Crazy Nightmare

The gig went over pretty well. I was essentially background music until the end. Then Boat Drill went underway, and I got my lifejacket, and hat and went to my position. On my way there, Peter stopped me and said I had a liferaft thing tomorrow AT 10:30 AM.
After drill, I went to the meeting, which was short, but I did find that there were over 300 australians onboard, most of which were staying from now until the end of the first Hawaiian cruise. That’s 19 DAYS! They’re going to be so sick of us by then. We were told traveling agents try to package it as a 19 day cruise of new stuff.. But it’s really just two cruises.
I went to break down my stuff afterwards, and ate dinner. Then I got online to talk with some friends.
After awhile, I went back to my room and decided to watch a movie. I had bought “Meet Joe Black” from the 5$ section in walmart, and I hadn’t seen it yet, so I put it in. It was a very good movie. I enjoyed it a lot. Unfortunately it took until 2 am to finish it. After which, I went to bed immediately.

I woke up at 9:50 and got ready quick, and went up to the drill. Once again, I couldn’t hear anything because of the large fan above us. It was rather quick, and I went back to my room and napped until 11:30. Jeff came over and we talked about songwriting, lyrics, and all that. Then I went to lunch.
Came back to my room after and put in “Super Bad.” I paused it midway through and fell asleep.
In my dream, I remember images of me going crazy and destroying everything in my room and bathroom. Then I broke something on my electric guitar. I got off the ship and it was terribly late. I saw a passenger in this music store right off of the ship. Strangely enough, the music store was the one I won the gift certificate for. I was very confused by it. It was merged with a gas station, but the whole building was made out of logs and wood. Lots of Star Wars Toys and Batman stuff in it. The passenger said she wanted to buy me a gift so she bought my strings for me. As we were coming back to the ship, the whole place outside was covered in snow, and I decided to go for a drive. I saw some car, and got in it. But then I noticed the road started to look like Plantations road. The car spun out of control, but by then I realized it was a dream. So I wasn’t worried if I crashed, which I did. I woke up, and looked at the clock, and saw that it was 8:02... which meant it was 9:02 PM, which meant I was 4 hours late for my gig! No messages were left, but I jumped up quickly, very disarranged from the dream, and looked around for my suit, and opened the bathroom door, The bathroom was completely destroyed. The handles were busted off, the mirrors were smashed, and then I started to question if I had done all that stuff while I was awake. I started to panic. I tried to think of how I could explain it to my boss. THEN I woke up again. In a cold sweat, and it was only 3:38... It was all only a dream. But it freaked me out.
So I got my stuff together, showered, got my suit. The ship was in a storm and I think that’s what simulated the car driving feeling in the dream. I got my suit on, and got some sea sickness meds, just in case. I took them and went and set up. It’s been a rather quiet night. I’m feeling pretty tired, but looking forward to my day off tomorrow. Plus, tonight the clocks go back an hour, so I’ll get that extra hour of sleep. Plus the Steelers won today!! 13-10 to the Titans. A first in a long time.
Anyways, gotta go play!

Last Alaska Cruise begins.

I was a little vague for last night, just due to wanting to sleep. Working on a song will do that to ya. At one point last night, an older gentleman, probably in his 70s came up to me and told me I was the best music on the whole ship. He didn’t necessarily like all the songs I was playing (though he liked a bunch.. I think he was referring more to the new stuff), he said I had “the beat” that made people want to get up an dance. A lot of people through pout the week danced, so I guess I know what he was talking about. Ever yesterday, another 80 year old gentleman told me I played the only music worth dancing too on the whole ship.

I also have had people through out the week come in and listen to me do my 90’s thing and they love that, so it’s just a nice mix of music for everyone, and anyone can dance to it.

I was sad however, that I didn’t get to see Greg or Jill the last couple days. Not even to say goodbye. Hopefully they e-mail me, because they definitely made my job all the more enjoyable.

Last night was pretty dead towards the end. Most people were heading to the dancin’ disco. Kind of odd, because usually no one is in there, but the older crowd were eating it up. So for my last hour, I played for one woman, and eventually just broke into a dialog about her working for a newspaper in Houston, Texas. We talked about music, her website, and stuff like that, and I managed to finish 15 minute early. I went to my room and immediately got to work on the song. I worked on it straight until 3 am.

