lyrics. I want to see how creative I can get with rhyming, using wordplay, and things like that. I have a notebook I am going to start writing in and hopefully I can get decent at it. Maybe I can do it when I go into work on my lunch break with my MPC as well.

I’ll report back here how this little “project” is going and I’ll share any full songs I make on Distrokid or my Bandcamp page. I’m not looking to blow up as an emcee, but I would like for people to enjoy my music. I think I have a lot of interesting things to say and it will be fun trying to weave those things into the verses of a song. We’ll see how it goes. Stay tuned! Peace!