Running Sucks!

Shawn: 

Straight up, I hate running. After all these years of trying, failing and red-faced panting, I just can’t get into it. I’m on week one of my pushups and running phase, and I hate it. I have ran once, and then I gave up on Wednesday because my legs were sore, and I didn’t yesterday because I went to Toronto instead (way better than stupid running). So it’s fridays and I plan to run today and tomorrow. I’m just at that lame phase where I need a solid week or two of hell to get my cardio back up, so that I don’t want to throw my head in the oven after running for 15 minutes. Yes, I’m that bad. 

I can lift weights, do chin ups, weird DVD workouts and random things, BUT I HATE RUNNING. I know it’s one of the most common forms of working out, but I just can’t get into it. Maybe I need to dedicate that time to get decent at it, instead of giving up during the horrible beginning. The other day when I ran I was with Sabrina, and she rambled on for the entire run and joked around, basically not even out of breath, while I struggled to remain conscious. Geeeeeeze.

Other than this running garbage, I am working on that Hundred Pushups program I found on google. I started on Week three because I could do more than 20 pushups for the test, but man, is it hard. I am able to meet the numbers, but I struggle a lot to do so. I think I might repeat week 3 just to build up a little more before I move on. Despite this being difficult, it’s way better than running!

Running sucks!

Sabrina’s Alive!

I’ll say it once again, time flies. It feels like yesterday that I was in school (and posted on WANS), but we all know both of those things are false as hell. I love the structure of a 9 to 5, and heck, my hours are flexible; I’m ain’t locked down and that’s how I like it. But I’m beginning to learn that it doesn’t matter if you like what you’re doing.

It’s funny, alot of people I know love the freedom that comes from being a freelance illustrator, but I’m the opposite. I’ve been lucky enough to land an awesome job and the rest of my life is falling into place, and it’s made the month scream by. And I do. It’s different for me - this job that is-, obviously advertising wasn’t what I was educated in for four years, but everything overlaps and I’m finding it fun learning new things and not being an educated 4-year expert in something. I’m still learning new things and making mistakes, and I’m sure I will for a while, but it’s exhilarating. Livin’ for the thrill of it.

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NEW YAAAAARK

 So we have tweeted and posted a few times about our little trip to the U S of A, so I don’t need to go into much detail about the who, what and why. I’ll let Sabrina focus on her accomplishments with the SOI if she feels like posting about it. I’m just stoked that I once again have been exposed to an amazing world, one that at first was so strange and new to me, but now is becoming so familiar.

A few weeks back I was super amazed and excited to hang out at the Sheridan Illustration grad show in Toronto. Dating an illustrator has allowed me to see a world that I probably would have never spent enough time in. These past few years of checking blogs, meeting artists, and taking up art as a hobby has really been exciting and fulfilling. The creative world has become such a big part of my life recently that I can’t imagine life without it. I believe my life has become more rich thanks to my change in perspective, and I can see how my interests and approach to life has changed. Take my trip to New York for example.

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Shawn:

Well, I’m teaching myself Illustrator and giving myself little nerdy projects to work on. I’ve made a bit of a goal to do a picture or design piece a week, along with sketching. Up first is a little graphic about my trip to New York. Next week I’m going to do something about music haha…. aaahhhhh geeeeeezzzeeeeee…..

Hopefully this will be done for next Tuesday! What a Noob!

Some pictures from our New York trip to see Sabrina’s work at the Society of Illustrators!

Gross. Well, here is an example of what not to do. Last week I decided I was going to make a more electronic based song. At first I was having a lot of fun, experimenting and playing with different sounds. The more I accomplished, the more walls I ran into. My old school imac has 1gig of RAM and is just not havin’ all my messin’ around. I can’t really bring a sequencer into Pro Tools without having it crash, so I think it is time to problem solve. 

I have a Macbook pro that is way more of a work horse, but I find the smaller screen and crappy mouse annoying to deal with for long periods of time, especially working in Protools. I know, I know, wah wah, first world problems. 

Regardless, I think I’ve come to a few conclusions based on this epic failure.

- I’m not sure electronic stuff is for me… maybe I just need to keep working at it, but man, do I suck….

- Don’t do the drums by hand on a micro korg midi interface…. yikes

- Quit while you’re ahead… or behind?

- I need to take more time to trouble shoot, rather than taking the quick or easier option

- Ewwwww

So anyways, enough self pity. It’s my fault. I spent too much time beating a dead horse and it just didn’t work out. I decided to cut my losses and move on. 

