So I'm back in work, at this particular site, that I wrote about once before.
This time the issue appears to be another day guard, a fella around my own age, who emenates this extreme "f**k you" attitude. I've absolutely no idea why he behaves towards me this way, if it's just me, or if he is an enormous coque towards all his colleagues, but it's gotten to the point where, when I see him in the morning, I make sure my interaction with him is minimal.
In fact, the last couple of times I've been here, I've deliberately made a point of saying nothing more than, "Ok, that's me off then, see ya later." To which he has responded nothing, naturally.
This morning was no different, so now I'm back in for another night shift and what do I see in the log book? Some wank about "previous guard never informed me off... blah, blah, I'm a wab and someone needs to slap me, whinge, whinge..." shite.
What is this dude's problem? Seriously.
I'm raging here. I really don't understand, how after so little actual interaction with this prick, he's managed to make me hate him so much and likewise, I appear to have caused a similar response in him.
But like...
He started it.
He's the one apparently incapable of showing any acknowledgement, tact or respect to fellow colleagues. Which is surely a simple basic requirement of any job? I made the effort the first few times I worked here to engage him politely and he clearly had no interest in reciprocating.
Grrr. It really gets me goat when people are just dick heads for. No. Apparent. F**king. Reason!
I don't like humans.
EDIT: In other news, I'm more than medicating my annoyance by now having a bit of a Meat Beat Manifesto fest via youtube. This video for Helter Skelter 97 is quite cool, I feel somewhat naive now, for believing the Matrix was the first piece of film to use this multi-camera "bullet time" effect.
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Saturday, 27 March 2010
Day 146
I have had a pretty cool last few days.
Sunday - Carousel at the Black Box. Excellent gig, loads of lovely people, both performing onstage and in the audience! I got to lead two songs and felt my contribution was really appreciated. There's nothing better than performing with musicians, especially in that relaxed, friendly environment. It's one of the few times where I forget all my nerves of performing in front of people, because I'm so engrossed in enjoying what other people are doing, listening to them and focusing on my response. A real pleasure.
Not sure if I mentioned it before, but basically Carousel is an improvisation gig, with a large group of musicians positioned around the audience. A musician is chosen to start off a piece, which is usually one of their own songs, or some sort of spare of the moment musical idea, and the others join in. When the song finds some sort of ending, another musician is chosen to lead and so on.
Monday - Some good progress made on ideas for the new monthly night Niall and I are organising in the city centre. Followed by the comedy night at the Pavilion. Ummm...
...Well it got me out of the house for a couple of hours.
Tuesday - Awesome fun at La Boca's open mic night, with Kaoss Pad vocal shenanigans and collaborating on totally improvised stuff with the very cool Rachel Austin.
Wednesday - QUBe practice, with some fun and games. Followed by a quite pleasing (and enriching) concert of original compositions by the students of Queen's School of Music. Some lovely pieces. The odd one or two seemed a bit shy or restrained and there was a piece that was badly out of tune, but overall I really enjoyed it. Plus it was free.
This was followed by some damn fine riffage and song writing with my good buddy Sean (from Lotion). Another band on the way? That'll make it about 6, I think.
Thursday - Another quite enriching day of hanging out, being very chilled, yet incredibly creative, making many interesting vocal recordings with the awesome Caroline Pugh at the Platform Art Gallery (very reverby), taking full advantage of our boxes of tricks and of course the space itself.
Then some nice burgers, fruit and general chilledness with another great friend.
Friday - Fragile Human Organs practice. A hard slog today, but good to get back on the ball with the live set up. Lots of dismantled stands, clamps and old drum kits(!)
Meanwhile all week I've been getting back into working on the sound for the animation series "Haven" by Crucible Pictures, with the new niceness of working from Paul's (the writer / director) office in the city centre. This is absolutely great and it is helping me get more structure in my week! Also, all week I thought I had lost my wee broadband dongle thing, but got it back again this evening, so that means I can start sending emails and apply for jobs from Paul's place too.
So more FHO practice tomorrow (when I get up after this night shift I'm doing right now of course) and then Hexxed practice on Sunday!
