Molds for concrete cubes Sunday, 05-Jan-25 19:54:31 CET

Sunday, 12-Jan-25 18:44:12 CET

The floor of the barn was prepared

We inserted the case pipes, water pipes, and sewer in the sand bed. The building company laid insulation and reinforcement mesh to prepare the floor for concrete. I made two songs!

Monday 6 January

Today, DW went to the office, and I worked from home.

I had not checked the weather forecast, so the storm Floriane came as a surprise to me. The garden chairs of the neighbors rolled away in the stiff wind. It was a little challenging to get the mind back at work. I don't think I was perfectly focused. In the afternoon, I had a meeting, and it was good.

When giving hay to the sheep, I got the brilliant idea of covering the water pipe to the tiny house crossing the open trench I made for the barn and the stable. If the water pipe is exposed to cold at that point, it could freeze; water expands when freezing, and the pipe would burst open. I used hay that the sheep had discarded. They drag out more hay than they can eat and then stand on it. I tucked in the open pipe in a large chunk of discarded hay. I hope it will help. Perhaps the hay is also warmer because it is composting. I am not sure.

In the evening, I finished the new song, Cinnamon Roll Symphony. It is a female storytelling rap. It explains the recipe for how to bake Cinnamon Rolls. This is a metric recipe for the way I make cinnamon rolls.

#Verse: Rap
Grab a big bucket, it's time to create,
Now add twenty-five grams of dry yeast weight.
Eight deciliters flour, a quarter spoon of salt,
Half a cup of sugar—don't halt.

Mix it up smoothly, the dry is combined,
Next, make finger-warm fine. Melt and align.
Fifty grams of margarine in the microwave,
Three cups of warmed oat milk. Hold your crave.

#Chorus: Vocal
Homemade cinnamon rolls smell fantastic.
Stop buying buns packed in plastic.
Try using a different filling.
This baking skill will be lifelong fulfilling.

#Verse: Rap
Rollin' the dough. Then, let it rise slow.
Thirty minutes under towels. Watch it grow.
Cinnamon dreams in a golden swirl,
Baking love, cinnamon rolls for the world.

While it's rising, let's prep the sweet fill,
Hundred grams of margarine, a cup of sugar for the thrill.
One teaspoon of cinnamon for spice,
Mix it up good, let it melt real nice.

#Chorus: Vocal
Homemade cinnamon rolls smell fantastic.
Stop buying buns packed in plastic.
Try using a different filling.
This baking skill will be lifelong fulfilling.

#Verse: Rap
Roll out the dough, thirty by forty wide,
Spread the filling smooth, let it glide.
Long edge rollin', keep it tight and clean,
Two-centimeter slices for the dream.

#Bridge: Rap
Preheat the oven to two-fifty degrees,
Line the pan with paper, make it a breeze.
Give the rolls space, let 'em rise some more,
Twenty minutes till they're ready to score.

Egg in a cup, stir it up real slick,
Brush the rolls gently, don't make it too thick.
Nib sugar on top, now it's time to bake,
Golden perfection is what we'll make.

#Chorus: Vocal
Homemade cinnamon rolls smell fantastic.
Stop buying buns packed in plastic.
Try using a different filling.
This baking skill will be lifelong fulfilling.

#Verse: Rap
Eight minutes, watch till they're golden and brown,
Take 'em out, cool them, the best rolls in town.
One plate at a time, don't rush the glow,
Cinnamon rolls, let the love overflow.

#Chorus: Vocal
Homemade cinnamon rolls smell fantastic.
Stop buying buns packed in plastic.
Try using a different filling.
This baking skill will be lifelong fulfilling.

I had a lot of fun making this song. This evening, I managed to generate it and remastered the song. There, something was not optimal. I botched the quality slightly. I had to go to bed on time and did not follow through as I should have, so I uploaded it too early. The song did not have any PUNCH anymore. At this point, I did not know. I went to bed happy that I had uploaded the song.

Tuesday 7 January

This morning, the song was still not live. DW worked from home, and I went to the office. I had a neighbor with me in the car. I brought him to the train station. Then I went to the office. In the morning at the office, the song was released. It takes perhaps 11 hours for YouTube to publish the song. They are always the first.

I played the song to my colleagues, and they did not react as positively as I had hoped. They liked it but took the song for granted. If they listened carefully, it was funny. I noticed right away that it did not sound good.

Today, I could concentrate better on my tasks. For a short moment, we could even see the sun. As a Swede, you should say "Solen!" when that happens. So I did that. There were a couple of bugs that had been found in the holidays that I could work on. I got those fixed and went on with new tasks. It was a great day.

In the afternoon, I picked up the neighbor and drove home.

After blogging in the evening, I remastered the Cinnamon Roll Symphony again. We will see how it is to replace a song at Distrokid. Perhaps it is impossible. It is possible, but the song must first go completely live. At least, that is what I guess from reading the documentation. The first thing is that the song needs to be completely live. That will take a week. Then, when the song is entirely live everywhere, I can delete it. That will also take some time. Then, I can upload the new version; it is probably better to do that with a new name.