I guess what I’m struggling with is maybe a bit of ego or insecurity, or the fine line between both. I actually have a surprising amount of half written songs, riffs, and other ideas, but I actually need the time to execute them, or the resources. I don’t know whether I should go all out, try and make full songs that sound as good as possible, or to treat it like a sketchbook. I’m also wondering how to show or track progression. 

Either way, I realize I need to take way more time and focus. Busting out songs on a whim, and messing around with stuff I don’t know is either a waste of time, or leads to an embarrassing track. I can continue to work on electronic songs, and other experimental things on the side, and perhaps share them when I feel comfortable or as I perfect them. In the meantime, I need to stick with my guitar and try and grow as a song writer. And work on that dang voice of mine. 

Anyways, maybe I’m revealing too much, or not enough. At the end of the day I love music, I absolutely positively love it. I miss the rush of being on stage. I miss the electric feel of spinning around into a universe of sound and passion in the dimly lit and sweat filled venues of my past. I ache to be able to find that place again. Who knows where things will go. 

Time to get down to business. Too many excuses. 

Goodbye Power-tower!

So I finished a month of my callisthenic approach to working out. I absolutely loved working on bodyweight exercises over the past few weeks. I definitely think it is my favourite type of workout, more than lifting weights, or programs like P90x.

I have a confession to make; I haven’t been doing my cardio. On the days where I wasn’t using the power tower, I was supposed to be running, or biking, or sweating in some disgustingly unpleasant way. Instead, I sat around and thought up excuses to avoid my LEAST favourite type of workout. Due to my inability to be mature and man up, I didn’t lose the weight that I expected to this month. I followed my calories, and ate as well as possible, but didn’t see much of a difference. I actually gained some muscle, but seeing as my goal was to burn fat, I failed. Bah!

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Lucid Dreaming

As the title suggests, I am attempting to dive into the very strange world of lucid dreaming. I have been interested in lucid dreaming for the past few years, but my interest peaked during a psychology class last year. I had a prof who claimed to be able to enter lucid dreams almost every night at will. He said that he had practiced for years during his undergrad and was able to master his sleeping mind. I had heard about lucid dreaming before and was interested, but hearing a U of T professor tell his own experience was fascinating.

I hate to assume that you are stupid, but lets face it, you might not know what a lucid dream is. Now with the mighty power of google, you can find out all about in with a simple 5-second search. The WANS version is that you are basically able to “wake up” in your dream state. This means that you gain awareness and control over the dream world. Since you create the dream world through strange and elaborate processes in your little pink power centre, you can basically drive the dream into any world you want. Like I said, google will give you a better summary than I ever can, so if I’ve peaked your interest, give’r a little time and read about something new.

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Shawn:

Well, I didn’t get a chance to post last week, so here are some selections from the past little while. 

After getting all the images scanned in I noticed that annoying black smudge on my scanner glass….. Bah!

Yikes. First time being late for Music Monday.  I did successfully paint my parents kitchen for some cash, so that’ sweet, haha.

This week I wanted to try some new stuff. First off I tried a more bass driven song, and messed around with effects on the bass. I like the sort of Death From Above sound going on. I still could have mixed it in better, but hey, I’m learning. 

Vocally I wanted to get out of the box of softer folk singing, and wanted to push my voice a bit. I’m not sure if I like the tone, I think it might be a bit whiny. When I was in bands back in the day, pushing my voice was all-out screaming. I want to find that balance where I have some fire in my voice, but I’m not killing myself. But one improvement I see is that I’m comfortable enough to post it and I can identify what I like and what I don’t. I think I’m getting a little bit better at staying in key as well haha. A little bit. 

A song like this really makes me wish I had some drums. I could program them (which I’m still teaching myself), but it just isn’t the same as a solid drummer. 

I really didn’t do much with the mix this time, just pretty much left it as is. Maybe that shows, or maybe it sounds find. It is have to be objective with your own recordings sometimes. 

I also noticed that soundcloud kills the volume of my tracks a bit, maybe it’s a streaming thing. 

I don’t really know if anyone actually reads the writing I put with these songs, but I guess it helps me to sort of journal my progress, and take note of things. 

One thing I really want to explore is my lyric writing/singing style. I find that sometimes I fill up verses and choruses way too much. I have this weird need to fill the empty space. Maybe other vocalists will know what I am talking about. Maybe next week I’ll try and be more thoughtful about how I write those parts. 

On to the next one. 