Said it before, but even moreso this week, it feels really good to be busy and to feel there is structure in my days and time to do the things my soul is crying out for.
Life is good.
Sunday - Carousel at the Black Box. Excellent gig, loads of lovely people, both performing onstage and in the audience! I got to lead two songs and felt my contribution was really appreciated. There's nothing better than performing with musicians, especially in that relaxed, friendly environment. It's one of the few times where I forget all my nerves of performing in front of people, because I'm so engrossed in enjoying what other people are doing, listening to them and focusing on my response. A real pleasure.
Not sure if I mentioned it before, but basically Carousel is an improvisation gig, with a large group of musicians positioned around the audience. A musician is chosen to start off a piece, which is usually one of their own songs, or some sort of spare of the moment musical idea, and the others join in. When the song finds some sort of ending, another musician is chosen to lead and so on.
Monday - Some good progress made on ideas for the new monthly night Niall and I are organising in the city centre. Followed by the comedy night at the Pavilion. Ummm...
...Well it got me out of the house for a couple of hours.
Tuesday - Awesome fun at La Boca's open mic night, with Kaoss Pad vocal shenanigans and collaborating on totally improvised stuff with the very cool Rachel Austin.
Wednesday - QUBe practice, with some fun and games. Followed by a quite pleasing (and enriching) concert of original compositions by the students of Queen's School of Music. Some lovely pieces. The odd one or two seemed a bit shy or restrained and there was a piece that was badly out of tune, but overall I really enjoyed it. Plus it was free.
This was followed by some damn fine riffage and song writing with my good buddy Sean (from Lotion). Another band on the way? That'll make it about 6, I think.
Thursday - Another quite enriching day of hanging out, being very chilled, yet incredibly creative, making many interesting vocal recordings with the awesome Caroline Pugh at the Platform Art Gallery (very reverby), taking full advantage of our boxes of tricks and of course the space itself.
Then some nice burgers, fruit and general chilledness with another great friend.
Friday - Fragile Human Organs practice. A hard slog today, but good to get back on the ball with the live set up. Lots of dismantled stands, clamps and old drum kits(!)
Meanwhile all week I've been getting back into working on the sound for the animation series "Haven" by Crucible Pictures, with the new niceness of working from Paul's (the writer / director) office in the city centre. This is absolutely great and it is helping me get more structure in my week! Also, all week I thought I had lost my wee broadband dongle thing, but got it back again this evening, so that means I can start sending emails and apply for jobs from Paul's place too.
So more FHO practice tomorrow (when I get up after this night shift I'm doing right now of course) and then Hexxed practice on Sunday!
Said it before, but even moreso this week, it feels really good to be busy and to feel there is structure in my days and time to do the things my soul is crying out for.
Life is good.
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Day 141
Ha ha!
I sound so weak on the Feile FM thing. Oh dear. At the time I was completely unprepared, I didn't have much of an idea of how the interview was going to pan out, but on reflection, I should have made some notes and lead the conversation a bit more myself. Instead James (the Feile FM DJ) seems to be trying really hard to get a word out of me. Lots of mumbling and nerves. Yikes!
God. I hope I don't normally communicate like this with people.
Anyway, if you want to endure the slight awkwardness, you can listen to it yourself on here:
http://thevinnyshow.podomatic.com/entry/2010-03-09T10_40_08-08_00 (I'm on about 32 minutes in).
Also, I've been to justgiving.com and it seems my "widget" for letting all you lovely people donate to this here Sober For A Year thing is definitely ferked. As it's also not showing up properly on their website. So in the meantime I've just stuck a "badge" which you can also click. This will bring you straight to the Just Giving page where you can donate. All is grand, then.
Well, what's the happy-haps? I got back from Dublin early on Friday morning there, the studio basically decided that there wasn't enough work on Friday to justify me travelling down from Belfast, only to leave at 4:30pm anyway. Which was fine really.
I was given some final tips and people to chase up on my last day and got to hang out with the lads over a sandwich, listening to their stories of St. Paddy's Day shenanigans. Good times!
