Memoirs of a Lunatic

Never work with amatuers.

I arrived last night to engineer for the gig, and i see Cas having a smoke outside. I ask him what hes doing there. “I’m engineering tonight” …yeah, problem.

Turns out the stupid bitch organizing it had booked 2 engineers. I was the guy that did her last event (about a month ago) and afterwards she asked me to do the next one, this was backed up by a couple of emails. But she also booked Cas for the evening, 3 to 4 weeks ago… so very soon after booking me!

When she turned up she seemed confused… she didn’t realize she had booked Cas. Her excuse? “I’m really sorry! I got drunk on Saturday night and got confused” …She got drunk? What kind of a fucking excuse is that!?

Me and Cas talked about doing the gig together, maybe get the pub owner to pay him and the promoter pay me… but in the end i let him do the gig. 2 engineers for that little place is too many. It seemed only fair to let him do the gig because he’d traveled a lot further than me and was relying on a lift at the end of the night as his train fare is pricey.

I ended up charging the stupid one for my petrol… really i should have charged her for lost earnings too. I had to lose a shift at work in order to do that gig, and in the end she fucked up!
Even more annoying, is that my work phoned me today and asked why i didn’t come in last night… the manager who had supposedly gotten my shift covered hadn’t, so it looked like i just didn’t bother to show up!

If she emails me again and asks me to do another gig for her she can stuff it!

Let that be a lesson to all, never EVER work with an amatuer… especially an amatuer promoter who gets drunk and hires extra engineers ¬_¬

ZOMG it be good!

I feel like a seriously big kid at the moment. Yesterday i got to test Little Big Planet for PS3, and its amazing! It deserves all the hype its got, and a lot more! Its just one of those games that puts a big smile across your face.
I honestly couldn’t fault the thing. Every aspect of the game is well made, and it leaves you satisfied… there are so many games that are good but ‘could do with this’ or ‘its missing that’ but LBP just seems to tick all the boxes!

Honestly, go out, get a PS3 and come October make sure you get yourself a copy. Game of the year, no doubt!

In other news i’m doing a gig tonight… not sure how its going to turn out. Last time i was at the venue they didn’t have any mic stands! They’d had a band in that broke half the equipment… so i had to trundle off to the local theatre and borrow some of their stands.
That was about a month ago, so if the busted stuff hasn’t been replaced then i won’t be happy in the least… the theatre closes at 10:30pm, so if i don’t get the stands back by then it means coming back in the morning. If that happens i’ll have to put my prices up when i work there, which i don’t want to do but i may have no choice.

In other news i’ve been giving some careful consideration to my working at the pub. I’m getting more work in games testing now, and it would be nicer to take that on as a more permanent placement, rather than my ‘bit on the side’.
I’ve also been thinking that rather than sit there and complain about the pub, i could actively try and change some things. I’ve been there long enough and have enough knowledge of the place now to apply for the ‘team leader’ role… that would put me in charge of my colleagues and make me responsible for delegating tasks… one of my main bones of contention is that people don’t carry out work that obviously needs to be done. And at the end of the knight we’re kept waiting around for ages because there aren’t enough team leaders to check over the work.

I need to ponder over that some more i think… its a small pay increase, but i’m just trying to figure out if i care.

*Trundles off to get ready*

Headcold @_@

I hate being ill. Especially when i still have an assignment to write… at least its not too hard, its just tedious.
I’m meant to be working tomorrow… if i don’t feel any better then i’ll call in sick. And the benefit of that is that i can call in sick on friday too! I’ve got a gig on friday and so far i can’t find anyone to cover my shift.

I’ve been pretty stressed lately what with money, hating my job and hating the town i live in… but i’ve got some optimism now. When i go back to uni in september its my final year, and i’m already plotting my final project. I’m gonna do an entire album… preferably something a little unique. I’m into the whole new wave indie/dance stuff at the moment, so i’d like to record a band like that.

If only i had a mac at home. I don’t like the things, but i have to use them. It’d just be far more convenient to have one… plus it gets round an extremely horrific bug in Logic 8. I love the program, but its not mobile! If you save a project to an external device, then use a different computer, it will scramble the regions. That means the work is either completely ruinned, or you have to spend hours correcting it… depending how scrambled it gets. My last project was one single song… it took months to complete thanks to constantly being set back!

