Showing posts with label deadline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deadline. Show all posts
Saturday, June 10, 2017
A 1000-Year Life Expectancy hr594
I’ve heard some scientists and science-fiction writers say the average
life expectancy of humans will get even longer fast and we could soon
live up to 1000 years old. If it’s true, it’s a huge game changer.
Supposing I live until 1000 years old, the shape of my life will be
entirely different as of today. First of all, the pace of living will
get slower. I won’t have to hasten anything since I’ve still got more
than 900 years left. I won’t fuss over the quick completion of my new
song for which I’ve been deep into mastering. When I complete it without
hurry, I will move on to another song and take plentiful time to finish
it again. Even such a slow worker like me can stock ample songs in over
900 years. With that duration of time and the number of songs, the odds
can be better that one of my songs could be found by some chance and be
a smash hit, which will make me a celebrity and lead me to Monaco to
live in. Secondly, I will be freed from fear of aging. I seriously
resist getting old, sometimes quite hysterically. Of course no one likes
to see their skin sagging and all wrinkled. But when I see my
deteriorating looks, I feel a deadline for making my dreams come true.
Getting older means getting closer to the deadline for whatever we
haven’t yet achieved. The sense that we might not make it is dreadful if
we have something to accomplish. Now that the deadline is well over 900
years away, how peaceful I can feel for the moment! I don’t have to
pronounce my dreams dead just yet. The day could come when I see people
all around the world listen to and hum my songs. If I moved in Monaco at
the age of 300, I could live there for almost 700 years. In the course
of 1000 years, it could become a common practice that a human body is
replaced by a cyborg. Aging could be extinct. I could be a ballerina as I
dreamed of when I was a child. Or, I would be the president of the
united world when I’m 500 years old. As a simpler alternative, I could
win the lottery before I die, since the odds turn good with the
innumerable lotto strips I will get in over 900 years. That could give
me a come-from-behind fortune. By making a smart investment of it, I
could end my life as a team owner of Formula One. It seems anything is
possible once I have 1000 years. This rapture is weirdly familiar to me.
My grandfather. He had the habit of saying he would live until 100
years old when I was little. Back then, not so many people lived so long
and everyone of my family used to scoff at him. Although he couldn’t
reach 100 but died at 96 years old, it was close enough to his fantasy
goal. In that respect, I could go as far as 900. But I noticed a long
life expectancy is not necessarily all good. Life requires money. I’ve
made ends meet with bare life so far in my life. As anything is
possible, it’s also possible this state continues as long as I live.
1000 years of financial worries? It definitely sounds like a living
hell…
Labels:
aging,
celebrity,
cyborg,
deadline,
dream,
Family,
fortune,
grandfather,
hell,
hit,
investment,
life expectancy,
lotto,
mastering,
Monaco,
money,
odds,
rapture,
science-fiction,
scientist
Saturday, May 6, 2017
Illusions of Completion hr592
My work for the new song is drawing to a close and it’s in the mastering
process now. I usually make the master track and leave it for a few
days before the final check. The interval is essential for me because it
gets me out of the zone, calms me down and gives me ears to listen
objectively. Since this particular new song of mine required difficult
mastering, I had trouble with finding the solution. It took much longer
than I had expected to make the master track. I finally got to make one
and tried to forget all about it for a few days. After the interval, I
got so tense and excited that couldn’t sleep the night before the final
check. What made me sleepless was the thought that on the very next day,
I would finally end this painfully prolonged mastering and could see
the song completed. I knew I needed a good night’s sleep for a good
physical condition to make good judgement, but that pressure for all
good kept me awake all the more. I listened to the master track the next
day carefully and objectively, and found one slight flaw. I was
disappointed that it wasn’t the day. I had to correct it and hold the
completion over. I repeated the process of mastering, taking an
interval, having difficulty sleeping, and making the final check. Then
on the day I believed this would be the day of completion, I noticed one
minor kink. I redid the process all over again. At the moment, I’m in
this loop and can’t get out of it. I’m literally stuck in the mud of
mastering. I make it a custom to open champagne when a song is
completed, which doesn’t happen often because I’m a slow worker.
Completing a song is so infrequent that I celebrate with Moet Chandon.
It’s my favorite but too expensive for me to drink except for New Year’s
Eve. This time, I put it in the fridge months ago when I thought this
song was completed at any moment. And it’s been there unopened for
months, as I’m deeply caught in the mastering mire. Every time I open
the fridge, I see Moet chilled so long and almost frozen up, blaming my
prolonged work. I keep declaring to my partner that today is the last
day for this song, and retracting it at the end of the day. He doesn’t
say anything but I feel his disappointment and anxiousness. As I’ve
taken back my words of the completion so many times, I fear that he
might see me as a useless liar who is just lingering slow work. I can
take as much time as I like in theory since the deadline doesn’t exist
for the song. Even so, I’ve already spent five years working just on
this song and it’s too long for a slow worker like me. That notion puts a
lot of pressure on me to complete fast. It seems to me as if both
Moet’s and my partner’s patience is running out. Workdays have dragged
on and on, and it has begun to eat me mentally. These days, when I
finish my day’s work and tell my partner that the song hasn’t been
completed again, I sense that he throws me a cold glance implying, “I
thought so.” The other night, I had a dream in which I cried for joy
because the song’s mastering went perfectly and it sounded flawless. The
other day, when I failed to finish the song for umpteenth time, I was
so irritated that I took it out on my partner and had a nasty
dinnertime. In this anguish, winter ended and spring has come. I’ve been
correcting small parts that I’m not satisfied with, which hinders
completion. The thing is, those parts are too small to be called flaws
or even kinks. I’m certain nobody would notice when he or she listens to
it. Then what am I doing? What am I chasing? I may have lost a
definition for completion. What is completion, after all? I’ve asked
basic questions to myself and the answer is the same. I just want what
I’m entirely satisfied with. If I called anything other than that
completion, it would be a lie. I would actually become a useless liar
and be done for. I would rather be bogged down in this mud of searching
for my perfection than that. So I go on, starting another loop yet
again, while I keep crying completion to my partner, to myself, and to
Moet Chandon…
Labels:
anguish,
arrangement,
champagne,
complete,
completion,
deadline,
illusion,
liar,
mastering,
mire,
Moet,
Moet Chandon,
mud,
Music,
patience,
perfection,
pressure,
song,
track,
work
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