08 June. There’s been My Comments pages here since January, I don’t want to dwell on the past, and besides my thoughts of a few months ago is irrelevant in comparison on my thinking of now and tomorrow. To this end I’ve removed January, February, March and April, I’m going to always leave the previous month so there’s a bit of context so May will remain present. I’ve not keyed in any of the lyrics I’ve been writing since 27 February, I’m on my third 300 page notebook and I have been really focused on my writing although the focus has far too often drew me to the topic that has to go in the personal folder, but there’s a lot that can be developed as a love item, we shall see, that’s all for another time. My plan is to work out the best way to promote this place, many moons ago I used to collaborate with tune-smiths and gained a lot of enjoyment from it, and it always removed me from the poverty bracket. There’s nearly one thousand lyric on site, that’s forty odd years of writing, 58 of the lyric have been written this year. We shall see how things pan out. 15 June. It’s nearing 5pm in the UK and I’m finding it hard to believe that my third 300 page notebook has been completed, done last night and doing scribbles into another one. I started it on 18 May and finishing it last night? It’s less than a month! I don’t think I’m a lot of the times aware I’m pulling my notepad from my back-pocket and writing something. There’ll be a lot of good to work on and of course there’ll be a lot of bad which I’ll discard. I think a lot of the creative writing is down to not doing any assessing of lyrics to the next generation, so I’m totally focused on writing down ideas. Two things to say there, I’ve not keyed in any material on they three complete notebooks, I’ll need to rectify that at some point but the reasons I won’t be keying them in for now is in my second observation, I’m totally focused in sorting this place out. I’ve been spending a lot of time on the campaign site, retreaving and then editing videos is quite time consuming, and it gives me ideas for this place. There are a number of things I need to focus on getting sorted here. The first isn’t technical, I need to look at all the page narratives and update them, I’ll be doing that this week. The second is a bit technical although it shouldn’t be. There’s a lot of lyrics that I’ve still not copied from the database and pasted to a WordPage page. When you paste to site there are errors and I need to sort that out, and that I need to work on over the following week. Once I’ve got things reasonably spic and spot I then intend working on how to promote this place, I’m sure it’ll end up costing me money, fine; but what is the best method of doing it? My ambition with here is to make all my work available to tune-smiths and start collaborating on the writing of a song, I used to do that a lot of years ago and I think I want to return to that. I’ve added a next/previous facility that can be used if one wishes, but it’s only available to the WordPress pages. I need to get all lyrics onto singing from the same hymn sheet. 18 June. It’s after 11am and yesterday and today I’ve been working on the ability to gain a logo, a simple ‘TheLyricSite’ would be fine but it’s never as easy as that (well at least not for me), I used the WordPress forums but it was way over my head and I don’t have the time to sit and delve into it, a logo isn’t as important as the major issue I face. And that put simply is the task of copy and paste my lyrics from a Word Doc to a WordPage page. I’ve tried using pages, yesterday I was trying posts, same answer, formatting issues, the lyric isn’t as I want to paste. The option ‘paste’ gives the lyric the correct lines of words, but it’s double spaced and there’s no line-space to differentiate different verses. The ‘paste without formatting’ option gives it the way I want it but there’s formatting issues with part of a line as part of the previous line, and since it’s on-site it’s not like manipulating the text as a Word Doc. I find it strange that I was able to copy and paste without formatting most of the ‘Crazy Years’ lyrics without any issue. Another one of they mysteries in my life. Today and tomorrow I shall be pursuing this task to get it sorted. 19 June. It’s 5.30pm and I was busy yesterday arguing with the tech stuff on how to copy and paste my lyrics to site, I don’t like the way the archived material accessing the lyrics, they’re all in a database with the server which I did years ago, and I don’t like the look of it. And besides, the lyric being as a WordPress page means I can manipulate the page, unlike a link to the lyric on the database. This morning I did a couple of hours arguing with the tech stuff, I gained comments from some people on the WordPress forum, but it was really technical stuff. A beautiful day and went to my favourite cafe and had brunch. I never pull my phone out in public, my notepad yeh, I wanted to check up on WordPress plugins that could properly edit what I’m wanting to do, I scribbled the name of one that seemed to fit the bill. Like I say, a beautiful day and I said to myself I ain’t going home yet. Got the bus to Johnstone and walked about, messed about a few shops and bought myself a summer jacket. The one I’ve been using and I’m in love with is falling apart I’m afraid so needed replaced, but my old friend will sit in the wardrobe. Cleared my head I guess and thought of a couple of beers but got the bus back and sat here at my old faithful pc friend! I installed the plugin thinking it would work, no joy. I read the doc files on the plug in and it advised using the Classic Editor, so I installed that. It works and I can now copy the lyrics from a Word Doc straight to a page here and it looks exactly the way I want it to look. Sometimes you need to keep things as simple as possible. Okay, I’m going to get on with the copy and paste job, need to note the links, then…well there’s various things needing done. If I keep at it, job should be done by the end of next week. And I can maybe then look at promoting this place. 