I'm now pretty keen to get on with chasing up some of these new leads and I reckon Post-Production is something I'd be quite comfortable doing as a full time job. To me, it seems like it's creative enough to be fulfilling, challenging and varied enough every day, yet it's also working with tools I'm quite comfortable with, so the stress levels of big projects and big clients would be more than manageable. I was expecting more clients in Dublin to be uptight and difficult to work with, just because that's the general image I tend to have of these big companies, but I was pleasently surprised. The clients that I seen were all quite experienced in doing this type of work, so they knew how to work alongside the post-production guys at the studio. There were good vibes generally. There was only one session that I was asked not to sit on because that particular client was pretty stroppy and from what I was told, I was glad to avoid that situation, but other than that: yes, I was convinced I could do well in this role, so it's great to see it for what it is.
There was such a good atmosphere at pretty much all of the sessions. A bit of fun and of course there's pressure, but people are all working towards the same thing, so it's a good pressure, it's exciting. All the sessions I sat in on, had people who were good banter. It says a lot for how the studio has established itself and their work history too I'm sure, I imagine some of the attitude from clients is to do with the very lush surroundings too and then of course a big part of it is the attitude of the post-production guys who have been building a rapport with their clients for upto 20 years!
So back in Belfast I've been working nights this weekend.
Today I'm doing some 'voice acting' for a mate's portfolio in Music Technology.
I was meant to be playing a gig at the Black Box tonight, but I think I'm now too late to be on the bill ... Still sorta waiting to hear about that.
In other awesomeness... My good friend (and Hexxed bandmate) Niall and I have been given the go ahead on a new monthly night in the City Centre! We're going to be DJ-ing and running the night ourselves, which is pretty sweet. We're both quite excited and keen to make it a big success, so I'm sure I'll be updating more about that soon!
Oh and the BBC might want me to do some live vocal + Kaoss Pad performance stuff for a TV show. Still waiting to hear about that though.
Meanwhile the other music projects are ploughing on. I've been neglecting my Doctor Lilt / solo electronic stuff a bit, though last night in work I made another .... 'song'.... erm... yea... Possibly a Grupo4 piece. We'll see...
That's all for now. Toodle pip.
I sound so weak on the Feile FM thing. Oh dear. At the time I was completely unprepared, I didn't have much of an idea of how the interview was going to pan out, but on reflection, I should have made some notes and lead the conversation a bit more myself. Instead James (the Feile FM DJ) seems to be trying really hard to get a word out of me. Lots of mumbling and nerves. Yikes!
God. I hope I don't normally communicate like this with people.
Anyway, if you want to endure the slight awkwardness, you can listen to it yourself on here:
http://thevinnyshow.podomatic.com/entry/2010-03-09T10_40_08-08_00 (I'm on about 32 minutes in).
Also, I've been to justgiving.com and it seems my "widget" for letting all you lovely people donate to this here Sober For A Year thing is definitely ferked. As it's also not showing up properly on their website. So in the meantime I've just stuck a "badge" which you can also click. This will bring you straight to the Just Giving page where you can donate. All is grand, then.
Well, what's the happy-haps? I got back from Dublin early on Friday morning there, the studio basically decided that there wasn't enough work on Friday to justify me travelling down from Belfast, only to leave at 4:30pm anyway. Which was fine really.
I was given some final tips and people to chase up on my last day and got to hang out with the lads over a sandwich, listening to their stories of St. Paddy's Day shenanigans. Good times!
I'm now pretty keen to get on with chasing up some of these new leads and I reckon Post-Production is something I'd be quite comfortable doing as a full time job. To me, it seems like it's creative enough to be fulfilling, challenging and varied enough every day, yet it's also working with tools I'm quite comfortable with, so the stress levels of big projects and big clients would be more than manageable. I was expecting more clients in Dublin to be uptight and difficult to work with, just because that's the general image I tend to have of these big companies, but I was pleasently surprised. The clients that I seen were all quite experienced in doing this type of work, so they knew how to work alongside the post-production guys at the studio. There were good vibes generally. There was only one session that I was asked not to sit on because that particular client was pretty stroppy and from what I was told, I was glad to avoid that situation, but other than that: yes, I was convinced I could do well in this role, so it's great to see it for what it is.