Here is how I did to remaster the song. I put the Suno WAW files in two tracks, 1 and 3.

Then I sent soundtrack 1 and 3, the actual sounds, to two separate mixer tracks. Yes, the mixer also has tracks. Soundtrack 1 is sent to mixer track 5 to make things confusing.

Soundtrack 3 is sent to mixer track 6. Both mixer tracks 5 and 6 are disconnected from the master. Instead, they are sent to mixer track 7. Can you follow?

S1 -> M5 -> M7 -> Master

S3 -> M6 -> M7 -> Master

In mixer track 5, I put a stereo enhancer in it to improve the stereo picture. Then I slash off all lower frequencies, and all bass is gone. It looks like this. A few of the most high-end frequencies are also removed.

In mixer track 6, I do the opposite. I don't expand the stereo, but I make it mono. That is done with a stereo shaper preset LR to RR.

Here, I remove all high frequencies, but I also remove the absolute bottom frequencies because they only rumble in a PA system. It looks like this.

Over at mixer channel 7, I take the combined channels and run the sound through a compressor. That enhances the sound. I use Maximus. I changed just little things. For the most part, I left it in the default setting.

Now, there is one more thing happening in "Soundtrack 2". The end of the song was too abrupt.

I got a reverb effect on track 7 before the compressor. I let it be turned off throughout the song. Then, on the final tones of the song, I turn on the reverb. That is done by automating the knob with a graph on soundtrack 2.

I also make the song track stop gently. You can see that on the s curve on the sound wave track.

I put a long decay on the reverb so the song ends in a fade-out. Much better.

I make sure there is almost no headroom in the track. It is a perfect sausage, as the professionals don't like it to be. But I like it because I am not a professional; I want my song to be loud enough when people play it on streaming services.

Now that is maxed! The new version of the song has a punch. The bass is loud and clear. I like it.

I will call this version Cinnamon Rolls and make it the Celsius edition.

Well, in over six weeks, this version will be live.

Wednesday 8 January

Today, our electrician and I planned to work in the barn. DW worked from home on what usually was supposed to be her day off. I think she will have another day off. It was sunny today, especially in the morning, and it was cold, around one degree Celsius. That is just about the freezing point of water.

The electrician and I had not decided when to start the work. After messaging, we decided to start later in the morning.

When he arrived, we talked through the plan I had made, and he approved it. We went around the barn and talked through the details. I hit my head on a beam. That hurt a lot. Will I get a blue spot on my forehead now?

We decided where the central point for the water heater would be and the same for the electricity switchboard. From that point out, we laid pipes for warm and cold water leading to the restroom and the workbench in the canopy. The electrician called it the kitchen. We put case pipes for electricity around the walls that ended at the switchboard.

	“Aorta.”

The grey sewer pipes are glued together and provided with rods that will be fastened to the floor so that if the sand under the building gets lower, the pipes stay with the house. The ground in this area is sacking every year. I don't know how much, but it can be one centimeter, about a third inch.

I filled the sand over the pipes but could not make it flat. I was too tired for that. That was work for another day. According to the plan, the builders will arrive on Saturday and prepare the floor. Not that I was worried about that. Today.

Thursday 9 January

It's Thursday. I'm on my way to work and had to scrape the car's windows from frost before leaving. It will snow heavily in the South of the Netherlands, but there will be no snow here where we live. I think that's a little bit of a pity. I would have enjoyed a pack of snow. I would negotiate working from home with my manager, which would be good.

I was tired yesterday evening. The electrician and I worked intensely in the barn. My forehead is doing fine. I have a sore spot but no blue patch on my forehead. It's hard to imagine that the floor will be finished next week.

I had a productive day. There weren't many of us in the office. Six people. I played my Cinnamon Roll Symphony song, and it was appreciated. I said nothing about the sound quality that I wanted to replace it. They will not understand.

Friday 10 January

Today, I had a day off, and that was good for what to unfold. I made a song about this day.

[Verse]
Building a barn would be easy.
But now I am sitting here, wheezy.
The phone rang, and I got out of bed.
"Today, we are prepping the floor of the shed."

[Verse]
There were heaps in the sand.
Builders came earlier than planned.
Still sleepy, I cleared the space.
I carried out all the stuff at a quick pace.

[Chorus]
Men of few words came to build our shed.
No reason to give up. Keep working instead.
They came too early according to planning.
Could the builders be more understanding?

[Verse]
We were lucky all the case pipes were done.
If the sand were flat, this would be fun.
The builders complained. "This will take forever."
I have solutions. I am clever.

[Verse]
I took out my old trusty Stiga machine.
With wheels and a shuffle blade. What a scene.
The machine shuffled the sand level.
It was still hard work. Not yet time to revel.

[Chorus]
Men of few words came to build our shed.
No reason to give up. Keep working instead.
They came too early according to planning.
Could the builders be more understanding?

[Verse]
The complaints from the builders ended.
Me flattening sand, like a splendid.
Measured my work with a laser.
The builders nodded as my formal appraiser.

