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I consider myself an outgoing introvert. I have no issue sifting through crowds and personalities when my social meter is on F. I often, when back in the U.S., would find a festival or a social event to go to. It enabled me to be around people and open up if a situation allowed it.
One thing about Vietnam is a lack of such spaces. It’s frustrating and motivating at the same time - a lot of activities push for spending time with friends or in groups. It’s a headache when I want to be out by myself but it makes for a great time when you have friends to share moments with!
This weekend I had the opportunity to try Mam Tom (not spelled with the correct phonetics). A co-worker of mine is a huge fan and I took him up on his offer to go out and try it. We ended up linking with a mutual friend of ours and made our way to a grade A ‘hole in the wall’.
Not sure if it’s like this in other countries, but there is a belief in the U.S. that the dankest, grungiest restaurants tend to have the BEST food.
This place was no exception:
Mam Tom is fermented fish paste (i.e. a dipping sauce). It’s the bubbly/oily stuff in the white bowl. Mama-slappin’ goodness that was only made better by the tofu, spring rolls, and random assortment of foods on the wicker plate.
It was FAN.TAS.TIC!
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Arrangements
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PAST and PRESENT
MAN. OH. MAN.
If you didn’t know, I have been knee deep in a personal (name change) OST Challenge titled ‘Journey to the Sun’. It’s only been two weeks, but I have learned SO MUCH. Here’s a rundown of my top personal epiphanies.
I am capable
So, one thing that I was worried about was meeting my finished-minutes-of-music quota. Honestly, it wasn’t simply fretting over writing enough, it was about writing quality material!
Now, music is subjective, but I.. I think I’ve written some pretty solid pieces in my allotted time frame. Not just that, but I’ve actually gone above and beyond my quote of finished music! I’m going to have well over 45 minutes of music by the time I’m done with this whole shin-dig.
2. Time manage, time manage, time manage
I had been doing a decent job of this thus far, but this past week has gotten the better of me. I am new to juggling outings with friends! I have had a (warmly welcomed) increase in quality time with people. and this resulted in falling behind in my day job work.
This domino effect toppled over into my writing which resulted in a dizzying amount of unpreparedness in both areas of my life!
I’ve recently caught back up with myself so to speak, but it has resulted in me rearranging how I manage my time! Making time for friends is pretty… it’s pretty nice, haha.
I’ve found ways to make sure I attend to varies aspects of a clean/well-kept home and mind. A couple of tricks -
Lesson planning in total silence (works for me)
Setting aside 20 minutes to clean/tidy the house.
Being flexible and truly understanding the breadth of my schedule.
Next week isn’t going to be like this past week, that’s for sure!
3. Practice before you .. play? Eh.
Before starting this project, I started warm-up streams for a couple of weeks in order to get into the swing of streaming.
I am SO glad I did.
Even with a week or two of practice with prepping video and audio, I still had technical difficulties the FIRST day of the stream. I’ve had one major technical difficulty since then, but I can only imagine how frustrating it would have been to just.. jump into streaming. It’s not easy. There are a lot of things I need to focus on/upgrade, but that will come in due time.
4. No viewers, no problems.
I am ultimately doing this to test my capabilities as a composer, as well as have a visual catalog of me completing a project of this caliber for future clients/partners.
The idea of having people watching me is great, but I went into this not expecting people to view me live. The reasons being:
Time Zones
Time Zones
..Time zones, and..
Oh yeah! Time zones.
I’ve had.. maybe 5 or 6 people (humans) drop into my stream. Luckily I’m not into this for the viewership. If I was, I’d be devastated by the lack thereof.
Right now, the idea of these videos having relevance in the future is super exciting! Right now, I’m infatuated with the process, despite how tired I am or have been.
I’m pretty focused on completing and not getting holed up by what I write, but man, I’ve been listening through the soundtrack and I have to say that I’m pretty darn happy thus far.
FUTURE
This one’s pretty easy. Finish the first half of Journey to the Sun by the end of the month, and prepare for an upcoming soundtrack release.
Aside from my personal project, I need to get things ready to end up on Spotify.
I’m still a bit skeptical of putting things on Spotify. I kind of want to keep my work on Bandcamp due to meager sales on Spotify’s platform.
I keep grappling with this idea and I need to get it figured the crap out and do something.
…
I’m going to do it because: visibility.
..I don’t like it, though.
RUMINATIONS
None!
Well, I hope that this personal project yields future work in some way shape or form.
I hope that my recent projects are well received when they are released.
You know, the usual composer woes.
If anything, I have personal projects I can do to test my mettle, keep me preoccupied, and push my limits and skillset as a composer.
“Thanks for reading!
Here’s to doing good things, making things happen, and being good people.”