Author: DJ GodsOwn

So it’s official, I have COVID 19. I started feeling symptoms on Black Friday and took at test in the early afternoon. It came out positive, so I took another test that I think I did wrong and it came out inconclusive. I felt like crap, so I waited until Sunday and took another test that AM which was also positive. My wife has it too! We are not feeling well at all and it sucks.

I missed hanging out with my mom as she made a special trip driving from the midwest with her husband to come visit me and my brother here out West. It really sucks because I wanted to spend some time with all of them. My wife was going to hang with us a bit too which is pretty rare. That was a huge bummer, as my mom is like one of my best friends. Hopefully I will be able to go back to work this coming Thursday, but I have to not have a fever 24 hours before starting and my symptoms have to be subsiding.

I feel like I caught it from this chick that I think did it on purpose in the grocery store the day before Thanksgiving. That Wednesday night when I got off work I went to pick up a few things my wife wanted me to get, and I didn’t wear a mask when I went in like I usually do. The chick came up behind me and let out this huge cough that I took note of, but didn’t think was a big deal. Later when I was checking out, I looked up and she had this demented look on her face and was looking right at me.

My wife thinks I’m crazy, but I know people are wicked as all get out and do stuff like that. She can be very naive and likes to think the best of everyone. There’s people out there who will contract HIV and go to the club every week and sleep with as many people as they can trying to spread it. That’s how dirty and evil mugs can be. They will intentionally get others sick just to be evil. For all they know I live at home with an elderly mother who if she catches COVID is going to die, but they don’t care about that. It really is a shame. People need GOD in their life because if only the fear of GOD will keep some people from behaving like a savage then so be it. Anyways, I’m going to go rest a bit more and chill out. Be breezy…

So my dog Maggie is not well. She has an abscess in her mouth which will require surgery. She was under the bed last night whining and she had a big cyst under her right eye for like a week now. I took time off work and took her to the animal clinic today. I tried to get into our regular vet, but they didn’t have an opening, so I had to go to the local animal clinic. It costs me a lot of money and they sent us home with some medication and the news that she will require a procedure that will cost 2 bands. It’s crazy man. I get that everyone is in the business of making money in this capitalist country, but what happened to being a vet because you love animals and want to help them? Why does every vet quote you some outrageous arse price for something that doesn’t seem that crazy. They don’t have to do a heart transplant on her, its pulling a tooth out and checking her other teeth for the love of GOD.

I really don’t get this world. Everything is bass ackwards in it. You move into an apartment and you’re a good tenant that pays your rent and doesn’t cause trouble… so they raise your rent on you. You should raise rent if a tenant is a constant problem or others complain about them. I watch a guy on Youtube that lives out of his truck now, and he says before he did he went through a cycle of moving into an apartment, then after his first lease expired, they’d raise the rent to an amount he couldn’t afford anymore, so he’d have to move to another apartment and repeat the cycle.

I don’t know about you reader, but I’m getting very tired of this. I just spent $182 at the grocery store and barely got much to eat and drink. Something has to give. They are gouging us at every angle and overcharging us for everything. The people on top and who own or are top management of these companies get richer and fatter while we toil at the bottom and struggle until our dying day some of us. It’s not right and something needs to change. Revolution doesn’t happen overnight unless its violent and I have a feeling that this is what the people are going to have to resort to in order to see a change. It’s only going to get worse and for the children now and to come, we have to change the course of how things are going in this world…..

So I’m going into my 3rd week at my new job. I like it a lot. It’s a lot of stuff to learn, but it will take the usual 3-4 months to start really getting the lay of the land and the hang of how things work there. My co-worker in the office and the supervisor seem like really cool guys. The tech that works with me in our office is a funny guy and I like his attitude towards IT work and things in general. He doesn’t seem to outwardly stress the small stuff and he’s kind of just a chill dude. The supervisor comes off very stoic and serious, but when you talk to him, he’s a cool dude too. He’s been a gamer in the past but has a kid now so “adulting” tends to monopolize his life.

The work itself is typical IT stuff, its jut a matter of learning their processes and systems of how they get things done. They do a lot of SCCM stuff, where I worked with that at a previous Desktop Support type role, but the managers there were really stingy with giving us too much access. They wouldn’t even let us order equipment, and this company I’m at now is giving me a Dell Premier account to order from, and a CDW account to order from. There’s an approval process to it, but they are giving us more responsibility than my previous job did and I like that.