[Bridge]
Prep of the sand was complete.
The guys applied insulation before the concrete.
At the break, I brought coffee to the team.
They were on track in their scheme.

[Verse]
Insulation and reinforcement mesh.
I had my portion of stress.
On time, they packed their van.
The day ended well, better than it began.

[Chorus]
Men of few words came to build our shed.
No reason to give up. Keep working instead.
They came too early according to planning.
Could the builders be more understanding?

 

I finalized the song in the evening, but there was no time for mastering and making the artwork.

The sky was clear this evening. We could see stars. I downloaded the Skyview app and identified Saturnus, Jupiter, and Mars in the sky. The app identified constellations. I am not good at identifying constellations, but this app was great. I recall a radio program on Swedish radio in 1977 called "Bland hjältar och monster på himlavalvet." (Among Heroes and Monsters on the firmament) I was ten years old. It talked about the various constellations and the stories in the greek mythology. I remember that those stories were fascinating. The Greeks had it figured out to capture the interest with good stories. Then, someone decided we would clean out all these Greek fantasy figures and replace them with one fantasy figure. Then, they started a multinational corporation selling services around that one fantasy figure. Look, that was new; the Greeks did not have that.

Saturday 11 January

This morning, it was minus 3 degrees Celsius. I hope my heap of hay over the open water pipe will keep it from freezing. The water pipes in the barn are all empty, so there are no problems. The pipes under the tiny house are isolated and have a heating cable, so there should be no problems with freezing.

This morning, I used the last apple from the harvest in Sweden we made on 10 September.

The weather was beautiful today, but I stayed inside my office. First, I mastered the song from yesterday. I used the same technique as the Cinnamon Rolls (Celsius edition). Finding a suitable photo for the album art was challenging, but I chose a photo of the sand and the Stiga machine. It was not of top-notch quality, but it had to be sufficient. I uploaded this to the streaming platforms.

Then, I synced tunes in Music Match. I want all tunes to show synced lyrics. The user interface of Music Match is annoying at times; it has bugs and glitches. I think they do it deliberately so that I will buy an AI service that will do the work automatically, but I will not pay for that right now. The revenue from the songs does not pay the costs of publishing them as it stands. I earned 4 euros on the songs right now. But I pay for Suno.ai and DistroKid. It is fun; that is all there is right now. I am progressing my skills in playing with words, making rhymes, and gaining a better understanding of music, so I am fine as it is without automatic lyric sync. But it takes time, and it isn't enjoyable. In the evening, I still had two tunes to sync. Ladies of the Land and Cinnamon Roll Symphony. I will not sync the latter since I will delete and replace it.

Sunday 12 January

This morning, it was overcast, and it was 3 degrees Celsius. Back to normal. Gray and warm. At least it is not raining. If it rains, I have a song for that, too: Raining again and again. Don't you think every climate change-related weather type begs for its own song?

Today, I synced Ladies of the Land. That means I synced all songs except Cinnamon Roll Symphony. The song Men of Few Words has not arrived yet. It must be on Apple Music and iTunes before arriving in Music Match.

Now, I will delete Cinnamon Roll Symphony. I am curious how that goes.

I click the remove button, and we will see what happens.

DistroKid wants to know that I am absolutely sure that I want to delete the song. I think that is the way to do it when you want to replace the sound file of the song. The album art is easier to change. I understand why; it has to do with the unique ID that the song has. The ID is a hash key for the song data. They run a mathematical function that converts the song's data into a unique number. Changing that data is impossible because the hash key would not match the song. So what do you do? You delete the whole thing and start over.

What then can happen is that we come into a situation where if I want the new song to have precisely the same title, then there is a possible conflict because then, suddenly, we are distributing a song with the same title but two different keys. I think that is when people see error messages. I think I will change the title for the second upload of the remastered song.

12:15 PM. I will keep an eye on the progress of this.

But what happened to LyricFind? They could not verify my artist account. They got an archaic approval process. I expect LyricFind to disappear from the market. It does not matter because my artist account was approved at Music Match. I am okay with that.

When we had lunch, the sun emerged. I said, "Solen!" as all Swedes are supposed to do.

After lunch, we had a walk in the neighborhood. It was beautiful.

We talked about how we would do with the impregnation of the floor in the barn. DW had found instructions saying you should wait for at least 28 days with impregnation. We will work with protective paper during that period. She ordered the products so we can have them when it is time.

After the walk, DW cut my hair. It was about time. I sit on a chair in the kitchen on two pillows. Then DW wrapped bed linen around me to avoid all snippets of hair sticking to my clothing. It does not take long to cut the hair, perhaps 30 minutes. Merida finds the whole process fascinating. Little snippets of hair falling on the ground from time to time. She catches them and investigates them. What could that be? Then, what is there in the area under the bed linen to experience? She stayed under the chair to see what would happen. Nothing happened.

I find it much better with short hair and no long flapping hair everywhere. You cannot see any blue patch on my forehead. I can still feel it, though. The next time I go upstairs in the barn, I will probably arrange padding on the beam where I hit my head.

This week, I wrote 3288 words. Things are progressing nicely.