Things NOT to do at 1am.

Sometimes I gotta laugh at myself - and this time I've elected to write about it as well. It's now 1:33am... and when I should have been heading to sleep, I decided to review a track I was close to finishing. The first "real" track I'd done entirely on the iPad using a great app called NanoStudio.

The reason I'm still up is not because I'm so thrilled at my creation as I'm astonished at mine own idiocy. As I was looking through the various project files in the app's directory, instead of just listening to the intended track, I decided to do some 'housecleaning'. You see, I start lots of little 'tracklets' - and sometimes you gotta clean house.


Normally I'd open the track, then decide on deletion. This time I just frackin' deleted it. DON'T DO THAT.

Yup - I deleted the one track that was close to completion. And apparently, my pad had not done an iCloud backup in several days(?!). Fortunately, I'd already exported a rough mix of that version the other day... AND I have the sequence it was based on. I just have to alter some parts and improvise a few things. Not terrible - but this will take time I'd rather spend on better things.

Controller data, improvised solo, etc... all to be re-done. D'oh!


In summation: if one is at all tired, it's NOT the best time to start 'blindly' deleting things. Save that option for mid-afternoonish or so.

Losing the Moment

Fact: All moments arrive and pass. I think, generally as humans, we learn the meaning of this more-so as we get older. For the past few years I have been coming to realize this more and more in a variety of ways. Today I had another poignant reminder:

As stated in an earlier post I have very much gotten into photography - and am currently working on several particular studies to showcase in the near future. Some of these require specific conditions. On my way to to the gym I decided to get some (decent) coffee and took a route I normally don't. It was raining, but not too hard. In crossing the street, at just the right angle and lighting conditions, I found an incredible example of one of my studies... but I had dallied to get to the gym and really wanted to get some coffee another block away. I figured: I'll just snap some pics on the way back.

Well - coffee took longer than I thought it would, as I waited for the caffeine to hit, and generally lost track of time. The lighting changed, and it started raining harder. Heading back toward the gym, I carefully looked in the spots where I'd found my subject. Gone. All gone. Washed away in the muck of NYC streets and drainage. I became annoyed at myself, as this was not the first time I'd experienced this lesson.

I realize we all do this from to time: not recording a quick 'demo', not writing down an idea, inspiration, or quote that wafted through our busy heads... or, perhaps worse(?) not expressing an honest emotion we've been feeling for a special friend or loved one.

The moment passes - the rain gets harder and the drainage of time carries it all away. No use in crying over it, nor beating ourselves up... but those moments will never happen in the same way again.

Lesson: take that moment... steal it as you can, express yourself and know that even if it wasn't perfect you know that you took advantage of something that may never come 'round again.