I passed out pretty quick, but had nightmares I woke up late and didn’t get to my gig on time, so of course I woke up a few times in worries.

Over my room intercom, Colleen made an announcement from guest services. I decided to just get up, which was about 9:40. I listened to the song, went and showered, and went out and got a caper. Hung out and chatted with the girls at guest services for a bit, then ate lunch. I had raisin bran, and yogurt.

For all those who don’t know, I LOVE Yogurt. I have a cup at every meal. It’s good too! A good brand. I think that will be one of the biggest things I’ll miss.

Also, last night I was talking with Peter about when I would be leaving the ship. I guess I’ll be going January 6th. His reasoning made sense. It would be pretty hard to get someone to come out here on the ship right before Christmas. So I said I’d stay until then. I’ll just have to rush a bit when I get home. I’ll get like a day to see family and friends, and then I’ll have to pack, and go to NC, and get moved in and start classes soon after. I hate to rush, but I could use the extra 2000 dollars.. so no complaining there.

Well, gotta go do my 12:30 to boatdrill gig. It’s like a day off to me, because I get the night off. Which is the time I like to do stuff. So... yep.

Finished the song

Within an hour I wrote a new song called “The Other Side.” I went and played my shows for the night, and at one point mentioned the song, and writing it, and someone asked me to play it. So, I did, and it was receipted very well.
After the gigs, I hung out with Milan for a bit, since he leaves Wednesday, and we get a replacement piano player. We talked about recording, Macs, Music, school and other stuff.
Afterwards, I went back to my room, and went to bed.

The haircut came out good. A lot of people said I looked a lot younger.. which is good. I’m tired of people thinking I’m 30.

I woke up this morning at about 10, and I began recording my song. I got some cool ideas down. I managed to eat lunch, and do my laundry, but I got the song down about 60%. There’s a little bit more I want to do with it. I’ll try to do what I can tonight. Tomorrow, I play 12:30 to 5, so it will be full week since I’ve stepped foot on land. Which is fine.. I’m getting used to being on the ship, where it doesn’t bother me so much. I have a lot of work to do on my new music, and my website.
I have a killer headache tonight, which keeps coming back, and the crowd has been pretty cool. I managed to bump into Jeff, the piano player, and he wants me to run him through the process of what I do when I write songs. He says he has no problem writing music, it’s just the lyrics. I told him it takes a lot of practice, but we could go over it otherwise. Probably on our first sea day. Well, now I gotta go run and finish up my gig. Got two more hours to go, and then my room to finish up my song.

After the gig, I went to my room and I finished my song for the most part. I might go back and fix little things as I learn how to do them in logic. But.. it’s 3 am.. time to sleep!!

Songs, coffee, website back up, and more songs.

Two nights ago, I went through my gigs. It was a rather quiet night. After I finished up, I visited Yulia, (because she was on the way to my room). I went to my room, and paid to get my website up. I’m going to work hard on it to get it up to date, and maybe offer some songwriting services for bands, artists, producers, and possibly gifts.

I went to bed, but tossed and turned and had a lot of weird stuff on my mind. From people at school, to people I just met; what I’ll be doing after school and other things like that. I finally fell asleep after about an hour.

Yesterday morning, I woke up, and got started on writing the dd 31 song. After about an hour, I finished writing it. I went up and called my dad, and texted a few friends, then went downstairs and started tracking my song. After a few hours, I took a break from it, and showered up, and talked with some friends on facebook. Then I went back to working on the song, and finished it, then I got dressed in my suit, not my tux this time. Got up to go play.

When I got to my stage, a photographer was set up to take pictures at it. And he was going to be there until the end of the night. So I searched out someone with the approval to tell me what to do. I bumped into Marc, and I let him know the situation. He said he’d let Chris know, and so I went and dropped my stuff off in my room and went to eat dinner. I met a new girl named Anna from Belarus. I hadn’t seen her before, and the reason being because she joined the ship two day ago. So we chatted a bit, and I ate my sandwich. Eventually Peter showed up in a hurry. He asked if I could play in the Deco instead (because he knows how much I hate that particular room) which was fine. In the end, he’s the boss, and I’d do it anyway. But I agreed. So I only had to play 3 hours today. I listened to George Carlin, and wrote the blog as I wait to go to my gig at 7:30.

