Moving on

Hands shaking, palms sweating he sits down, thinking to himself  'Fuck yeah'. That's how I felt after my 'performance' was over. Sure I was a nervous wreck minutes before but the feeling after surely can't be beaten. I had to play piano while a girl was singing along with the songs, 3 in total. It was all part of a project in which students at a course had to cook and serve a full meal for their parents and guardians. We had to play the songs during the main course, because nothing beats dining under the comfort of a soft piano melody. I believe some photo's were taken which I hope I'll recieve soon.

The songs didn't all go flawless however. During the second song I made some mistakes right at the start of the piano solo -.-, talk about timing. Also we had to stop midway during the 3rd song only to resume seconds later. Reason: the singer started laughing when someone started taking photo's of her. Was it terrible? Well no. Thankfully parents aren't the toughest audience to have and they loved us.

Overal I'm just happy that I said yes when I was asked to play and originally only had about 8 days to practice. It wouldn't have been strange to refuse in such a situation but I would've missed out on an amazing experience. Also I'll be having a lot of free time soon because my course ends in the coming days(more on that subject soon). This means I'll have a lot of time to improve my piano skills. I hope I'll improve drastically in the coming months so that when an opportunity such as this arises I'll be better equipped. It would be awesome to be able to play Comptine d'un Autre Etê perfectly. It's the piece I've been looking foward to since buying a keyboard and I'll start practicing it after I finish a song I'm working on now. Honestly, I can't wait.

Ba-dum tish

So it’s Friday which means two things: Weekend and Pie. To me it also meant something else today, namely stress. 21th of January is the official deadline for every project in the minor Game Design. It became time to close the chapter that is Time Therapy or, as you may know it, Alec Thorne: Memorabilia.

We had to turn in everything we had at exactly 12:00am. It all had to be handed over neatly on a disc containing the game itself, our Game Design Document and every interview result, sketch or moodboard we had left. Naturally to get this all together meant a lot of stress the previous night. Although, thinking back on it I’m rather stress free at these times. All of the work does take up most of the night though so I’ll have to do with some extra sleep during the weekend.

Even this morning everything was still being put together until, at about 11:15, we were finally able to burn the disc correctly. And then it was done. The project was ready to be assessed by the teachers. Everyone had worked hard to deliver the best product possible. My focus these last weeks went mostly to the editing and exporting of the intro sequence using some great images created by the amazing Concept Artist Hanny.

When we started playing our game on the disc that would be handed to the teachers there were some mixed feelings. See if you’ve been working on something so focused for such a time you only start to pay attention to the things that can be improved. I could still spend hours tweaking the intro sequence to be even better despite everyone saying it’s actually really good as it is now. Seeing everyone’s hard work come together to form this product was immensely satisfying though. This is something we created together, in which each of us had our part to play. And we played them wonderfully.

This week was also a start of something very exciting. I finally got to go to my first drum lesson together with Robin. Even playing some simple rhythms(lovely word) was amazing and I can’t wait for the second lesson. If only there was an easy way to have your personal drum kit at home without waking the entire neighborhood. Ah well, I’m more than satisfied with my keyboard for now, though I think it’s only a matter of time until he’s accompanied by another instrument. Some things are just too awesome not to have.

The Theory

Whoops, it’s been quite a long time since my latest blog post hasn’t it. I was planning on updating the blog about two or three times a week but I haven’t got around to updating it so far. I would’ve done it sooner but… I need my sleep you know!

As it turns out this last week has been quite a busy one. I am doing my final project for college and am extremely close to the deadline. With, in my humble opinion, the most awesome group ever we are creating a point-and-click adventure game. This game is about Alec Thorne who must travel into his own memories to discover a terrible incident from his past which left him with a permanent fear of the dark. By reliving previously hidden memories the player will find out exactly what happened.

It’s the last project I’m doing before I quit my course. Actually I already quit my course in September but I’m finishing this project for a number of reasons. First off I was one of the people who started the project, this being a project the others and I really wanted to do. Secondly the group in which I am working is so awesome I couldn’t bear not seeing them anymore. Thankfully we already have plans for after this project so I’ll remain in contact with every last one of them, fuck yeah.

The third reason is that while I will not be getting any EC’s with this project I’ll still be creating a wonderful portfolio product. Among others I was allowed to write the story, which is pretty important to the game. There are a lot of other small reasons but these are the main ones. I wouldn’t have found a new course within these few months anyway so I see this time as anything but wasted.

