生存報告！ / Reporting for Duty!

こんにちは！　生きてますタカペンです！

Hellos and welcome! Long time, no write from yours truly!!

最後の記事が3か月以上前って

筆不精にしても過ぎますね！！

Can't believe it's been more than three months since my last entry!!

とりまの生存報告とちょっとヘラります！

Just wanted to say I'm still alive and kicking! This entry's gonna be kind of like a rant/sitrep.

１～３月 / Jan-Mar

今年に入って仕事が今までにないほど

忙しくて、結構てんてこまいです

Work has been super busy beyond words this year, like never before.

それなのに２～３月、何のスイッチ

入っちゃったのか動画作りまくって

なんか燃え尽きました(笑)

And for some reason, right in the middle of me being super busy from work, I put what little time I had after work into working on creating and uploading lots of videos so that when I finished all that I set out to do, I was completely burnt out. lol

この期間にアップした動画リスト

『解けない魔法』英訳カバー

"No Promises to Keep" 和訳カバー

"No Promises to Keep" 歌ってみた

『猫のキモチ』アカペラ英訳カバー

『Bling-Bang-Bang-Born』手描きMV半分替え歌して歌ってみた

『just for this night』英訳カバー

『Kids Night Party』歌ってみた

『雲外憧憬』英訳してギターで弾き語り

こうやって見ると、そりゃ燃え尽きるわ

と改めて思います(笑)

しかもぶりんばんばんの動画の為に

落書きレベルとは言え300枚以上

絵描いてました、残業地獄の真っ只中

一体何に取りつかれてたんだろう(笑)

Below's the list of videos I made and uploaded during this time:

"Tokenai Mahou" English cover

"No Promises to Keep" Japanese translated cover

"No Promises to Keep" cover

"Neko no Kimochi" acappella English cover

"Bling-Bang-Bang-Born" Hand-drawn MV cover with one part parodied lyrics

"just for this night" English cover

"Kids Night Party" cover

"Ungaishoukei" Self guitar accompanied English cover

Listing everything out like this, it's like hell yeah, no wonder I'm burnt out!! I mean for BBBB, I drew over 300 pics, when I was in middle of doing crazy overtimes, like some nights I was doing overtime well into evening hours, and after that I'd be drawing and not sleeping! I have absolutely no idea what came over me!! lol

４～６月 / Apr-Jun

4月ちょっぴり緩めの活動にして

休んでも回復できなかったので

5月お休みさせてもらったのですが

6月やれるかな？と動き始めたら

なんかめっちゃ風邪かインフルか

わかりませんか寝込みました

So since I was just so burnt out, I figured I'd take it easy in April, but I still wasn't recovered, so I completely took off May with my activities. (Not work. I wish! lol) Then in June, when I thought maybe I can start coming back, I came down with some super bug.

検査キット持ってたので検査してみて

多分コロナじゃなかったので

インフルかな？レベルなのですが

38度熱出してげほげほして

でも仕事もそんなに休めないから

出勤の日だけ休んで、リモートの日は

ぜぇぜぇしながら仕事して

とか一週間して、お、治ったかな

と思ったんですけど、なんか

そこからずっと体調すぐれなくて

結局多分寝込んでから5週間ぐらい

咳したりとずっと具合悪くて

ここ1週間程？やっと治ったかな？

って感じです

I don't think it was COVID as I had a kit at home, and I tested negative with it. Maybe the flu? Whatever it was, I was down with a 38 celsius/100.4 fahrenheit degrees fever. I couldn't take off that many days from work, so I just took off on the office days and coughed my way through work on remote days. I thought it mostly went away after a week, but I was wrong. The coughing refused to go away, and whenever I'd venture out for grocery shopping or something, I'd be laid up for days afterwards. And that persisted for like maybe over 5 weeks. I finally started feeling well enough about maybe a week ago.

