Stuff and Whatnot With a Side of Venting
This has been a rather taxing week. I have been going to Albany each day for training for my job, which adds about 45 minutes to my commute. Thus, I have been having to get up an entire hour earlier, which after a week takes it toll. Of course, I stayed up late for open mic on Thursday, which made Friday seem even longer. And, since I had been at training all week and returned to my actual job in the afternoon, I had a whole load of work that had piled up and included a few important phone calls that I needed to make ASAP. Which was stressful. Friday night was another late night with Rock Band, which was a great way to release the stress of the week, but lead to me being incredibly tired and quite cranky today.
So cranky, in fact, that I'm going to vent a little and probably wish in a few days -- once I'm no longer cranky from lack of sleep -- that I hadn't written what I'm going to write.
Inside the Open Mic is the first topic of my vent. I posted an episode on YouTube, the Crumbs.net blog, my own website, and Myspace at the end of January. I posted another episode Yesterday. The episode I just posted has acquired 9 whole views so far. Granted it's only been a day and a half that it's been posted... But, I expected at least double digits by now. The episode that was posted an entire month ago -- meaning it's had 30 days to acquire views -- has 56 views. Just 56. Where are the people that have watched the other episodes? The first one, at this point has over 400 views. By my math, and maybe I am doing this wrong, but 400 people saw a part of this series and only 56 of them were interested in it enough to watch another episode. It seems as though there is only a very small amount of repeat viewership, which suggests a lack of interest. Which really sucks because this is a great project for the local musicians and for me and for Caffe Lena. What irks me most (and please remember I am cranky and venting and stating this discontent that I feel in a more aggressive way than I would if I was not cranky and did not feel the need to vent) is that the series received so much great and, quite probably, undeserved attention from the press and then didn't end up gaining any extra or new viewers.
The truth of the matter is that the episode that was posted yesterday will most likely double or triple in views by the end of the weekend. However, the previous episode will gain a couple views here and there and might be up to 80 or so by the time I post the next one at the end of March. And that is promising, however, it still doesn't make up for the fact that the low numbers make all the work that I put into the project and all the work that the songwriters go through in their endeavors seem generally futile.
My hopes for the project is that the viewership continues to increase. So that when I post a video, it gets the attention of more than 56 people in a month's time. It can happen. Unless my hopes are as a futile as my endeavors.
The other bit that has me cranky today is the recording software/usb mic that I got. It's not working. It keeps freezing when I try to... um, use it. It did work, albeit it crappily, for a little while when I first got it. To improve it's crappy working-ness, I downloaded new drivers, which was suggested by the support site for the thing. I have been working on it all morning and have had no luck what-so-ever.
And taxes: the final topic of my venting. A bunch of posts back I asked you ("you" being anyone reading this blog here) to hold me to the statement I made about using the tax return to do some studio recording... well, I'm not getting anything back. I'm paying in thanks to getting a new job that puts me in a higher tax bracket. This more or less means that it's going to be another year at least before I am able to afford to record the CD I imagine recording. I guess that's why they call them dreams (dot) (dot) (dot)
Venting completed. Here follows some more uplifting rhetoric:
I have like 393 "friends" on myspace. I really only sought out a small percentage of that number and just let people add me, which suggests that almost 400 people find me some what interesting enough to virtually connect to me. Some times, these "friends" and I exchange messages or comments and we actually interact. Some times, we interact in person, which is really super-cool. Actually, the almost 400 number is inaccurate because I once went through and deleted a bunch of people that I didn't talk to or have any reason to talk to and because I don't accept every friend request -- only ones from people I intend to talk to or have reason to talk to. I'd probably have closer to 600 right now if I had done that. Wow. I could have had almost 600 "friends." *note: sarcasm laced that last sentence.
Open mic this past Thursday was a really good night. I played two covers and the crowd was spunky, singing along and laughing and clapping when I forgot the words. I played Lonely 'ol Night by Mellencamp and What's up by the Four Non-Blondes -- great for a sing along. Ray Pashoukos played his baritone guitar on What's Up and had a great bass line going. We really got the crowd singing along and we received a huge round of applause. I even received a few nice comments on my screwing up the words. Well, not so much the screwing up, but how I handled it. With the Mellencamp cover, I drew a blank, let people know it but kept playing, explained how I was totally in the moment and was feeling the crowd's energy, and resumed where I left off. Even screwing up can result in coolness if you handle it correctly.