I’ve been Djing and making beats when I can after work and on the weekends. Last weekend I really went in and made a couple of songs. I feel like not having a lot of time forces me to focus more and get it done because I know when Monday comes I won’t be at home to mess around with it until the evening. I think I mentioned this in a previous post, but work life balance is very important to me. I don’t function well with nothing but free time, nor do I function well with being over-worked. There has to be a decent balance there for me to be “happy”.

Anyway, there’s a record show coming up that I want to go to, but my wife isn’t feeling well. If she’s not up to going, I’ll just go by myself and mask up. It sucks that she doesn’t really like to go out much. She works from home mostly, but she needs to know that she needs to get out and get sunlight and move around to feel optimal. Even when I was working from home and not leaving the house a lot, I didn’t feel my best. I go for walks at work while I’m waiting on systems to image or just when it comes time for lunch or a break. As a black person, its very important to get sunlight. Our skin doesn’t retain vitamin D from the sun like a caucasian or asian persons might, so we need to get those rays. I’m also taking a vitamin D supplement which immediately helped me with not feeling so fatigued all the time.

I’ll try to post more often, so until next time, enjoy your life, be easy and stay blessed. L8r!

So I recently have been using a Numark controller just to check it out and try out jog wheels again. I started on my Numark Mixtrack Pro 1 back in 2018 and I had a lot of fun using it at the time, but I was new and green as all get out. I quickly upgraded controllers and eventually landed on a DDJ-SX2. I got some turntables as a gift from my brother and I loved using the moving platters. I’ve been a two turntables and a mixer type DJ for the longest time now. Trying the jog wheels recently, its a lot easier to do different scratches on them than it was previously. The crossfader on the Numark controller isn’t very good, but it’s serviceable.

I’ve noticed that when coming back to moving platters after scratching on the jog wheels, that my scratching on that is a lot better. It’s almost like being hampered by the poor crossfader and static jog wheels, helped my ability with a proper crossfader and moving platters. I’m going to record some scratching I’ve done recently and put it up on my Youtube page, just to show viewers how much further I’ve come in my ability. There’s still a TON of scratches I need to learn, but the ones I know I’ve gotten pretty nice with.

I think any DJ that has been DJing on turntables for a while, that likes to scratch, could benefit from picking up a cheapo jog wheel controller with an average crossfader on it. Play around on it from time to time, and I bet they’ll notice that their scratching is better when using their normal setup. Also, its very important to do exercises that help with scratching. I have a wrist/forearm machine that works pretty well and is helping me get stronger in those areas. When I use it, it’s a lot easier to scratch I’ve noticed. Some DJs don’t believe it helps to exercise, but DJ Rob Swift from the Executioners told me on Twitter (X) when I messaged him about it that it does help.

That’s about all I wanted to say on that, I’ve updated the scenes and transitions on my Twitch stream, so make sure you check me out at www.twitch.tv/3rdEyeViZi0n . I plan on streaming on there a bit more often, even after I start my new job. Me and my bro Aaron are planning on doing a podcast on Youtube as well, so I’ll post that on here as well when it jumps off. Stay blessed, stay focused, and don’t sweat the small stuff. L8r!

Hey what’s up readers.. I just wanted to post an update. My birthday was last week and I had a nice time. I just hung out at home with my wife, but we went to the record shoppe and she let me get some records without scolding me about it. I didn’t spend that much, but I got some cool vinyl that I’m happy with. I also got a book from my brother about making beats. I haven’t started reading it yet, as I am still reading another book he bought me called “Dilla Time” which is about the life and rising of the legendary producer J-Dilla.

That book has been an amazing read so far, as it delves not only into how he got on, but it talks about some music theory stuff as well. There’s a lot I didn’t realize about J-Dilla, and how he really changed the game when it comes to the way producers look at music. Did you know that that Janet Jackson song, “Got til it’s gone” was ripped off from J-Dilla’s style of beat-making by Jimmy Jam? Jam heard a song from Slum Village Fan-Tas-Tic Vol 2 and went into the studio to try and reproduce it for a song he was doing for Janet. You can really hear it when you go back and listen to the song… it’s in J-Dilla’s signature time signature.

I uploaded a beat I had on my SP 404 mk2 for a while to my Bandcamp page. It was a decent track, but I may need to re-record it and arrange it a bit better. I’m still working on my beat tape and I only have one more song I need to record then I’ll get it up on my DistroKid account. I got a new job that I start on October 2nd which is pretty cool. It’s in IT again and I’m going to approach it as professionally and methodically as I can. I’m learning to code Python right now, and it’s very interesting. Hopefully this job is a good place to work and I can get my work life balance back in order.

