The Fastest Year

...was the name of an episode of ER 4-5 years ago, but it's absolutely the best description I have for 2006. It isn't so much that nothing has happened this year in my life and the lives of people around me. Indeed, probably more has happened, which has caused time to seemingly move faster.

In a nutshell, all that really happened to me this year:
- Regular band practice.
- Band recorded some demo tracks
- Weekend drinking
- Hard and frustrating work at work after a sideways move.

The band has been great. We've made slow progress for a variety of reasons but I think this is about to change. We are now in a position where we have almost all the equipment we need (i'm now a proud Marshall 100 watt valvestate amp owner) and we have some gigs in the pipeline. I'm trying to work out why i'm not yet feeling all that nervous. I think I may be about to discover something i've long suspected about myself. Not going to say what. I need to keep working hard to improve technically on the guitar and improve my understanding of sound in general to improve production.

Recording has also been excellent, not necessarily because I think everything we've produced is as good as it could be, but because it does all sound fairly good, and we're getting a lot of positive feedback. I'm glad for the band that this is the case, but i'm also quite proud when we get compliments on the production, as I handled most of that myself on bargain basement equipment.

Weekend drinking continues to waste a lot of my time, but its good to unwind and talk shit with everyone. It may get a bit dull sometimes but i'm going to miss it when inevitably it stops happening as we all get older, move away, shack up and so forth.

Work.. Work is a tough one. My job is something I find myself enjoying on occasion, but enduring most of the time. I've moved away from something I thought I didn't want to do, man management, and realised that in fact perhaps I prefer it to a more technical role. I'm personally successful in what i'm doing at the moment, but it isn't clear how that is going to lead to anything more lucrative, which sad as it may seem is what I need right now.

Some thoughts forming in my mind - i'd like to by enterprising. It would be good to be trying to make a living away from a large company. I certainly have skills applicable in several areas, but I suppose I need more time to figure out exactly which ones I want to focus on, and where to apply them.

Final thoughts - I really don't think I like blogging. I sit here wishing I was writing a better post, getting very angry inside every time something distracts me even though most of the people distracting me right now are trying to assist me in one way or another. I'm going to try this again next year with more frequent but more concise posts. I think thats the answer. As time goes on maybe i'll find something specific to blog about which would make the blog i'm writing worth reading. At the moment I suspect nobody except me is viewing this, and given the quality of the posts, this doesn't upset me much.

A belated Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or whatever else you'd take as a greeting at this point in the calender. Have a great new years eve, and then a happy new year!