There was such a good atmosphere at pretty much all of the sessions. A bit of fun and of course there's pressure, but people are all working towards the same thing, so it's a good pressure, it's exciting. All the sessions I sat in on, had people who were good banter. It says a lot for how the studio has established itself and their work history too I'm sure, I imagine some of the attitude from clients is to do with the very lush surroundings too and then of course a big part of it is the attitude of the post-production guys who have been building a rapport with their clients for upto 20 years!
So back in Belfast I've been working nights this weekend.
Today I'm doing some 'voice acting' for a mate's portfolio in Music Technology.
I was meant to be playing a gig at the Black Box tonight, but I think I'm now too late to be on the bill ... Still sorta waiting to hear about that.
In other awesomeness... My good friend (and Hexxed bandmate) Niall and I have been given the go ahead on a new monthly night in the City Centre! We're going to be DJ-ing and running the night ourselves, which is pretty sweet. We're both quite excited and keen to make it a big success, so I'm sure I'll be updating more about that soon!
Oh and the BBC might want me to do some live vocal + Kaoss Pad performance stuff for a TV show. Still waiting to hear about that though.
Meanwhile the other music projects are ploughing on. I've been neglecting my Doctor Lilt / solo electronic stuff a bit, though last night in work I made another .... 'song'.... erm... yea... Possibly a Grupo4 piece. We'll see...
That's all for now. Toodle pip.
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Day 136
136 days sober and also I just noticed, 21 weeks off the fags today. *Exudes smugness*
In other news, I'm in Belfast until Thursday, then two more days at ze studio in Dublin and then that's probably me done there. I love the place, I like the work, I want to work in Post-Production, for sure. So if anything good has come from my work experience it's that I'm now a bit clearer with what I now want to do with myself, in the near future.
Meanwhile, bits and bobs to do in Belfast...
In other news, I'm in Belfast until Thursday, then two more days at ze studio in Dublin and then that's probably me done there. I love the place, I like the work, I want to work in Post-Production, for sure. So if anything good has come from my work experience it's that I'm now a bit clearer with what I now want to do with myself, in the near future.
Meanwhile, bits and bobs to do in Belfast...
Sunday, 14 March 2010
Day 134
Back in Belfast for a bit, back to Dublin tomorrow and Tuesday.
Just wanted to say that it appears the Just Giving widget on this here website is borked. Not sure what to advise, if you were planning on donating you can always leave a comment here and I'll arrange something, I'm sure there is some way I can get the money directly to SANE.
That's about all for now.
Keep 'er lit.
Just wanted to say that it appears the Just Giving widget on this here website is borked. Not sure what to advise, if you were planning on donating you can always leave a comment here and I'll arrange something, I'm sure there is some way I can get the money directly to SANE.
That's about all for now.
Keep 'er lit.
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Day 131 / Dublin Day 4
The last couple of days were fine. I didn't have much more than that to say yesterday, so I didn't bother updating this here blogg-i-thon-mc-bloggy.
I've sat in on some more sessions, met a load of really interesting people, seen all sorts of great work from professionals in the industry, drank lots of coffee, ate loads of chocolate eclairs and today I actually got to help out on a session! We did some foley for an advert that's to be finished tomorrow. So that was cool. It's also nice that every session is quite different, depending on the clients and the work they want done. I'd like to be able to say, "there's never a dull moment", but in fairness, one particular business podcast recording had me really struggling to stay awake. Hence the need for chewy things (something to do with my mouth) and coffee (endurance levels enhancer)!
I've seen some minor celebs coming in for ADR and voice over stuff too. As a lot of the work is for advertising, I have heard some quite unique combinations of words in sentences, like: "the cheese needs to be more enthusiastic", or "more warmth on the word 'ham', if you could." etc. But to be fair, it's all good craic really.
