Calm before the storm

Ahh, finally a chance for me to sit down and put everything in my life on hold. It's like I've got a remote that has a pause button and right now, nothing needs to be seen to and no one requires my attention. I can finally take a breather.

Last night, I was completely brain dead to the point I couldn't even think straight. I was staring into space but just didn't want to sleep. All I needed to do was shut myself off and waste away till I fell asleep. I did that, well ok, not just that, I was doing some research about drums and drumming and it was quite cool because I learnt so much in just one night of reading, reading and more reading. My brain was dead but oddly, reading about drumming required almost no effort on my part. It's so interesting reading forums and seeing different people's views and experiences. Especially when something you were thinking or about to type has been already discussed before. I must say the Internet has been a heck of a help and influence in my life. Otherwise I'd probably be a dumb kid right now.

Speaking of the Internet, my youtube clip is at 286,900 hits! Ahaha, it's so strange, I had no idea that this'd happen, it was like "oh ok, I'll put a clip up.... bleh" and now I'm like woah!! This is so cool! :D Stand-up comedy's getting bigger and bigger since people are hearing about it more nowadays and also I'm getting more and more gigs :) I'm enjoying it a lot more as I go since I'm getting more experience and more comfortable with my set. I keep writing new stuff but it just comes over time. I no longer force myself to sit down and write, I've realized it just doens't work and the quality of my stuff doesn't meet my expectations. In fact, the only time I sit down and write stuff is after a shower when I've run through a bunch of new ideas I had and tried to work them out, then I just write down the general flow so I don't forget what I feel will work out. I usually allow it like 2 days for me to digest it and then see if it's still funny to me.

2 days.. so much can happen in just 2 days. I can go from being on top of the world to down in the gutters in just 48 hours. Right now I'm pumped like nobody's business to do so much (especially since I just tried out this new drumming practice/workout routine I've created and I love it!) 2 days is all it takes for muscles fibres to heal and grow and allow me to plug my ears with blasting music and pump some iron. 2 days is what I need sometimes for a project that may take someone else a week to do! :P

But for people who've been keeping up with my blog posts, you'll know I'm a 1-day man, as in I know 24 hours is already a very, very big difference. I've seen myself go from completely shattered, depressed and tired to a 180 degree change in just a day. Sometimes a little sleep, a little down-time does wonders to the point you end up getting more done than you would if you just kept going.

The more I grow the more I realize everything is so inter-related. I was reading about some drum stuff last night, and it was talking about endurance vs control training. In other words, say I were to constantly hit the drum with my right stick for like 10 minutes, I'd be doing endurance training. As long as I had a metronome to guide me, I'd be getting some control as well. However, to get the best control training, I'd have to stop a lot in the middle. Stopping and re-starting actually does a lot of control training and you learn a lot from that as well, after all, when was the last time a song required you to play 10 minutes of the exact same thing?! In the same way, with the pauses, I'll still be getting endurance training and the added benefit of more control training! The same goes for the gym, to burn the most fat/calories, it's better to do interval training (eg. 1 min intense, 2 mins medium, repeat), it forces you to work in a different way. With weight training, it'd be silly to raise a dumbbell and keep it raised.. it's better to raise, lower, raise, lower, repeat. The same goes with my comedy, if I did gig after gig after gig, I'd be in trouble, I'd get tired of it myself, but put a few pauses in the middle and I'll be asking to do gigs!!

Ahh, how life is all inter-connected. I remember reading a book way back, and it said something like no matter how you try, you'll find everything comes to the same thing. Like I've incorporated all my fitness knowledge to my drumming and it's helped. I've combined my ability as a designer with my comedy and I'm getting more creative with my material.

So why calm before the storm? Because I'm at peace right now but I know once I get down to work, I'll go berserk again and I look forward to getting all this stuff done and having a good night's rest tonight. So I just thought I'd share.