20 June. Okay it’s nearing 5pm and I’ve been at the pc all day, I popped out to the shop across the road this morning and didn’t realise how warm it is; but stuck at the pc it has been. All the lyric that I want from the Amiga times and now called The Therapy Years are now on site, been a bit of a technical argument but I won in the end. There’s only Generations B, F and G present, there’s far too much repetition putting the other generations on board. I’m going to slurp this coffee I’ve just made and then take my notebook downstairs to the communal backgarden. We got a bench to sit on, I’ll have my notebook with me, hope to be inspired. I still need to check out all the lyrics in The Crazy Years, I’m sure there’s some with some formatting issues. The lyrics in The Growing Up tab shall get done next week. I’m on a sleepover tomorrow, I’m growing weary of caring for others but I really do look forward to seeing some of the staff. Thinking of the place just now. 22 June. I’m not long home from a sleepover. I like when I’m the only staff member and I can sit at the coffee table and simply think. I’ve got a lot of scribbles that I hope some will develop into something, the place is good for my imagination, well I think that’s the best way of putting it. The other day I identified two lyrics with formatting issues in The Crazy Years tab, They’re ‘Let’s Let It Go’ and ‘Slow Down’; I shall rectify that tomorrow, but it’s not as easy as ‘correcting’ the format, the lyric pages will need to be replaced with a correctly formatted page and that will affect the hyperlink, but I’ll get it done, I always do. I’ve proof-read all the lyric in The Therapy Years and using the classic editor, every one of the lyrics are good. There are quite a lot of lyric in The Growing Up Years tab, I’ll need to gain Word Docs for each from the database that’s online, and then create WordPress pages and then create links, bla bla; I will get that done hopefully to conclusion this week. Yeh it was good being at the place of work again, if it wasn’t for the presence of certain members of staff I’d pack it in to be honest, I’ve did a lot of years caring for others, it’s getting near the time of me caring totally for myself. 23 June. It’s coming up for 2pm and since say 6 I’ve been sorting out the campaign site, I almost always do a video post each day, did one this morning whilst I was slurping my first coffee and I realised I had only one left to post. Gaining and editing is a long drawn out process, anyway, I’ve sorted out ten to go on-line in due course. I’m getting really depressed/worried about the path the world seems to be treading, and perhaps part of my anxiety on this subject is due to I cannot help in any way, don’t know. I know a number of couples that have been ‘happy’ with each other for years, some of them have diverse opinions regards political life. I’ve actually noticed that the ones that don’t agree politically are far more relaxed, they seem happier. Not that I’m a raving researcher or anything, it’s just I know what I see. There’s people I’ve known for years that keep criticizing my choice of eating, I don’t know why God has me still alive, the way I’ve lived my life is to distruction, but that’s another story. My alleged pals will be sitting with their multi-coloured food and it’ll smell amazing, but I’m damned if I’ll tell them that when they slag off my plain whatever. I still love them to bits and isn’t that what life is about if you’re doing it right? At the beginning of this year I changed my shift pattern and I’m now doing two ten hour shifts a week or a sleepover a week, I think it’s a 19 hour a week contract. I’ve officially retired and getting a state pension, I always thought you had to be grey haired or bald and/or walking with a stick to get to where I’m now at. Okay I diverse as usual, I remember a couple of years ago I was doing ten hour shifts, I remember during Covid I was doing they shifts six days and sometimes seven days a week; it’s a big change to me now only doing two shifts a week. I remember when I was busy doing the day job and I still managed to sort out video for the campaign site, still plan things for it, the lyric site came before but I didn’t do any work on it in they days. I’m now finding it extremely difficult to motivate myself, but I’m moving from a practical life to a writing/fictional life, so maybe I should go a bit easy on myself, never learned how to do that I’m afraid. I think I mentioned it yesterday about the reduced hours and not seeing the people I value as much or if at all. Things change, that is life, I’ve been to too many funerals regards people I love. With regards that sentence I should perhaps make the point that if I love someone, I don’t stop loving that person because they’ve passed, most of the people I love have now passed, if that’s not a sad indictment on my life I do not know what is. After saying that I remember my auld Maw (who passed away maybe ten years ago and aged 91) telling me it’s an ‘occupational hazard’ getting old, you witness your friends pass away. And is that not so true? I think what I’m trying to say is the deeper you love someone, the deeper the hurt/pain when they are removed from you. Talking of the people that have been removed from me, what about the ones through choice. As said, I’ve reduced my hours and I was not aware of the consequences of that. I don’t miss the caring so much about the guys that I help to support, I’ve did a lifetime of that; but I really do miss certain, a few individuals that I’ve worked with. I used to have a natter with them and that now rarely happens. In fact because it’s now so rare, the relationships have changed and the familiarity isn’t the same. There’s perhaps a lyric there somewhere, not that I’ve been writing about it quite a lot. I think I’ve babbled on quite enough. It frustrates me needing to endlessly update the campaign site, it takes up so much of my time. I need to focus on this place, how often do I endlessly state that ambition? 