Hey there readers,
Hope all is good. Here’s the next instalment, uniquely entitled Post No. 3 of my infamous newsletter (infamous now, and maybe one day it will be world famous - I can but hope). Come on, admit it, you are beginning to warm to the titles now.
So, what’s on my mind? Keep reading…..
Disclaimer:
This is not perfect, and there will be typos and parts that are not neatly glued together. But the point is more to build up my newsletter count and have a bit of fun. You can point out my mistakes, and I will ignore you and make more of them.
You’re welcome!!
What I’m thinking
I’m thinking……how often should I be sending out this newsletter? I haven’t really come up with an answer, as this will make it seem like a job, and I really want it to be spontaneous for now. Let me know what you think. Do you like these burst editions or would you rather me space it out with tons more to read? Get in touch :)
What’s in the news?
Finland joins NATO
If you look on Wikipedia, you will see the following:
Finland became a member of the European Union in 1995, joined NATO's Partnership for Peace program on 9 May 1994, applied for NATO membership on 18 May 2022 together with Sweden.
And that application was just waiting for the Turkish Parliament to basically give their blessing. This happened on 31, March 2023. Finland were hoping for Sweden to join with them, although (at the time of writing) there has been a couple or so more boxes to tick. Why is this important for Finland? Well, with the conflict between Russian and Ukraine, it was a concern for Finland that they may be impacted in some way if the war continues. So it makes sense to have the security of NATO.
Alert: April 23, 2023
I thought there was already a way of alerting people without this new innovation by the government. Anyway, at least you can see where your taxes go…..on pointless, pathetic smart phone alerts. Even if I was on the toilet (delivering my daily news and views), I think I would still know when the sh** hits the fan and action needs to be taken. Anyway, if you are like me and want to ignore this particular alert, you can go into your settings and switch off said notification.
What I’m Watching
Luther: The Fallen Sun
As this is a film, and not a stretched out tv series, I have actually watched it all. For those fans out there, this is right in keeping with the British action you have come to know from Luther. It’s great to recognise some of the areas of London, like Piccadilly for example. A rough cop who gets put through a crazy amount of challenges. But will he succeed? Go ahead and watch it.
What I’m Listening To
Listening to music has always been part of my DNA, and generally I steer more in the urban space. Having said that, I will open that boundary to almost any other genre just to inspire in the experimentation of my own productions.
Nothing in particular this time round, but I regularly switch between RnB, Dance, Reggae, Drum N Bass, and even Popular music. It’s spreading across all of these genres of music that inspires me to create my own.
Games I’m playing
Township (mobile game)
Yes, I have fallen for that time consuming art of trying to build and maintain my own town. Trust me, it’s not as easy as it looks in the trailer. I can’t imagine how many hours I have wasted, trying to perfect the layout, collect precious points and coins in order to progress. It’s probably been a few months now, but still a fun game to play.
Generation Zero (XBox)
This is recommended by other gamers, so why not. Well, I don’t know if it’s just me, being the casual gamer that I am, that the controls seem a little bit old school, but it did take a bit of time to adjust. I think it may be a few years old anyway. So, I played it for about an hour or so, and I guess it turned out to be ok. Reading subtitles, fighting with robots, and thinking a little outside of the box about sums it up. The one irritation was re-spawning takes you back from the point you were killed and I wasn’t able to jump into a car and get there quicker. Maybe a chat with the developers and introduce them to the developers of Grand Theft Auto would do the trick.
Creative Zone
Creativity is the core of my existence, It’s a creative rollercoaster of producing either music tracks, mixtapes, 3D scenes, or digital garments. Sometimes you have to take time out, engulf yourself in new techniques and ideas and then go again. Watch this space….periodically new stuff will be here.
Going back to the last post, and you recall I gifted you with DNBReese. To keep the momentum going in this post, I am extending my kindness and gifting you with another snippet of my creation. This one is called YarYarDance. It’s a Banger!!! I don’t mean I am labelling it as the next best thing, more that it bangs on the kick drum, so when you play it, don’t play it too loud, because I don’t want complaints about popping ear drums.
To add a little background, I decided to experiment with a sine wave and take it from there. I didn't even think about what the end result would be, but there is so much fun (and sometimes frustration in tweaking, changing and experimenting) in trying things out and then happening upon a sound that you have no idea how you created it. Especially that sound you hear at the end of the snippet. I will get better at this, but just know, I will drop a snippet of my projects along the way, by means of these posts.
What advice can I give?
80/20 Rule
I picked up this little nugget during my management and leadership training. I don’t think I was paying attention, so I won’t relay fully what I was supposed to have learned. But what I decided to do was apply it to any job that I engaged in from that day forward.
So what is my 80/20 rule? Well, when I started my career, it was all about impressing my manager and to do as much as I could do physically to get the work done. What this meant was that after, let’s say a year or so I was burned out. And when it came to my review (focusing on the money aspect), I was fobbed off with excuses….age, budget, stars aligning, the next solar eclipse and so on. This happened a number of times, and it was only then that I woke up and smelled the coffee. What I decided to do from then on was to firstly stick to the hours I was contracted to do. Initially this may have a curious conversation with your manager, when you decide to push back as opposed to other times when you would just agree to do whatever is asked of you. Taking regular breaks, and especially lunch is all very important. Following this pattern really comes into it’s own when you then are faced with times that you may need to be required to step up a little, and with the 80/20 rule, you have the capacity to do so, without feeling used and abused.
I recall the first time saying no, and the weak feeling inside, the fear and nervousness. My manager confronting me, saying things like I have done this before and the company really needs the extra amount of time to get it over the line. I also remember thinking that my bank balance would like a little extra too, and until that happens, neither of us are going to get what we want.
Know your worth and make sure the company knows your worth and pays accordingly.
Till the next time
And that is it, the end of this post. Hopefully this is enough to encourage you to return for more. Each post will be different, and include different elements of my thoughts depending on what has happened in the day-to-day life from the last post.
Remember, if you found this useful/entertaining please click on the heart/drop a like. If you have any suggestions for future post elements, just drop me a line. I have enabled the chat functionality, so you are able to communicate through that channel. Thanks.
Stay safe and I’ll catch you in the next post.