*shuffles off to continue mulling over music marketing and media* X_X

So very tired

Work near enough killed me tonight. It was only a 5hr shift but it was so damned busy, and we were dramatically understaffed because it just wasn’t expected. The upstairs bar had one person on the bar, who was a new guy, and me clearing the floor and waiting tables -_-

I’m so sick of that job, its wearing me down hugely. I’m nocturnal, which i hate, i have no fucking money, and it feels like i don’t have a life.
Its not even like i can be happy in the slightest at work… its the little things really, like never showing any gratitude towards the staff. Every pub i’ve worked in gives staff a free drink at the end of the night, with a thank you and well done. This place, ha. If we take a ludicrous amount of money through the till then we get a free drink… so it doesn’t happen often, and its rare that we get thanked.

A free drink isnt the issue there obviously… its the principle of it. The place treats staff as disposable… i’ve been there about 3 months or so and already i’m amongst the ‘veteran’ staff members… thats absurd O_o I should still be known as newbie by all rights.

The old bank account is running very dry at the moment. I’m waiting on another job offer, but its taking longer than i thought. So even if i started the new job tomorrow i still wouldn’t get any money in time… not actually sure how i’ll be paying the rent or keeping the car on the road this month ¬_¬ Its not like i have anywhere i can borrow that money from till the next loan comes through. Might have to ask the estate agent if we can pay next month instead… which is plainly embarrassing.

I’m feeling pretty jealous of others right now. My mates at uni… actually most of the people at uni, seem to have it easier. They complain about not having much money, but then they say that their parents pay for their rent and they only need to buy food… they piss most of their loan up the wall then moan when they run out. I barely ever go out, i wouldn’t call my spending anywhere near extravagant and yet i still find myself piss poor broke.
Jealous of my cousin too. I love the guy, but he doesn’t realize how good hes got it. His dad is a millionaire in property… the other day he says “oh, i put some land in your name, its worth $100k” and my cousin barely bats an eyelid… shit, i’d be jumping over the moon if someone said that to me!

eh… fuck it.

Sleepy

Got up early this morning. I’m meant to be viewing this car (mazda 626), but i phoned the guy and hes not available till later this evening, so i’m sleepy for nothing
I was a bit worried i’d miss out again. I missed a car the other day, phoned the bloke at 10 on a saturday morning and someone had actually gone to view it earlier and brought it >_> who gets up that early on a saturday!?

Anyway, i’m praying this Maxda is good. It looks real nice from the pictures, and its meant to be in good working order, and for a ‘98 plate it should really be working fine! Its got all mod cons too, everything electric, air con, CD player with 10 disc changer! Only £575 cos the owner is going back home to europe.

Looked at something god damned awful yesterday. It was a ‘95 plate escort. The bloke described it as in good working order, and a nice tidy car…. ok, it had one door wrong coloured, but he was going to paint that up, no biggy… what got me was the fact that 80% of the body was rust, and the interior was covered in BLUE MOULD! It also stank like petrol (buggered injection) was noisey (hole in exhaust) wasn’t pulling (clutch on its way out) oil leak, and power steering on its way out… yeah, perfect condition, all for only £495! dick head

I’m getting myself all worked up here ¬_¬ if i don’t get a car today then i could be losing out if i get a job interview from one of the places i applied… its so annoying, i can’t work in guildford without a car and its difficult to find a good one.

Help?

I have the computer troubles

For some reason all the icons on my desktop lost their images after i’d been using PSX, that problems has fixed itself strangely after trying to run an installed game O_o
When i’m browsing sites the links on pages keep failing so i have to reload pages constantly.
Cubase (sequencer) Can’t handle video anymore.
The whole machine has slowed down in general too.
Bitcomet kept crashing everytime i tried downloading with internet explorer open, and now for some reason its ports have been blocked, so i can’t use it at all.

I’ve run spybot and AVG, and nothing, according to those my machine is clean. So i’m out of ideas… help please?

Fleh

I think its fair to say i’m not having it easy at the moment… the new job is plain awful. Not because its hard work or anything, but because i’m not getting any work… i can’t believe i have 2 fucking jobs, and i still have a bank account reading zero!
Dave gave me 4 nights to work this week, and that cocksucker Chico rubbed em all off… he doesn’t even have the decency to tell me! Friday he phoned me and told me to make sure i was in for 7pm, my shift started at 8 but i went… after the meeting i check the rota, all my weekend hours are gone! He was on the phone to me, and he didn’t bother telling me i wasn’t working… and thanks to being broke i had to walk home! Thats a bloody long walk!

I phoned today. My plan was to find out when i’m working next, then phone Dave and tell him i need to talk to him when i’m next in… Dave i can work with, hes fine. Anyway, Chico says he’ll call me back when hes checked the rota… yeah right! no call surprise surprise.

So thats it… FUCK IT! I’m just not going to contact them again, and i’ll look for more work. I finish college in less than a month now, so i can look for something with full time hours starting in May.

