The Daily Grind

yes, with every joint that becomes more and more of a challenge. that’s why i try to limit myself to 3 joints a night, but sometimes i overshoot.

Weed isn’t so bad, except the blurriness/soreness. Other substances can make it almost impossible to focus on what is going on for one reason or another, not that I know about such things…

Lets not turn this into a drug-related topic, mmm?

If you can work online then you might want to consider going to asia, it’s still cheap and pretty great if you ask me.

PM me if you want some info.

yes, i should have a go at that this weekend! :rock:

@Void Pointer: Too late :)

cafeine and nicotine are the only valuable drugs when it comes to tracking! what you need is something that help you keeping focused. everything else i could try (codein, thc) led me to doing shit.

back to the topic, i feel quite in the same situation as Byte… my job’s not so bad … i’m in an electronic banking engineer apprenticeship, coding stuff all the day. the only bad point is i dont work in the same city where i study (and where all my friends are)… so i can only enjoy my home studio part time.

BUT as everyone here, i dont feel like i’d be able to work 40+ hours a week

the point is : when you feel the urge for making music, you want to do it NOW, while the ideas are fresh! and you’ll want to have at least 4-6 consecutive free hours to make something really valuable on a track.

a normal day of work is exhausting in itself… when i get back home i cant get the energy to make tunes, i can just go sleeping an hour then drinking beers :)

about the energy, most of my friends told me about the benefits of sports; it helps you evacuate all the accumulated stress from your day of work, and free your mind, resulting in a regain of energy. i can get to it but this may be a solution for some of you! do you practice any sport ?

you can only do so much by yourself in your waking hours, i mean i’ve gone as far as experimenting with working while asleep, which i don’t recommend because you might open Pandora’s box instead of the box of solutions… oh so that’s where Tyler Durden was born, I thought he was born in a mental asylum, shut up and go back to sleep personality number 3, its my awake time.

maybe a combined effort in similar goals ? i’m avoiding using the word collaboration here only because it seems a bit loose and unspecific, and by specific, i mean criminally minded specific, without the intent or act of breaking laws within the locations both parties participate in.

Voltron Intro

I do some basic shadowboxing with 3 pound weights and 10 to 15 pound weights for muscle strengthening. 1 hour, 4 times a week. In my experience its given me a kick some ass approach to making music.

Opiates. They are your solution to EVERYTHING. Just ask the 109 y/o East Indian men reping the Satir… Those guys got it… =P [center]
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YES!!! LOL!!!

Having been self-employed for over a decade, I’ve experienced some ups and downs, but I’ve always tried to stay clear of anything resembling a routine. I feel that no matter what you do, developing a routine is to be avoided, because no matter what you do, it can become routine.

Edit: and I’ve not always been successful at it myself. Currently trying to break free from too much work.

yes, the older i get, the more i realize how difficult it is to avoid this. routines and habits, they are sucky, mainly because they are a bitch to get rid of.

@00.1 :
Yup, i’ve done some ‘collaborative’ works by the past on a ping-pong mode basis. It is really a nice way to work since each other’s work is a new source of inspiration!

and yeah, shadowboxing sounds cool! I’d try something like this :)

@danoise :
i agree with some of your points. but what’s the problem of having a routine ? to me its becoming a problem if force yourself to do stuff by ‘obligation’. from time to time you can make a brief and try to figure out if some of the habits you taken are really important to you, how it impacts your living, … and thus improve your routine :)

But WHAT is wrong with routine? I NEED routine. Without routine, my mind turns into complete and utter chaos. It’s not that I hate surprises, but routine can be the only straw in the storm sometimes and forces me to be disciplined and dedicated, instead of being on a constant bunnyhop from one thing to another. Routine is my clockwork for the mind! And there’s nothing wrong with habits, as long as it’s not harmful to you or others.

A daily grind is a (necessary?) evil to fund your life. It’s only a bad habit if it makes you miserable… but it’s not bad by default. Well, in my humble opinion.

  • Wageslave #34875346

“Like a cog in the machine, diligently waiting for the opportune moment to fail”.

Without some sort of routine, I end up dead in the gutter. I need something to hate other than myself.

Routine is unavoidable, a part of life. I think I was talking about challenging one’s routine in the smaller ways, like taking a different path through town than you usually do, meet people you don’t know? Routine can definitely improve things. Like, having a good morning routine when you’re not really a morning person
Funny thing is, my most productive period music-wise was also the period with least routine, and my personal life was pretty chaotic. So I’d have to agree with you guys that the ultimate goal must be to improve one’s routine.

Yep, I have a full time job as a software developer in corporate-land (tedious, dull, boring), teaching karate 3 nights per week, plus doing family stuff… couple of hours a week for music would be nice! Sometimes I feel like packing it in, but those few moments I get messing with synths and renoise… that’s my time, and it does me some good.

Come the revolution it’ll all be for the better lol!