Stouffville, Ontario Canada (647) 962-1997 gwstudios@rogers.com M-F 8:30am - 2:30pm & 8:00pm - 11:00pm

Tag: music

Work spaces and their impact on productivity.

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The work from home situation.

I am currently freelancing from home, from my own office/studio space. A place where I can not only create paid design/production work, but can make music, sculptures, paintings, and models too. It’s a place I enjoy hanging out in. It’s  clean-ish (depending on the needs of the job at hand) and quiet during the day, warm & dry, and the best part is it requires zero commute time to get to. So I don’t mind getting to an item at 6:30am one day, or answering a panicked email at 11:00pm the next day. I can pop laundry in as I walk to the bathroom. I can do a grocery shop over lunch. But best of all I’m here to drop my kids off at school in the morning, and available to pick them up at the end of their day. I don’t have to spend four hours a day, five/six days a week traveling downtown, and then across town, then walking several blocks to a job. I’ve excised that demon.

My topic wasn’t WFH, but the space in which I operate. I’ve worked places with no assigned seating or computers, in an open room on tables, in a bank of cubicles, and in a couple of offices of my own with a door I could shut, an air vent of my own I could manipulate, and my own lighting. Being secluded by myself was always the best for me. Collaboration is great, and loads of fun, but the bulk of my labour required very little of it. As normally my bread & butter item in my workload was production. Retrofitting someone else’s art work to fit new specs. A style guide answers the most basic questions, and it was just a matter of producing enough of the artwork to suit all the different brands, sub brands, and partner brands to stay afloat. I do not miss firing off 115 projects a week, every week, until the new fiscal when planners, and bulk sell sheet orders would come my way, and I’d do double, to nearly triple that. Yikes. My wrist fried out, and my eyes went twitchy, and I was not a very kind person. I don’t miss any of that, except the steady pay cheque.

The cool thing now is that when I have a quiet period, of hours, days, or weeks, I can tackle a DIY project, or build in my wood shop, or paint/sculpt/draw in my office, ready to answer a phone call or email. Some times I can even pick up a guitar and strum along to music for a spell. I’m contract, and freelance so I’m not tied go an eight hour day, with a keyboard counter, or a clock watching supervisor. Thank god!  I’m here and available and you only pay for the hours you use. Works great for all involved.

Hot lunches, and a semi private bathroom, shower and laundry on site. Video games and movies on hand. A gym with weights. What more could a person ask for. Oh yeah – no people though. No external interactions 98% of the time. Ah – PERFECTION!

I tell you what. I could accomplish more at home in 3.5 hrs than I ever did in an office over 8. No walk by’s, no drop ins, no gather rounds or team meetings, no memos or circle the wagon moments. All work, no fluff, and no in office pantomime of walking to talk to all the right people just to be seen, and sound busy. It really is fantastic to drop all of those extra steps and just get to do the work I love. Yes I have to send invoices, and do my own books, and plan around delays in payment or lull periods. But freelancing offers me so much more family time while I have young kids that none of that matters all that much. Glorious. But, I’ve always had a spouse that out earned me by a wide margin, even at my highest paying job, so there is that to consider. It was cheaper in the end for me to take a pay cut, but for us to not have to pay before & after school care costs for two kids, plus sitters for pa days, winter break, and march break, and the whole summer.

How do you have your work space set up? How do you like where you are? What would you change? What are you able to change? Take it easy.

Getting Out-Out: Two Nights Running.

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Been a very long time since I’ve gone out twice in one month, let alone two consecutive days in a row in the same week. I feel like a twenty something again! If only briefly, that is before I feel tired by 10:30pm and want to go home to bed. Had a really good time both nights, so a weekend to remember! Rehydrate Friday with fellow school drop off friends, and the Martin’s at the Meridian Center on Saturday. That’s both Steve, and Short. Still sharp as ever into their seventies. Glad I had the chance to catch them live and in person before any kind of decline in health. Hell we were sat maybe ten rows behind Eugene Levy! Fantastic seats. Great theater. Wonderful show.

