A long and very tiring day, but satisfying in its trawl. I started the day by watching a motivational speech video on YouTube, an edit of a talk by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's conclusion was to have a vision, and to keep at it. Good advice for certain, I've always had a fixed vision of and for my life, and each day I've kept at it, yet, any 'success' as such can be elusive. For over a decade, perhaps 20 years and for all of my youth, I worked on my dream of making computer games, and at the end of it had made almost no progress. I should, if anything, have given up far earlier, but if so, would I have become the artist I am now destined to be? Art became my new vision.
Arnie said that 75% of people do a job they dislike. What fools most humans are for tolerating such a situation. Why work to extend an unpleasant life? I was reminded of the joke 'the food here is awful, and such small portions'. The 75% should quit immediately, but most people are too cowardly. The rat race is named after the rat-like humans who live like animals and by instincts; the unfortunate majority.
I've sold another copy of How to Organise Your Computer Files and this motivated me into working on an e-book version. This is quite a laborious and exacting process. There are tools to 'automatically' convert a book, but it is best done manually, to format and link everything correctly so that it is as beautiful and as functional as the real book.
So I started the conversion process in Calibre, reducing the pages to a neat HTML page per chapter, renaming the pages, sizing and placing the artwork, optimising the CSS tags. This process was complete by about 4pm.
The submission and checking process took until 5pm, then I started work on The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke, our musical version of the original Richard Dadd poem, which will be a bonus track on the Salome album. I seem to have done quite a lot of work on this Victorian artwork over the years! My own painted response, a song all about it, and now, a musical adaptation of the poem. My new musical production is for harp and has some angelic female choirs, very much gentle Victorian fairy stuff. I've only worked on the most vague of outlines, dividing up the chord changes in the sequence.
The day is done.
My throat and mouth is sore, the result of consistent and annoying blood blisters which keep forming in my mouth and throat for no reason. I also still have this recurring virus or infection or whatever it is, which I've had since March 2010. It says hello regularly with a sore throat/ears/chest, and this change to a colder season is its invitation.
The equinox is coming. How September has flown. Oh for more days, more life, more security and time to create; yet each day I devote each hour to creating, to doing and living my best. Some jobs, like this Salome music, simply take a long time, and are completed in tiny and exacting pieces.
Now I must away to Deb for wine (in truth, I hardly ever drink, a 15ml is a large measure of anything alcoholic for me) and a mix of relaxation and stimulation.
Farewell to you, ear of history, echo of digital eternity. Much love for this night.