Feeling pretty stressed lately (theres a surprise) …not good cos i’m having difficulty focusing on anything. College work seems like such a damned chore at the moment. I just look at the stuff, cringe and find something else to do… honestly, thats not like me, i want to get through this course with good grades, but i can’t find the energy. Eck, that reminds me, i have to try and convince my mum that i need my band to come round here and do some recording. Thanks to Hook studio having the WORST equipment setup in the world, i got practically nothing done there… for all i know about that technology, i couldn’t get the thing to work properly… its absurd!

Didn’t bother going to college today… i was meant to have a tutorial, and show fiona or whatever her name is some work she wanted us to do… i didn’t do it. Its not essential to our work, she clearly doesn’t understand what we have to do for our assignments so why should i listen? I’m addressing the criteria in my own way. And that tutorial… pah! I’d have to wait over an hour, just to sit down and discuss how i’m coping on the course… unlike the cretins, i do get my work done, i don’t need someone talking to me like i’m a delicate little flower asking me how everything is going… not really worth getting home 2-3hrs later than usual for that!

Fuck off!

Gah! Sara just phoned me, and i said i’d phone back cos the calls are free, and as soon as i get near the phone “No you don’t! I’m going to bed, you’ll keep me awake, so you’re going to bed!” ….excuse me!? I’M NEARLY FUCKING 21! I’m an adult, i don’t need someone telling me when i’m going to bed!
She comes downstairs, turns off the TV, keeps me from the phone, and when i get on the computer she bursts in my room informing me i’m not allowed to be on this either! Its taken all my strength not to rip the fuck into her!

Today started out well too… but ending up in a good deal of pain has put me in a bad mood, and coming home to this every single fucking day has put me in a worse mood! Gonna have to go to the docs tomorrow i think… bad stitching, think it’ll have to be cut away. Shouldn’t need to be put back cos its just one little bit, but it certainly can’t stay like that for 5 weeks!

Bah, y’know i’m actually tired now… but out of sheer fucking protest i’m not gonna go to sleep! Yeah, treat me like a 12yr old, and i’ll fucking act like one.
…This has really gotten my goat up. When i have to be up early its fine for her to sit up till 3am being noisey, and i ask her to keep it down but not to go to bed. Geez, just over 4 months stuck in this little shit hole… it seems like an eternity away!

Oh, and Llloyds TSB, they can go fuck themselves… majorly fuck themselves! They’ve phoned me at least 5 times a day for the last 10 days or so, over a matter of £10 that i owe them… its fucking harrassement, and i’ve given up being polite to them, i now have to answer my phone several times a day and scream “Piss off!”

Its done! :D

Done it! Dave just left, CD in hand… i’ve produced my very first EP as an engineer, and i think i’ve done a good job, Dave certainly couldn’t stop grinning away!
It feels good to have something completed like that… i guess its my first achievement as a technician, and i think its something i can be proud of… i’ll certainly showcase the work to my mates and see what they think - although i have to be careful, don’t want it to seem like i’m rubbing their noses in it!

I might get some more engineer work too… Dave was telling me about his mate and his band. They spent £500 recording an album for a forthcoming tour in germany, and the results were aparently very poor… the technician had just invested in a load of new equipment, and basically overdid it big time! So dave is gonna give the guy my number if he wants to get it remixed by myself, at a considerably smaller charge too… its probably like 10 tracks, so somewhere around between £50 and £100 is what i’d most likely charge for that.

Now the next step… recording my own band. This might be a little tricky. I’ll have to hit the record button then run out the booth, grab my guitar and start playing.

6 weeks and everything has to be completed for the college deadline… strange, 6 weeks is a long time, but then again its not… i’ll just have to pull my finger out now and get everything done! In fairness though i haven’t got an awful lot to do… unlike some of the class cretins who haven’t done any work

Waffle!

Well, had my surgery now… rather embarrasingly i got out of theatre, and in confusion thought that a fat, old chinese woman was Sara Kept asking her why she wasn’t at uni! Least i can blame the drugs for that one!
Actually not doing as bad as i thought i would… i was expecting worse i have to say. Just need to rest this week, ready for next week and starting my new bar job! My new bar job that pays £7ph, the best money i’ve ever heard of for bar staff!

Played live with my band on Saturday… first 2 songs went ok, although we know that we do a lot better during rehearsals. 3rd song went horribly wrong… so yeah, we have a lot of work to do, but we’re optimistic, and we’ll be getting in the studio to record in a couple of weeks… the main problem highlighted was lack of structure, so having recordings will help no end with that. After we’ve sorted the structure on these 3 songs we can take any new songs with a better structured approach to production, rather than hap-hazard song making.