I'm getting to work here next week too, so I'm definitely coming back on Monday and Tuesday. It seems that anyone who is actually from Dublin actually prefers to leave for St. Patricks day and let the tourists work away, so the studio is closed, but I still might be asked to do Thursday and Friday. Fingers crossed.
I also got to see more of Dublin, like the canal area beside where the new Grand Canal Theatre is. Which is quite class looking. I should remember to take some snaps tonight!
Only dilemma now, is trying to decide if I should stay in Dublin tomorrow night and come back to Belfast on Saturday, or just go back to Belfast tomorrow evening. Hmmm. Hmmm...
I've sat in on some more sessions, met a load of really interesting people, seen all sorts of great work from professionals in the industry, drank lots of coffee, ate loads of chocolate eclairs and today I actually got to help out on a session! We did some foley for an advert that's to be finished tomorrow. So that was cool. It's also nice that every session is quite different, depending on the clients and the work they want done. I'd like to be able to say, "there's never a dull moment", but in fairness, one particular business podcast recording had me really struggling to stay awake. Hence the need for chewy things (something to do with my mouth) and coffee (endurance levels enhancer)!
I've seen some minor celebs coming in for ADR and voice over stuff too. As a lot of the work is for advertising, I have heard some quite unique combinations of words in sentences, like: "the cheese needs to be more enthusiastic", or "more warmth on the word 'ham', if you could." etc. But to be fair, it's all good craic really.
I'm getting to work here next week too, so I'm definitely coming back on Monday and Tuesday. It seems that anyone who is actually from Dublin actually prefers to leave for St. Patricks day and let the tourists work away, so the studio is closed, but I still might be asked to do Thursday and Friday. Fingers crossed.
I also got to see more of Dublin, like the canal area beside where the new Grand Canal Theatre is. Which is quite class looking. I should remember to take some snaps tonight!
Only dilemma now, is trying to decide if I should stay in Dublin tomorrow night and come back to Belfast on Saturday, or just go back to Belfast tomorrow evening. Hmmm. Hmmm...
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Day 129 / Dublin Day 2
I'm not going to spend the whole evening in front of this laptop! No. I will not allow it. It's such a lovely day too. I'm going to check out that flashy new bridge and some of the nice modern architecture in that area. Or have a paddle about in the hotel's own swimming pool! Yes. I am. Very soon. Almost immediately. Definitely in the near future. I am...
So today was grand. I had an amazing breakfast, a nice stroll to the studio and got to sit in on a couple more sessions. One was easy enough, the other was a fairly elaborate corporate video production, which needed lots of attention to various aspects. The second session also involved some serious, 'freakin' Pro-Tools editing-at-warp-speed-type action. I was impressed!
After that I was just hanging out really. Getting to know more about the way files and formats are dealt with and sent about the place and getting to know the staff. It's pleasing how dead on people are. I have the strangest feeling that I'm actually getting on really well with everybody... It's cool.
OK, enough of this here internetting shenanigans.
ádh mór ort!
So today was grand. I had an amazing breakfast, a nice stroll to the studio and got to sit in on a couple more sessions. One was easy enough, the other was a fairly elaborate corporate video production, which needed lots of attention to various aspects. The second session also involved some serious, 'freakin' Pro-Tools editing-at-warp-speed-type action. I was impressed!
After that I was just hanging out really. Getting to know more about the way files and formats are dealt with and sent about the place and getting to know the staff. It's pleasing how dead on people are. I have the strangest feeling that I'm actually getting on really well with everybody... It's cool.
OK, enough of this here internetting shenanigans.
ádh mór ort!
Monday, 8 March 2010
Day 128 / Dublin Day 1
Day 1 in Dublin has been great so far. The studio I'm doing a placement at is much more mammoth and elaborate than I originally (naively) assumed.
There are 3 other floors I didn't know about! A lot of video digitising, transferring, editing and grading gets done there, along with a production team who create advertising too! So it's not just audio post-production. It's an amazing operation and the building itself is quite new, so it's been co-designed by the leading guys who've worked with the company the longest. It's a very tasteful modern building, custom made especially for all the work that goes on there.