And it's five o'clock. My tummy is grumbly. The End.
So cranky, in fact, that I'm going to vent a little and probably wish in a few days -- once I'm no longer cranky from lack of sleep -- that I hadn't written what I'm going to write.
Inside the Open Mic is the first topic of my vent. I posted an episode on YouTube, the Crumbs.net blog, my own website, and Myspace at the end of January. I posted another episode Yesterday. The episode I just posted has acquired 9 whole views so far. Granted it's only been a day and a half that it's been posted... But, I expected at least double digits by now. The episode that was posted an entire month ago -- meaning it's had 30 days to acquire views -- has 56 views. Just 56. Where are the people that have watched the other episodes? The first one, at this point has over 400 views. By my math, and maybe I am doing this wrong, but 400 people saw a part of this series and only 56 of them were interested in it enough to watch another episode. It seems as though there is only a very small amount of repeat viewership, which suggests a lack of interest. Which really sucks because this is a great project for the local musicians and for me and for Caffe Lena. What irks me most (and please remember I am cranky and venting and stating this discontent that I feel in a more aggressive way than I would if I was not cranky and did not feel the need to vent) is that the series received so much great and, quite probably, undeserved attention from the press and then didn't end up gaining any extra or new viewers.
The truth of the matter is that the episode that was posted yesterday will most likely double or triple in views by the end of the weekend. However, the previous episode will gain a couple views here and there and might be up to 80 or so by the time I post the next one at the end of March. And that is promising, however, it still doesn't make up for the fact that the low numbers make all the work that I put into the project and all the work that the songwriters go through in their endeavors seem generally futile.
My hopes for the project is that the viewership continues to increase. So that when I post a video, it gets the attention of more than 56 people in a month's time. It can happen. Unless my hopes are as a futile as my endeavors.
The other bit that has me cranky today is the recording software/usb mic that I got. It's not working. It keeps freezing when I try to... um, use it. It did work, albeit it crappily, for a little while when I first got it. To improve it's crappy working-ness, I downloaded new drivers, which was suggested by the support site for the thing. I have been working on it all morning and have had no luck what-so-ever.
And taxes: the final topic of my venting. A bunch of posts back I asked you ("you" being anyone reading this blog here) to hold me to the statement I made about using the tax return to do some studio recording... well, I'm not getting anything back. I'm paying in thanks to getting a new job that puts me in a higher tax bracket. This more or less means that it's going to be another year at least before I am able to afford to record the CD I imagine recording. I guess that's why they call them dreams (dot) (dot) (dot)
Venting completed. Here follows some more uplifting rhetoric:
I have like 393 "friends" on myspace. I really only sought out a small percentage of that number and just let people add me, which suggests that almost 400 people find me some what interesting enough to virtually connect to me. Some times, these "friends" and I exchange messages or comments and we actually interact. Some times, we interact in person, which is really super-cool. Actually, the almost 400 number is inaccurate because I once went through and deleted a bunch of people that I didn't talk to or have any reason to talk to and because I don't accept every friend request -- only ones from people I intend to talk to or have reason to talk to. I'd probably have closer to 600 right now if I had done that. Wow. I could have had almost 600 "friends." *note: sarcasm laced that last sentence.
Open mic this past Thursday was a really good night. I played two covers and the crowd was spunky, singing along and laughing and clapping when I forgot the words. I played Lonely 'ol Night by Mellencamp and What's up by the Four Non-Blondes -- great for a sing along. Ray Pashoukos played his baritone guitar on What's Up and had a great bass line going. We really got the crowd singing along and we received a huge round of applause. I even received a few nice comments on my screwing up the words. Well, not so much the screwing up, but how I handled it. With the Mellencamp cover, I drew a blank, let people know it but kept playing, explained how I was totally in the moment and was feeling the crowd's energy, and resumed where I left off. Even screwing up can result in coolness if you handle it correctly.
And it's five o'clock. My tummy is grumbly. The End.