27 June. Yesterday morning I left at 9am and was at my day job for 10am. I was supporting one of the guys on an overnight, I was deliberating there to state where but I see no matter, Ayr in Scotland; not that far from where we are. I think what’s not appreciated by many is to function as a good support person in the pursuits of someone gaining freedom from their local area (it’s the comments I’ve always heard from the guys), you need to get into that person’s world. What is it they are challenging, what are they wanting from the ‘holiday’, and the rest is obvious if you think about it. I am so brain-dead typing this but I want it documented because it’s important to this place, well, I consider any experience important to this place due to it affecting in a negative or a positive frame in what I am writing. Okay, as usual, I digress. I was privileged to be supporting this person on a travel he hasn’t experienced in over fourty years. He talked about the ‘luxury’ of the coach that took us there. He talked about so many things that I would consider silly, but when I think on it, to him, they sure ain’t. The first time being in a hotel, the first time experiencing a room in a hotel. When we were walking down the road towards the hotel he spied the water and there were tears in his eyes, we stopped and talked about it. He was emotional at smelling but not seeing the sea, he was so close but not there yet. I reassured this guy and we sat with our bags on a bench staring at the tide coming in; the waves that it makes, the sounds that it makes. We found the hotel but couldn’t gain access for a couple of hours, so they held on to our bags, we returned to the sea-shore. He took steps down onto the beach and well it has to be experienced. I got his phone and took some pics, the one that couldn’t be captured and I would never try, it was this guy lying on the sand that was new to him, and putting his fist into it and watching it leave his grip. The older I’m getting the more emotional I am becoming, maybe it’s an awareness of so much of life, maybe it’s more to be with me being an emotional person. I had a tear in my eyes when I witnessed the sand drain from his hands, it was his face that was so emotional, so draining. Anyway, enough of all that. I was in that world yesterday and today, I’m now having a drink and I shall come out of it. It is a privilege to do that kind of work but it can be really draining and perhaps dangerous if you don’t properly cross back to your own world. I was saying to who I was supporting a comment about the bed. He considered the bed brilliant as did I, I said I’m used to a single bed and I found myself at one point lying diagonal on it. I mentioned this at breakfast, bad idea, we couldn’t stop laughing, a brilliant moment. I’ve got tons to do with placing narrative with the different tabs, I was on that and shall sort that task out over the weekend, if I can sort it on-line for then, brilliant, if not during next week my thoughts on each tab will be clear to see. 29 June. It’s 6pm and I think I’ve sorted most of the narratives to go to the pages, I’m on a sleepover tomorrow so it’ll have to wait till Tuesday or defo Wednesday. I’ve been writing a lot for some weeks/months, I’ve got three of they 300 notebooks complete and I’m nearing completion of a forth! I think not putting them into the pc as a generation A has seriously helped because I’ve not been looking at assessing them and improving them. I know I shall have to stop and input them to the pc at some point. A lot of what I’ve been writing has been focused on this one individual, they’ll be for my private folder. Trying to veer from the topic has not always worked. With regards the narratives for each page, I’m going to be doing a copy and paste from this page on a few things cause I feel they couldn’t be said any better. I’m retired and I’m only doing two days per week and the thing is I’m not seeing the staff I’d like to see. I need to sort out a promo for the campaign site, it has a donation facility, I don’t do much work on it now although it’s time-consuming gaining and editing the videos for it. The lyric site (this place) isn’t the way I want it but once it is more reasonable I’ll need to push it to studios and tune-smiths like I did in another life, and I certainly gained money from my efforts then, can I replicate that? Don’t know. If it works then I’ll pack the day job in, don’t have the buzz any more, but I would deeply miss certain individuals! As I’ve previously said, I was away overnight with one of the guys I support. We walked all around Ayr. I think I’ll start doing things like that on my own, it would be more fun having company but it would be good on my own some time and I’m sure I’d gain tons of ideas. I’ve got ideas for a book, I’m letting that bubble about in my head for now, but in a couple of months or so (once I have this place sorted), I shall type up my ideas. I’ve been over-thinking the narrative for the tabs, I’m getting too involved, nobody is going to be interested in half the guff I’m spoiting, need to get them shortish and sharp. Okay, I had better move on.