Just hanging out in the place is ace. The top floor canteen, outside lounge and presentation rooms are quite stylish and comfy. The studios are kitted out to excellent standards, of course. There are several: About 11 editing suites, 4 main audio rooms, 2 video rooms, and... pfftt... I've lost count... Loads of other stuff. It sounds like it might be cramped or something, but it's all laid out so logically and everything is so shiny and new!
As for the atmosphere, all the staff I've dealt with so far are totally dead on. They've put me at ease. I feel I have an easy ride, as it's just my job to hang about and ask questions, so it's the least stressful position I could possibly be in, but they're all really friendly people too, so it makes me feel like I could definitely be one of the family.
Different people have their different ways of explaining their roles, their experience and skills to me and they all seem quite keen and patient to go over things with me, which is great.
As for the work they do there: I got to sit in on two sessions today, one was quite a simple job, but I had the amazing experience of actually putting a face to one of those trademark boisterous voices you hear on TV/Radio all the time! The other job was more serious, so I watched and didn't interfere (too much), it was nice to watch these guys in action though, proper skills!
So that's about it for now. Awesome place, awesome people doing a lot of pretty awesome work.
I definitely would enjoy working for this company.
I haven't seen much of Dublin, as I've been on the internet, since getting out of the studio, (typical, come all the way down here just to have the same chit chat to people on MSN), also I'm pretty tired today, after having to get up at 5am and all, but ah well, plenty of time for sight seeing as the week progresses.
Slán leat.
There are 3 other floors I didn't know about! A lot of video digitising, transferring, editing and grading gets done there, along with a production team who create advertising too! So it's not just audio post-production. It's an amazing operation and the building itself is quite new, so it's been co-designed by the leading guys who've worked with the company the longest. It's a very tasteful modern building, custom made especially for all the work that goes on there.
Just hanging out in the place is ace. The top floor canteen, outside lounge and presentation rooms are quite stylish and comfy. The studios are kitted out to excellent standards, of course. There are several: About 11 editing suites, 4 main audio rooms, 2 video rooms, and... pfftt... I've lost count... Loads of other stuff. It sounds like it might be cramped or something, but it's all laid out so logically and everything is so shiny and new!
As for the atmosphere, all the staff I've dealt with so far are totally dead on. They've put me at ease. I feel I have an easy ride, as it's just my job to hang about and ask questions, so it's the least stressful position I could possibly be in, but they're all really friendly people too, so it makes me feel like I could definitely be one of the family.
Different people have their different ways of explaining their roles, their experience and skills to me and they all seem quite keen and patient to go over things with me, which is great.
As for the work they do there: I got to sit in on two sessions today, one was quite a simple job, but I had the amazing experience of actually putting a face to one of those trademark boisterous voices you hear on TV/Radio all the time! The other job was more serious, so I watched and didn't interfere (too much), it was nice to watch these guys in action though, proper skills!
So that's about it for now. Awesome place, awesome people doing a lot of pretty awesome work.
I definitely would enjoy working for this company.
I haven't seen much of Dublin, as I've been on the internet, since getting out of the studio, (typical, come all the way down here just to have the same chit chat to people on MSN), also I'm pretty tired today, after having to get up at 5am and all, but ah well, plenty of time for sight seeing as the week progresses.
Slán leat.
Sunday, 7 March 2010
Day 127
Just checking in really. I'm off to Dublin in the morning for a week.
I will have an early night as didn't sleep much yesterday and I'll be up about 5am to catch train.
Wish I had the energy to write more about the weekend and recent things, but all I can say is that things are going well. I'm clear of mind, I'm doing well, I'm still staying sober and moving on and things are pretty grand.
So that'll have to do y'all for nay!
See ya in a week.
Nighty night.
I will have an early night as didn't sleep much yesterday and I'll be up about 5am to catch train.
Wish I had the energy to write more about the weekend and recent things, but all I can say is that things are going well. I'm clear of mind, I'm doing well, I'm still staying sober and moving on and things are pretty grand.
So that'll have to do y'all for nay!
See ya in a week.
Nighty night.
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