会社でも4月にそんな感じなったよー

って人いたり、タカペンと同じぐらいの

時期にめちゃくちゃ

げほげほしたりしてる人いて

何か流行ってたっぽいです

A coworker was saying they were sick for 5 weeks like that back in April, and there was also someone on zoom meeting who was coughing away like crazy around the time I was coughing, so there must've been something going around!!

今コロナ流行ってるらしいけど

コロナ検査キットでは陰性だったしなぁ

なんだったんだろ～って感じです

You hear on the news that COVID's on the rise, but my test kit was negative, so I've no clue what it was.

とりあえず病気してた間全然動けなくて

体力もがた落ちで、今もちょっと

動いたら寝込みそうなレベルなので

ちょっとずつウォーキングとかしながら

体力の回復を試みてるとこです

So anyway, during the time I was laid up, I was really laid up. I'd lost all my muscles and everything so that anytime I started venturing out, I'd get sick again and couldn't build back up my muscles just to go shopping...!! Right now, I'm in the process of trying to recover enough strength to live like a normal person by going for a walk bit by bit. Telling you, it really sucks to have a weak constitution like mine...

この間出せた動画、一個だけです(笑)

1～3月の勢いどこ行った(笑)

And so, during this time, I was able to upload one English cover video. What a difference from February and March! lol!!

現在 / Present

とりあえず活動無理せず

体力回復を優先しようと思ってます

Right now, I'm going to take it easy with my song activities and just concentrate on building up my strength.

いつもは仕事が6月には落ち着くのが

今年は何故かいつまで経っても忙しく

常に焦燥感に駆られてて結構

精神的にきてたりします

Normally, work would quiet down around June into summer, but it's been constantly busy so that I can't catch my breath at all. Since the beginning of this year, I've been feeling like work's been hounding me non-stop, and that's been wearing me away mentally and physically.

なのでそんな精神状態で

活動するのもきついし

休止しようかな、どうしよう

とちょっと悩んでたりします

And so with all that's going on with work this year, I've been contemplating leaving my song activities for a longer stretch of time, like almost indefinitely.

でもその考えがよぎる度に何故か

ユーチューブでコメントをもらったり

登録者さんが一人増えたりして

あ、これ休止したくないなって

なります(笑)

But everytime I think about leaving my activities, for some odd reason, I'd get a new comment on one of my videos on YouTube, or I get a new subscriber, and I'm like "omg I can't leave. I gotta do more" lol

活動 / My Activities

そして実は活動面でもちょっと

休止しようかな、と思う事情がありまして

There's actually also another reason I was/am contemplating taking a break from my cover activities.

いつもお世話になってるMIX師さんが

しばらく別の活動に専念するとのことで

依頼できなくなりました

Soma, who's always been kind enough to do my mixes for me, is going to be doing other things, so I can't ask them to do mixes anymore.

何が痛いって知人価格でしたので

じゃあ別の方に頼もうって

できないのが痛いんですね(笑)

The thing is, they've been doing it at discounted pricing for me, so it's kind of hard to go and ask somebody else for the mixes. Mixing be a bit pricey to commission everytime!

なので今後はセルフMIXになります

とゆーか、MIXなんてできないので

音量調整とエコーつけるレベルです(笑)

So from now on I'm gonna have to mix myself. And I can't mix to save my life. All I'm gonna do is like maybe adjust the vocal/instrumental volume balance and add reverb/echo. lol

つまりプロレベルの音質だったのが

今後はカラオケレベルになります(笑)

My video audio quality's gonna go down from a near pro-level sound to a toddler level sound... :)

なのでちょっと休止かな～

とか考えてました

So that's another reason I was debating on taking a break.

ま、でもやっぱ歌もブログ書くのも

好きなので、今まで以上に

ゆっくりペースですが

活動続けてくつもりです♪

But hey, despite all that, I love singing and writing blog entries, so I'll just keep on chugging away with my activities, even if it's gonna be at a pace slower than that of a snail's!