Anyway I’m getting off track. I’ve been having some busy weeks lately as there are numerous things I have to complete. I’m still practicing for the show, which was rescheduled to the 25^th, thank God, and which is taking up at least an hour a day. Furthermore I’m off to college at 7:45 and return at about 18:00. I’m also working on a side project which is taking up quite some time every week and try to do the miscellaneous tasks in-between.

Does it bother me that I’m having so little free time at the moment? Well, no. Actually I love it. Everything I do now, I do with a focus. A focus on improving myself and the things I like to do in the future. In short: within a year I’ll be a super self disciplined, focused and efficient worker getting the most out of my life in every possible way. That’s the theory at least. Now to make it work.

Sing Me a Song, You're the Piano Man

So it's the second blog post and it's all about a little situation I find myself in. A situation which is both extremely frightening and exhilarating... at the same time.

It started about a month ago when I was in the car with some friends. A good friend of mine, Aftaab, told me about a friend of his(getting confused already?) who would be performing a couple of songs for a small crowd at school. She would be doing the singing herself but she still needed some instrumentals. You can probably guess where the story is going from here on.

Aftaab asked me if I was interested in playing piano with her. Though such an offer would have likely scared me into saying no in the past I decided to take this opportunity and said yes. I would be recieving a list with a couple of songs from which I could choose. Together we would play the songs that were managable for us both to learn in the short period of time. The performance is held the 18th of January. I recieved the list with songs on the 30th of December.

Well that still gives me about 20 days right? Well, wrong unfortunately. See it was on the 8th of January that we finally chose the songs to play. So that left me with only 9 days to learn two new songs and perfect two old ones O.o. Not only do I have to know the parts but I must also be able to play them in harmony with her singing.

With such a short deadline I knew I had to work hard and suprisingly enough I managed to work towards my goal with great dedication. Nothing like a nearing deadline to start taking action ey :P  To be honest I don't know if I'll learn the 4th song on time but I'll do my stinking best. It still scares me to think about the performance we will be giving, the mistakes I may make. Yes I've had these awkward feelings about me completely ruining a song and thus the performance but isn't that only natural. To feel some stress and anxiety. When I look beyond it though I see a golden opportunity for me to experience such a thing and that is what drives me forward every day.

This post actually got a bit longer than I originally intended and I still haven't said everything I wanted to say. Don't worry, I'll damage your brain no longer with my writing. I guess I just wanted you to know what I'm going through at the moment. No doubt an exhilarating time, but also a fairly scary one. If my nerves don't get the better of me within the coming days I'll update this blog to show that I'm still ticking. Hopefully, at the right rhythm.

What's This?

Well, this marks the beginning of an interesting and entertaining blog, hopefully, in which I will talk about things in my life and life in general which fascinate me. Before I go article-crazy though I'd like to take it to the basics in this post. That is: Who am I and why do I have this blog?

Let's start with who I am, shall we? My name is Robert Nieuwenhuis and as I'm writing this I am a 20 year old male living in Drachten, The Netherlands. Though I expect to stay male for quite a while my age and location will no doubt change in the future and I hope to be able to look back at this blog 5 years from now with a satisfied grin on my face. In recent years I have changed a lot to a very optimistic person looking to do things that excite me and to fulfill my personal goals. Personal growth is something I am really into so you'll be reading a lot about it here. I'll no doubt be posting more about my person in the future so this'll have to do for now. Most of you reading this know me personally anyway :P


Moving on to the blog itself, or better said why I am doing this. To be honest, I have no idea. But I find it fun already. I guess it is a nice way for me to express myself. Being an aspiring writer I like to write(duh) so a blog seems like a natural step for me. With every article my writing catelogue increases which is awesome. Multiple people have actually suggested this to me as I like to talk and write about interesting things in life and this is a good way to share it with everyone interested.

I can't say right now where this blog will go in the future. I am definitely changing the look(except if you're reading this years after the post was made, in which case the look is awesome) so I'll have to ask some people for their precious time. As for the rest I am as much in the dark as you. Expect some posts about the things I encounter in life and things about life in general. If you like it stick around. After all, making an interesting article to read is to me an important goal which I hope to achieve with every post.