Oh course, being out late twice means I feel hung over even though I drank only a little on Friday, and not at all on Saturday. Being up late makes me feel discombobulated and hung over anyway. Whether or not I drink, the late night must trigger my bodies memories of getting totally blotto in my youth and just assume I must need the headache, dry mouth, and a need to pee throughout the night. Oh to be aged. Such a luxury! But seriously, that’s like a years worth of social interaction for me, and I could do with a rest, and hiding from interactions for a day. I don’t include my children, nor spouse in that exclusion. Contrary to popular belief I’m not a total bastard.

I miss going places, and doing stuff, but I also like to not be social, and be at home where my comfortable stuff is, like a no line toilet, food I’ve already paid for, drinks that I’ve already got available. My couch, a blanket, movies and the ability to be lazy! See – so hard to choose! Friends and social interactions, or cuddled on the couch, both are a win in my book. As an older guy with intestinal issues I lean towards staying near by, or at home. Getting caught out is not something I enjoy very much, but my guts keep on trying!

To be honest I thought (when i was twenty or more years younger) that i would be hosting more dinner parties, or dance & drink gatherings than we do. Covid put a stop to everything, yes, but now it’s also difficult to navigate schedules, cleaning, desire for social interactions, and a host of other factors. I grew up with my folks having loud, long parties with dancing and lots of drinking. A tradition I thought I would spend more time doing myself. But I do get up and dance with loud music along with my kids. But, we don’t have people here doing the same until the wee morning hours, just to find our kids asleep under tables or chairs (like I would do, as a child 5 or so years of age). With loud music, food and booze you should be able to have a hell of a night, if you can’t that’s on you! Was the motto I grew up hearing. I have not yet hosted a rager like that, not since high school anyway. Ha!

Sunday Funday today. I think we have some Christmas lights to hang at the inlaws today. They go all out for the season. Had won the local lighting competition multiple years in a row. I know the uncle Fred situation had upended alot of their plans for the Fall, but I think him being back in the hospital to stabilize means they can now focus on something more light hearted for the holiday season. Fred’s in good hands, being well looked after for a brief stint. Honestly it’s the best thing for him. Should certainly make him feel more comfortable knowing all those nurses and doctors are around. Can probably sleep better now too knowing they are all there at the hospital. It’s only Markham Stouffville,  but better than suffering at home alone at night.

I have two more projects with one client left to do this week, and then one large report to do for another and I think that will most likely close out my 2023 year. I look ahead to doing my year in review post about my reading challenge. As I get older I feel more confident leaving books half read. I hated doing that in my youth, but I don’t much feel like grinding through books just to get a cover to cover completion rate. I’ll enjoy what I can stand of any given book and will then move on. I think that shows growth! Not a loss of stamina or patience, or stick with it – ness.

But I digress. Save some for the sequel! Ciao Bella.

And so the present wrapping saga begins.

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I don’t mind wrapping one or two items on any given day, but I detest spending hours on end wrapping everything under the sun. I think I drew the line at stocking stuffers last year, and straight up refused to gift wrap shampoo bottles, tooth paste and hair brushes and the like. Way too much work. Sounds curmudgeonly, I get that, but by the week before Christmas my kids have my nerves frazzled. So this year, I am formulating a new game plan to alleviate much of what I don’t like. Smaller doses of wrapping, spread out over a whole month. 30 days until the big man makes his early morning debut.

We are using more and more gift bags as I get older and more ornery. Rather than leaving the whole lot for one night, I think I’m going to schedule just a few minutes every day to wrap one or two things. I also detest the asymmetrical, non standard box shapes for all of these toys nowadays. Give me flat surfaces, 90° corners, and fewer compound curves. Not that I want my wrapped gifts to look rigid and over tailored, but crinkled edges, and bunching isn’t my bag man. Not that the kids care. Like, at all. So, I don’t really know why I concern myself with it so much.