The deco wasn’t too bad. Greg and Jill hung out which made the transition easy. I went to see Eric, the piano player with Greg and Jill. Chatted with Eric a bit, and went back to finish out the night. Got to play over an hour of original music for a couple. Then, I got a mocha, got my computer, and continued work on my website. I got paid for the third song, so I’m all caught up. I went back to my room afterwards, and watched some of king kong. I fell asleep, and woke up at 10, showered, and continued more work on the website. I called in an appointment for a haircut, and now I’m about to write a new song for myself. So... here I go!

www.derekdaisey.com

Moving Along

After the gig that night, I met up with Colleen and went to see the comedian, who was pretty funny. Then she went to bed, and I went back to my room and played games! THEN, I went to sleep. I woke up at 12:30.... Pretty late... but there wasn't much to do because we weren't docked at Juneau until 2. So, I ate lunch, signed up for skydiving, then played more games. At 2:30, I checked my phone messages and saw that Nick had called three times. So, I caught up with him, and found out what's going on in his life. Lots of stuff. He's moving out of NC. But, due to the circumstances I won't say where he's going. But he's doing good, which was nice to hear.

Then Colleen and I went to see The Final Destination... which was the same premise of a movie as the first two.. They relied heavily on computer effects which kinda becomes fake for me. Afterwards, she went off with her friends, and I came back and called Felicia from school, and talked for a long while. Then, I got a banana split from the coffee shop, and chatted with Yulia for a bit. Then I decided to be productive, so I went back to my room and tracked and recorded the acoustic song in 3 hours. Most of the time was just me fooling around trying to get cool acoustic riffs going.

Afterwards, I did some research on band logos, because I really need to get one, and get my website back up. So, I emailed a site that specializes in both website design and logo creation. Then I headed off to bed.

This morning I woke myself up at 10, and took a shower, went to eat lunch. Colleen and a co-worker walked in and asked me to sit with them. Looking out the window the glacier in Glacier bay was right beside the ship. Absolutely beautiful. SO I ran up to take some pictures. Afterwards, came down to my room to check to see if I got paid for the song, and I found I pronounced a couple cities names wrong. So I rerecorded those, and sent them off. Got a reply from the website about the logos, and said they could do it by the 14th, which I gave them the thumbs up, and now I'm going to start writing the next song. I play 5-6, 7:15 to 8:15 and 9:30- 11:30. So.. here I go!

Off to a good start

Well after I blogged, I found the muse in me to writer another of the three songs. It turned out really cool. I went to bed, and woke up, and immediately got started on recording the Christian School song. I got to test out my speakers,my new mic, my porta-booth, and logic. After about 5 hours, I got it tracked and mixed, and just sent it off. A lot of it sounds great on my speakers. I was told they translate well to other speakers, so hopefully that's true! I got to play a spotted schedule tonight, which leaves me being done at 11:30. Not too bad. And tomorrow's my day off.. a day early! We'll be in Juneau, so I'll check my internet stuff, do my usual runs and then record the next song I wrote.

I might try to write the other one tonight, just to have in case I want to record back to back. The 1st one I'm doing will be pretty simple on the account it will just be acoustic. The other one will probably be a band song, which takes longer,obviously. Well I'm gonna go string up my guitar! Write soon!

4 days apart!

Wow! It’s been quite a few days since I’ve updated! The last few days have been pretty crazy. To finish up what went down on Saturday, I ended up riding to Walmart alone, due to not finding Gabe. I ended up getting a temporary replacement speakers until I could get my monitor traded. I also got a bunch of 5 dollar movies.
When I got back to the ship, I showed Colleen, who was at Guest services, and she liked a couple of the movies. She said there was a party that night for the crew and her friends were making her go, and in turn she was making me go. I went back to my room and started working on a new song. Has a cool rock feel to it. After fooling with it for a few hours, I had dinner, and just watched movies, until Colleen called and said she didn’t want to go to the party and asked if I wanted t do a movie night. So she came over and we watched “The Dark Knight”.
Afterwards, we put “Big Daddy” in but she fell asleep, and suddenly woke up, so she left, and I finished the movie and fell asleep.