予定 / Plans

計画だけはあるんですよね

全く進められてませんが(笑)

I do have plans, even if I haven't been able to work on them at all. lol

現在次の英語カバー動画に向けて

MIDIポチポチ打ち込みながら

カラオケ音源を耳コピ中です！

For my next English cover video, I'm right now in the middle of preparing my instrumental by clicking midi note by midi note in my Ableton Live Lite.

タカペンさんそんなこともできるの！？

なんて驚かれるかもしれませんが

何を隠そう

初めてです！！！

"Oh, so TP can do that?" you might ask. And not to brag...

Never done it before in my life!!

うん、活動休止しようかな～

とか

ゆっくりペースで～

とかうだうだ言いながら

何してんですかね、タカペンさんは

Here I am, going back and forth about should I or should I not take a break, okay I'm gonna just take it easy, and what does yours truly do? Go and find the most difficult task I can think of doing!!

いえ、まぁ厳密に言うと

MIDI作りは初めてじゃないです

二回目です

Although to be truly and honestly true, it's not my first time creating a midi file.

It's my 2nd time ever!!

ずっと大昔に耳コピとか知らない頃

メロディーだけ追って、

伴奏てけとーにつけた

エアリスのテーマのMIDIが

多分ネットの海のどこかに

落っこちてます

Ain't that awesome? 2nd time ever!!

But yeah, many decades ago (well not really that long ago), way before I knew anything about DAW or recording covers or anything like that, I'd created a midi file of Aerith's theme song with just the melody, and some random accompaniment that I made up. I didn't know back then that you could actually completely copy all the different instruments and try to recreate the original sound.

なので今回みたいに

元の音源を頑張って耳コピするぞー

って試みは初です

So it is actually my first time ever trying to recreate the original sound as much as possible, and with the 8 track restrictions of my Live Lite version as well as having like no VST plug-ins or any fancy stuff like that. lol

なので次の動画は

自作カラオケ音源

自分MIX

とゆー大分地雷な音の

動画になりそうです(笑)

I definitely cannot guarantee that the audio of my next cover video won't break your ears what with my first ever karaoke track and mix!!

アップは8月中目指してます

できるのかな（不安）

Aiming for end of August upload... I hope...!!

ブログは / About My Blog

ブログもね、いっぱい追いつかないと

I've gotta catch up on my blog entries too!

先週末、英訳説明記事書くぞー！

と意気込んでたのですが

その下準備にエクセルマクロを

むかーし作ってたのですが

それが使いずらくて

記事そっちのけで新しいマクロを

書いてました(・・。)ゞ ﾃﾍ

Last weekend, I was gonna work on at least one entry explaining one of my English translated lyrics from last year; however, that was not meant to be. I spent the day away re-writing my Excel macro for setting up the lyrics into bloggable format. I mean, I did create a macro for it last year, but I didn't like it because too many parts of it were manual anyway, so I wrote one that was more fully automatic. :P

マクロはできたので

次こそは英訳説明記事とか

できる筈！

Since I did finish writing up my new macro, I should be able to work on my explanation entry next time around...!

動画アップしたよ記事も

追いついてないので

それもやりたいんですけどね！

I also need to catch up on my blog entries for showing my new videos, so that might be my next entry, who knows!

最後に / Lastly

とゆーことで、なんだかんだ

ひっそりと活動を続けてく

予定のタカペンです

And so, despite everything, yours truly's gonna continue with her activities one way or the other. :)

やりたいことだけは

いっぱーーーーーい

あるんですよね！(笑)

After all, I have so much that I want to do and try!! :D

思い出したときにでも

覗きに来ていただけたら

とっても嬉しいです♪

If you could come take a peek once in a blue moon, I'd be very happy to see you! :)

それでは長文記事にお付き合いくださり

本日もありがとうございました！

Anyhoo, thank you for taking the time to read through this entry!

また次の記事でお会いしましょう！

（3か月後とかにはならない筈！）

See you in my next blog entry, which should not be like three months later! lol

ではではっ！

Taka, out!