DJs – often reduced to glorified ticket agents…

Web Design – I saw someone offering site builds for £50 and a flash “hot box” for £20!

Dancers – I could have a different troop of “dancing” girls every night if I wanted.. for free.. which is actually tempting…

Photographers – any pro-spotters still able to charge more than a few beers n petrol money?

Producers – there’s so many wannabe producers with a whole cracked studio in abox, you can get them for £75 a track now, no wonder beatport is full of clone-a-tracks in the latest electro-tech-hard-mnml-grime-bassline-bouncecore or whatever this weeks cool genre is.

The sad thing is, I haven’t even had to exaggerate to make my point, you can find all these things on DSI without much effort.

Here is my question…

What is worth anything now?

I’m worried everyone is working shite jobs they don’t really like, sitting on facebook and dreaming of being a Dj/dancer/photog/web-designer/cat tamer/reality tv star/singer* (*delete as applicable) when really its only ever going to be a hobby.

Kinda sad, I feel like everyones deluded… or am I talking shit?

/ramble-ends

Problem is, the plan was to work and just enjoy DJing (as above – kinda)… make some tunes and work on the ebook site in evenings… job market = shite still :: agency rang me about a job yesterday, put my CV forward, got a call asking when I was free for interview, I gave dates/times… call back 2 hours later, no longer hiring, MD has made 3 people redundant. 2nd time this has happened – kinda.

Gaaaaah stupid illness, messed Plan A up… now Plan B isn’t working… I kind of have a Plan C forming… pppfffft

why I don’t love bike club… my knee wasn’t loving it on the return trip. reckon I’ll be limping tomo. Ah well.

Monday 645pm Bournemouth Pier (usually to the left as you look at it).

Fixed the bike up yesterday (back wheel needed some love, some rim tape and a new inner tube) and took it out for a short trundle to test the knee today.

Didn’t seem too bad, knees felt a bit shaky for a while when I got back, didn’t really put any effort in either.

Lovely day down here, a bit windy n cold but the beach looked lovely. Went to the Durley and back, lower gears than I’d normally use to make it less effort/stress onto the joint.

Verdict:~ Gentle rides to build up the strength, I reckon will be fine.

I’m noticing that now I’m more flexible I’m using muscle groups that are weak.

i can kneel down again!!! Just about….

Squatting, nope, but I think that’ll come with time.

AND

for the first time, I felt bendy enough to get out of the pool without using the steps…. dum dum duuuuh!

Only managed 48 lengths as my ankles were really hurting, when one joint feels better it seems my body finds new and wonderful places to hurt.

Despite only doing 48, I did swim a set of 16 so that’s progress of sorts.

In other news…

Thanks to Stu – I now have a shiny new pair of 750GB drives in my RAID array, much needed as my PC was grinding to a halt at times.

I’m starting to formulate an updated plan nout of this mess, coming to terms with the job market being dead to non-existent…. onwards, ever onwards.

She took a look, ultra-sounded my joints (bit cold)… then the bad news…

I want to drain the fluid from your knee and inject steroids direct into the joint.

Having drained 45ml of fluid out of my knee… using a giant syringe… she then stuck a steroid needle in too.

Ouch – uuuuuh – eeeeeee

As if I wasn’t having enough fun, she sent me for a bloodtest too…. yay, I love needles! (ahem – NOT)

Good news is the knee should be noticably better after 48hrs, I’ve got to rest it loads… so no hill walking when I go back to Hereford – ah well, have to settle for the cider museum and some RnR with Mum n Lucy at my beck n call

Sofa’s calling. Have a good weekend y’all.

Health-wise I’m loads better, my knee still seizes up if I put a lot of weight on it, do loads of stairs or twist a lot. The index toes are still mostly solid.

Back to the specialist on Thursday, then hopefully BIKE CLUB will return next monday… weather and doc ok permitting.

Jobs: Had a few agencies chase me up, online portfolio is getting good feedback so far – any geeks, please feel free to critique… (view source… ahem)

WebSites: Finished phase 1 of the new site for JonGurd – have a look.

Music: Recorded a new mix last night, for my loyal fans on facebook… all 36 of them… and my promo site

Not sure if I walked too much at the weekend, the reducing dose of steroids is responsible… or some combination of the two… but by FSM my feet hurt!!!

Index toes are swelled up again, its sore just to stand up. Frustrating isn’t the word.

Not sure what to do, the specialist is in 3 weeks, or ring the doctor? Maybe if I rest another couple of days (still planning to swim tonight) it’ll go down again?

Uuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Shall I keep applying for jobs?? I couldn’t wear smart shoes right now, it’d almost kill me.

UPDATED: Well, they’ve come to me, had my phone ringing all afternoon with people wanting to put me forward for jobs… so thats a start I guess.

UPDATED 2: Oooh look my swim plugin is working!

:: GIGS CONFIRMED FOR MARCH SO FAR ::

March 21st – Yakuji Love @ Slinky – BE THERE!!!!!!
March 23rd – Havana in Charminster – SUNDAY SESSION!
March 29th – SubPop @ Dusk Till Dawn – woooooo! Nice dingy room

Work wise, I’m happy with the CV + portfolio site and have been applying for stuff.

Still feeling twitchy on the steroids and nt sleeping as much, joints are still creaky but its all good.

My only concern is that as I come off the steroids it comes back, cross fingers.

Like I said on my show last night, the steroids are making a difference… I can almost see tendons again on my feet… the knees moving better. My joints still ache, but its upwards baby.

I might be imagining it but I feel more… erm… edgy? Certainly the show last night was a bit more savage than usual, with more energy… I find it harder to get to sleep and I’m always awake (properly awake) within 8 hours (I had found I needed 10hrs sleep)… I’m glad I’m on a gently reducing dose for the next 5 weeks… I have to take the dose first thing in the morning and its GO GO GO from then on! haha… ut oh, I hope I won’t be doing a Matthew Perry (or was that tramadol? been there done that anyway…)

…moving on…

Got a gig booked in for Easter Sunday, feel ready to start doing more stuff (like swimming – tuesdays 730 anyone?) – time to sit down and sort out exactly what’s important to me.

Job stuff
You’reReallyNiceBut
Gigs + Show + Tunes
Self employed vs Employed