On Sunday, it was Skagway, so I didn’t get off the boat. I really didn’t do too much. Practiced some new songs, and had my meals. Did laundry.. Did my gig... It was pretty bland for a day.

Monday, it was Ketchikan, and I had gotten a couple song orders, and I saw the price of the ps3 went down, so I picked one of those up and the batman game with Colleen (Who managed to catch me as I was leaving the ship.)
When I got back to my room, I set everything up, and got playing. She called me about 30 minutes into it, and said the cleaning steward wanted to clean her room, so she asked if she could come over and watch. So, she did, and napped through out some of it. Then she ran off the work. I didn’t have to work until 9:30. So I just played games. I was pretty unproductive.
I did my gig, which I had some good people hanging out. I finished at 12:40, which was cool, and I got to go to bed .

Yesterday, it was a sea day. I made myself get up at 9, so I could continue the Batman saga! I went to lunch at 11:30, and sat with Glenn and Aaron, another instrumentalist. I then found out the clocks went forward an hour.. so it was really 12:30... Woops. So I continued playing games for a bit after, then set up my guitar, to go play in the Atrium at 5. I played all soft old songs. It got a lot of old people hanging out at the bar.
I saw Greg and Jill, the Australian couple so I ran and talked with them for a bit, and then I went to eat dinner, played my game! AND then went to my gig, and played 9-1. My last night in the Shanghai bar, because the new piano player was boarding today. His name is Eric from what I saw on the Caper. After the gig, I went to the Crew bar to say goodbye to leighton who was signing off. James let me know I would be playing the artist lounge for the next two weeks. Lame... I saw Colleen with her friends, so I just waved, and hung out with the guys.
Afterwards, I went to get a little bite to eat, and a production singer sat with me (forgot to ask for his name). He mentioned that some of the production people were curious if I’d be a production singer. I said if I didn’t get a pay decrease, and had all the same benefits I’d be open, but with the casino job coming up, I’m not going to have time to do it.
When I got to my room, I checked my internet, and saw I had another song order. And a lot of emails from confused friends why I haven’t been on to talk. Colleen called and asked why I didn’t come over and talk.. I just figured she was having a “girls night”. After that, I went to sleep!

I woke up at 10, quickly got dressed. Packed my busted speaker, and went up to leave. I had to wait with Gabe, because we had items we were going to return. After waiting a bit, MSA walked us into the terminal. We were quickly allowed to leave, since we had receipts. We walked to Tom Lee Music, and split up. I went upstairs, and explained the situation, and they swapped it out for me. I picked up a condensor mic, and a porta-booth kind of thing, where it deadens the sound around the mic, so I get a more crisp sound, and it gives more more room control in the computer. I picked up Apple Snow-Leopard, and rode a taxi back to the ship. It was worth it.
Came back to my room, reorganized my room so I could fit the speakers, TV, ps3, and other various items on my desk, I set up the porta-booth, and tested everything out and it sounds great! Tomorrow, I’ll get to tackle a song order, and try to finish it. I play in the artist lounge from 5:30 to 6:30, and then 7:30-10. Least I finish up at a decent hour. We start the Glacier Bay run this week, which means We start, and end in Vancouver, but we still see Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. All in a different order. Juneau is first... Not sure if my day off changes or not... But I assume it will since Saturday is now a sea day.
Two weeks until Hawaii!!! I’m going skydiving!! Okie, gotta get to work!

I went and played. It’s a nice little place. I liked it more than I thought. Greg and Jill watched me, so I played all originals. Then went to dinner, then went back, and had a lot of people there so I rocked out and had a great time. People were dancing, singing along, and all that great stuff. When I finished, I checked out the new piano guy. Real good piano player. He looks to be between 22-28.. I’ll have to ask.
I got a milkshake and talked with Iulyia, who served me the drink. Then I came back to my room. And here I am writing a song for a christian school. One of the three song orders. I’m one line from being done writing it, and I’ll spend tomorrow recording it. Good night though... I was done at 10.. great stuff!