Other than that I have just been chilling and looking for work up until finding this new job. I feel healthy and I’m doing the things I need to do to stay that way. I’m going to start walking again and once I start my new job, I’ll have more money to buy healthier foods like fruits and vegetables more regularly. I want to start rhyming on some of my tracks, so stay tuned for that. I have a better mic on the way that I found on a great deal online. Once I get it hooked up, I’ll write a few verses to one of my beats and see how it goes. To you reader, stay blessed and keep marching on. L8r!

The morning commute is shrouded in fog

There’s a chill in the air as I take off my bog

The headlights reflect off the mist that is white

Making navigation tricky and sometimes a fright

The streetlights are but beacons of hope

I hope other drivers are not high on dope

The bus stop yet offers the shelter of trees

Where a few souls gather from the cold and the breeze

I muster the courage and take my first step

Away from the fog, my car slowly crept

The headlight guides me, its a haze of light

Through it all I gain hope and look toward the night

The fog is thick but I know where I’m going

And I can make it through this dull weekday morning

It’s a hard journey but I know I can do it

Turning into my works driveway, I knew I’d get through it.

So I’ve decided that regardless whether or not I am working a regular job, I’m going to start hitting the MPC One and SP404mk2 a bit harder in the coming days and weeks. I need to make more beats and I’m just about complete with my “beat tape”. I just need to make some finishing touches on a couple of them and remove some vocals I decided I don’t want in one of them. Life is short and I would hate to check out and not have put as much time into my music as possible.

I’ve been messing around with different DJ software a lot lately, so that has taken up a lot of my time, but I also admit that I gel and watch Twitch and Youtube a bit too much. I also need to complete this AI programming class I purchased a couple of weeks back. I have a blank notebook ready for me to take notes from the class. I just need to take the time and start watching the videos and lectures. I’m going to try and maybe spend an hour or two in the morning each day on that class. I’ll get up extra early like around 3 or 4 am to do that, then I’ll have the whole day ahead of me.

With my beats, at the very least I need to spend more time with them on the weekends and continue to try and get better. I was getting to a nice level and really doing some more intricate stuff with them, but I have to make sure I stay on it so I don’t forget the little tactics and tricks I was learning. I’ll try to make some beats in between looking for work tomorrow, and hopefully I can find a job very soon which will definitely force me into being a bit more efficient with my time. I remember when I was working at my last job, I was cranking out music because I wanted to make the most of the free time I had available.

I know a lot of people suffer from getting sucked into Youtube videos for hours, or Twitch streams. I see other people’s videos online talking about it. I know my wife has that happen to her, and she’ll even stay up until the wee hours of the morning watching Youtube. It’s addictive, and we’ve pretty much rid ourselves of regular TV in favor of those types of platforms. We have Netflix and Prime video, but no cable or cable-esque type services. Hopefully I can make the change and put more time into my music. Til next time…

I’m excited to get a new job. I’ve grown even more as a person since my last job, and I’m excited to work again. These last couple of years in general have been really eye opening for me and I’d like to put some of the principles and things I’ve learned into use in the work place. I understand its not going to be perfect, and that is fine. I’m the type of person that needs a work play balance. I can’t enjoy my “play” time if I haven’t put in a sufficient amount of “work” time.

Hopefully GOD will send the right job with the right people my way and it will be somewhere I can work and be of help to the company for some time to come. I would like to work in a fully remote position, but it doesn’t seem like the “universe” is going to allow that, so I’ll just take that for what it is. I hope I can get a job where I can get time off in the future. Next summer I’d like for my grandson to come visit us for a week and it would be nice to just hang out and us focus on him for the entire week. I’ve noticed a lot of companies have switched over to allowing people to have unlimited PTO, which I think is a great concept. As long as people don’t abuse it, which I doubt most would, it lets you be able to take adequate time off to spend with family, take care of a move and important things like that.

I’ll report on here when I find a job and how it goes when I’m working at it. Til next time…

The fires in Maui are so terrible. I pray that all the people they’ve found dead died from smoke inhalation and not being burned to death. That’s such a horrible death none of them deserve. Prayers up that the people their can rebound and get their community back to where it was quickly. Prayers up for those missing and for the families of those already confirmed deceased. When things like this happen, its a horrible situation, but all people can do is try to come back stronger. Have a blessed day!