I’m trying to get into the holiday mood, and it’s increasingly becoming more difficult to do so. The tree is up, decorated and lit. The exterior lights are up and illuminated nightly. There is a new light up wreath & bow on the door. That’s about the most of it until the kids get older, and we start to lose more of the toys that clutter the house. We sat down to watch Elf as a family, and later on I sat down to Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Still not feeling it. Maybe I need a movie marathon with Scrooged, NL Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Die Hard, Gremlins & Home Alone to really drive it home. The presence of snow really does help it feel like Christmas. That and music. I miss the yellow LP my folks used to play on endless repeat. I have a photo of it somewhere. Ah yes, here it is:

One of the few Holiday albums that we played over and over again. There was a cassette tape that my brother Steve had too, with Kenny Rogers on it, which is forever burned into my psyche aswell.

Hard to over state exactly how much of my memories of Christmas is entwined with this old vinyl LP. I did scour iTunes to locate some of the songs individually, but it isn’t the same recordings, or we had our record player set differently… either way, it’s close, but not the same.

A stroll down a musical memory lane…

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Turns out I can remember a great deal of silly lyrics even after a few decades of changing musical tastes. I saw that the movie “Weird” is out on Roku now, and went to my CD collection to listen to a bunch of my old Weird Al Yankovic albums. And instantly I was in my early to mid teens listening and singing along to Al’s hits on an endless loop. Though I don’t recall the song names & titles, once he starts to croon the words come falling out of my memory and spill from my mouth. I wouldn’t have scored a 100 on any karaoke leader boards, but the majority of it came back, unbidden, and in larger and longer stretches. With head phones on, I bet I’ve listened to the handful of Al albums I had several hundred times. Bits like “One more minute with you“, or “You don’t love me anymore” just exploded out of me full force. I loved those tunes. Along with “Slime creatures from outer space“, and “Like a Surgeon“. There are so many that I kept on a loop for ages. I don’t remember why I stopped listening to it. Great stuff. Although now that I say that, I picked up the guitar at 15/16 years old and turned to Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Joe Satriani for musical fulfillment. So the parodies, while exceptional, fell out of favour. Then along came the likes of Wolfmother and The Blue Stones, and I just didn’t go back. I did like “Amish Paradise”, “White and Nerdy”, “Tacky”, and a few other more current tunes, but it didn’t linger like it did way back when. I also didn’t have access to the depth and breath of music I have now with iTunes,  Vinyl, cassette tapes, cd’s and YouTube deep dives.

Pretty amazing what both smells and music can do for your memory. The first hint of cool air after a rain, makes me think of England, or my walk to school in Scarborough. Certain Status Quo songs make me think of falling asleep under tables or chairs late at night, when my parents held their raging house parties on Baronial Court. I still recall the odd scratchy softness of that mustard-yellow brownish semi-shag carpet in the dining room/living room. The split mirrors running vertically up one wall showing sweaty people dancing, drinks in hand. Or hangovers the next day with Dire Straits playing on the family stereo. Ah, memories. Could be faulty, could be my imagination at this point. Who knows!

We’re off to dig up potatoes. Or the others are, and I’m taking the car to get an oil change. So I best eat something, and go get the vehicle sorted out. Have a birthday party to take the kids to, so I’m on a schedule today! Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

My baby is coming home.

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So about a month ago I was playing my guitar in an empty warehouse at work when I had a real shitty accident. My guitar slid off of my makeshift stage and sheared the headstock almost clean off. I was not amused. I took it rather well considering the damage that was done. I guess after a solid 90 minutes of rocking out at ten thousand decibels (I jest it was probably closer to 110) I was all played out and didn’t fly into a rage or throw a tantrum. I had a few choice words to say but can you blame me!?!

Anyway I just got the call that my Moosehead Custom Painted Gibson Studio Guitar was ready to come back home. I am thrilled to bits. My guess is that the 100+ degree warehouse and the 100% humidity worked its evil magic on my guitar and snapped its neck pretty cleanly after it took its tumble.

Warning bad language used (but not much).

Any way I will be glad to have it back. For anyone else that wants to see how it looks here is a photo. It is broken in the image.

image

That is all for now. So go rock out and enjoy music if you are able.

Brief update: The repaired guitar is back in my hands at home, and plays like a charm once more. A big shout out & thank you to the repair guys at Long & Mcquade.
-M