Why I started blogging, again…
Tried to start a blog a couple of times, but it never stuck. It was never, I think, a subject that would interest me in the long run or a subject that I can talk about weekly. Broadcast and esport for sure are still at least 40 hours a week of my life working for DreamHack, but often those projects I cannot share or take up a long time to develop/technically manage before I can write something about it. Working full-time on a project right now that is not announced yet, but probably takes up 4 days of my regular working week already. Things related to my work are probably better to just share on Twitter so they are thrown in the pool of opinions and marketing.
What I did discover during all the restrictions during Covid-19 is that I do make a lot of small things. Stories, drawings, renders, sounds, and many photographs that I normally never share anywhere and that are just living on my computer. Sometimes accidentally deleted. Sometimes lost on an external hard drive. For example, the two renders that I mainly made to learn more about 3D environments and different render engines within Blender. Or when we were on Texel recording the difference in nature sound during the rain. How the rain pushed away the singing of the birds was something I needed to have as a recording. Not knowing what I would do with it yet, but just building a collection for later to use in mixes of sounds and images. I also bought a larger new midi keyboard and Ableton Live 11 Standard Edition to make not really music, but soundscapes/noises/melodics to have in the background to just relax. One of them I posted earlier and maybe I will post some more later if I feel satisfied or if I listened to them enough for myself to have the ability to let them loose. Learning a bit of playing the piano along the way.
The pandemic changes your habits. Started to walk more. Listen to podcasts. What I never thought I would do, because I normally only wanted to listen to the highlights. First just Dutch news podcasts from the NPO and the NRC, but later long conversations between two people or just someone sharing their experience. The podcasts I am currently enjoying are Evaring Voor Beginners (Dutch) with host Theo Maassen and the Creative Pep Talk. The last one takes time to appreciate but has some gems in there. I only noticed that I started to avoid the interview episodes in the series, but with 332 episodes at the moment of writing, there are still hours to listen to.
When I noticed these and other changes in my habits I ordered a tablet to start my Daily Doodle project. Just doodles I make during the day that are like a simplified diary. Maybe you don’t know the meaning, but hopefully, when I personally look at those doodles in a couple of years the drawings still nudge me to those memories when they were drawn. It is also a way to improve my drawing skills without having a large plan. Every page is only one day.
Also making a pledge to myself to spend at least 1 hour a day doing something creative and documenting it on this blog to see my change and learnings over the years. To expand my horizon in making things. Mostly for myself as I don’t expect anyone to read this, but it is good leverage. The danger of someone else reading and seeing your thoughts keeps me accountable to keep pushing this goal that, on the face of it, does not look like a goal.
Some of my photos, sounds, renders, drawings, and animations you can buy on Pond5 (20% off when clicking this link) or Adobe Stock with different kinds of license options.