10 & A Half Questions - Dave Murray

Sabrina and I have had the chance to meet some awesome members of the Toronto art and design scene lately. I have to give all the credit to Sabrina for hooking this one up, as she knows Dave far better than I do. A couple of weeks ago we went down to the Garrison Creek Bat Show in Toronto and were amazed by the beautiful baseball bats on display. Dave along with his friends Chris and Ryan have put together a bat company that “combines style and design with a quality, handmade aesthetic”. We are super pumped on any new venture that creative people explore, and this event really blew us away. Check them out at http://www.garrisoncreekbats.com/

On top of starting a standout creative business with GCBC, Dave is an accomplished designer and illustrator. I can’t describe his work as eloquently as the bio on his site so I’ll just post it:

Dave Murray is a graduate of the respected Sheridan College Illustration program, and lives in Toronto. Aspects of cubism, futurism, and Russian avant-garde are combined with a large dose of pop-culture and Dave’s unique eye to create stunning and iconic illustrations.

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oculto:

vincent vrints

Week 14. 

I really have been in a bad habit of recording instrumentals and then leaving vocals to the last minute. It is sort of counterproductive considering I should probably spend the most time on vocals, as I consider that to be my weak area. 

Sometimes I miss the comfort of just being able to scream at the top of your lungs. It was as if the more you made it ugly and dirty and off, the better it was. I’m a few months in and I still have trouble coming to terms with melodic vocals, and harmonies and all that jazz….

I need to dedicate more time to vocals, and less time to instruments. I also need to give myself more of a head start on some of these songs.

Excuses, excuses. Either way, there are always positive things to look at and things to learn. I’m proud I’ve made it this far, but I have a long way to go.

Side note - I hate my bass tone and sound haha… I really need to figure out how to mix/record it better. Maybe I have myself a new goal. 

And as stated previously, I have been working on a lot of electric stuff, hopefully going to roll that out soon!

Deskilled

More and more, I hear my peers talk about how hard it is to find a job in their field. Most of the people from my age group finished their degrees around 2009, and I am surprised by how many of them are still looking for work. Most of the people I have been in contact with are still hustlin’, beating the pavement while they work at restaurants or landscaping. My situation is not much different.

When I finished college in 2009 I was fortunate to grab a couple of temporary contracts in my field, but nothing turned into a full time position. Furthermore, every agency requires years of experience, but fail to provide an entry point to build a resume. Most of the people I know working in their field are either low paid interns, or happen to know someone at their workplace. 

I went back to school in 2010, and every semester seems to focus on this growing issue. From assessing family structure, to politics and globalization, I started making more and more connections. It was as if my textbooks were narrating the experience of my friends and family. 

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Signal Mountain

Shawn:

(I’m not really into horror or scary stories, but for some reason my past two writing posts have been kind of dark. I think I’ll focus on writing something more positive or neutral next time, haha!)

“That is way too big to be a man,” She called out from the top of the tree line. Her arm was extended towards the mysterious shape in the distance, too large to be a man yet too strange to be human. It was moving with incredible speed, as if it were gliding over the summit of the mountain.

For a short time we stood there in absolute fear. We had spent the day on high alert due to the warnings posted at the information office. There had been a few Grizzly sightings in the area between the Old Lodge and Maligne Canyon. We decided to begin our little expedition anyway, figuring we were prepared with our bear spray, cell phones and gear. We had hiked the fire road before without issue, and we weren’t going to let a piece of paper get in the way of our adventure.

But this was no Grizzly. It was too dark and too graceful. It broke all the laws of physics as it darted across the ground at dizzying speeds. The creature was blanketed in darkness, as if it were darker than dark, a black hole tracing the rocks at the top of Signal.

Although we were clearly visible there was no sign that the beast had spotted us. It moved erratically at incredible speeds, without rhyme or reason. It followed a senseless path scouring the mountaintop on some unknown journey. As it darted back and forth in each direction I realized that we were no more than a few hundred yards away.

My younger brother pushed past me and ventured closer to the chilling shape.

“I have to get a picture of this thing,” he called out as he jogged closer.

“Are you kidding me!” I yelled in an embarrassingly shaky voice.

“Chill out! Just one shot!”

As I motioned to the girls to get back, he stopped and pulled his camera bag in front of him. As he quickly unzipped the cover and took out his camera a chill went down my spine. I quickly glanced back at the object of our interest. It continued to move without purpose as my brother lifted his camera to his eye.

“I’m not sure this is a good idea man”

“Shut up dude! I’m trying to focus on this thing. Look at it move!”

Snap.

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