A friend of mine challenged me to blog about my day to day life as a busy musician, and how I insert gaming, blogging and cosplaying in between. Challenge accepted!

As of this post, 70% of my day to day involvements are all in music. 20% goes to gaming activities and 10% left for blogging and other hobbies.

Office Boy

By day, I go into office mode as a Music Arranger for MRM Studios. MRM Studios is an entertainment company that produces polyphonic ringtones and karaoke minus one for exclusive clients. I work with the Ringtone Department and I am expected to arrange at least three ringtones per day. Coincidentally, MRM is located at Pacific Star Building in Makati which houses several offices including Level Up Games, the premiere online gaming publisher in the Philippines.

My day job is the best there is for a musician on the go such as myself. Why? Well aside from the fact that I still deal with music, the work schedule is the real winner here. It’s a cross between flexi-time and freelance. I can go to work at any decent time of the day and I can go home at any time I like. Provided you’ve finished the work needed and you must consume a number of working hours each month. I’m on my 4th month in this company and it’s all good so far. Stress levels are at a minimum since music is really my thing, so no problem with that.

Makiling Band

At night (but not all nights), if my band has a gig somewhere, I sometimes go straight there from the office, bringing my violin and my hegalong in the process. Normal bar gigs usually start at 10pm and finish by midnight. But big production gigs usually consume more time so that’s the only case I leave the office early in the afternoon and proceed straight to the gig venue to do early sound checks.

Most of the time during gigs like these, everyone involved is called in early during the event date because of the tedious process of preparations. A lot of idle waiting moments happen. And this is the time that I bring out my Nintendo DS and explore the world of Shibuya in The World Ends With You, or beat my Boss Rush score in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.

Back Home

When the gig is done or office time is over, I usually head straight home and eat dinner along the way. Once I reach the door of my own room, it’s total bum mode now. This is the time where I turn on my PC, and do all sorts of stuff that involves the internet. From blogging, browsing, message boards, chatting, you name it. I update my blog during these moments, check out my Adsense revenues, and read gaming news.

Downloading my favorite TV Series via torrent is also a usual activity with my PC. Such shows include Smallville, Supernatural, Heroes, Doctor Who, Prison Break, and Torchwood.

Homework

But the work doesn’t end onstage and at the office. From time to time, I accept freelance music projects for various forms of media. The most recent projects I’m working at are the Survivor Philippines Opening theme for top Philippine TV network GMA 7, a stage play, and a movie soundtrack. All deadlines are within July. These projects are processed in my mind and executed at my PC using the latest music software technology. And thanks to the new training I learned at MRM Studios, my freelance work has become much more efficient.

Teacher by Weekend

During the weekend, I go into “teacher” mode as I teach violin to six students who are both young and young at heart. The students come to my house to take their lessons every weekend. Not only is it convenient for me, but also rewarding at the same time to see my students, who are mostly beginners, learning. And after the lessons are over in the afternoon, this is where I take my baby girl, Kaya, malling or have a Cooking Mama DS session with her (Yes we both have a DS).

Gamer

Nowadays, my only connection to actual gaming is my Nintendo DS (still saving up for a Wii). But some years ago, I was literally addicted to Philippine Ragnarok Online (pRO), where my “Master Diwa” persona was born. I co-formed the guild Grand Lethal and we participated in several competitions offered by the game and its publisher Level Up.

I wrote game guides, commentaries, organized eyeballs, and formed a community site dedicated to the community of the original pRO Free to play server, Valkyrie, called pRO Valkyrie Realm. The website is very active and I still manage it myself along with friends I met online. pRO Valkyrie Realm will be the featured game community site for the June-July double issue of local gaming mag Playground. Don’t forget to check it out.

Cosplay

And last but not the least, cosplaying has become a new found hobby ever since I cosplayed for the first time back at Level Up Live 2007. Cosplay conventions are a dime a dozen nowadays here in Manila. It has become a popular attraction lately that 2-3 conventions happen almost every month. I only choose which conventions to attend so it doesn’t really consume that much time. Except perhaps when I decide to make a new costume. But that’s out of the question for now. Anyway, with my recent cosplay victory at Toycon 2008, I guess I don’t need to compete that soon. Hehe!

In conclusion, all I can say is that my life is never boring. I get to meet people from all walks of life. That’s all for now! Cheers everyone!