The Story Behind the Story

Routine is something we desire, it is an evolutionarily-sculpted advantage. We can organize our daily lives into sequence and let the hands on the clock take hold of our own and guide us. Usually I dread but accept these routines, as they are pervasive. I see no reason to attempt to avoid them, and I wonder if maybe the way that I quickly take a liking to routine is simply another evolutionary mechanism. Perhaps I only feel so comfortable in routine because if I were left in discomfort, the routine would be abandoned before any benefit were seen.

However, routines can be broken in completely non-chronological manners. To see your day-to-day in a different light, a change of perspective is the only essential. This alteration could be visual, as is often the dominant sense for most people. Changes in taste and touch are often imperceptible or insignificant. But a alteration in audio could be quite compelling. The sound need not be changed, but isolated, as I did in this assignment. Here, my morning routine is reduced to the simplicity of the sounds that greet me on a daily basis. These are not the sounds I hear, rather the wavelengths produced by the actions I both feel and carry out. It is not coffee brewing, or the sound of campers searching for me in a game of “Hide the Counselor.” These are the sounds of each moment of a life unfolding, unaltered and authentic.
I chose this project because I have always deeply valued my mornings, but usually for its sights, smells and tastes. The bitter-sweet tinge that rolls off my tongue with each sip of coffee and the dim, purple-tinted light of each sunrise are sufficient to capture my attention. What might be heard in my mornings is often reduced to my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist. This assignment allows me to focus on the organic sound effects that make up my life. This audio clip is representative of a typical day for me: I wake up, drink my coffee and eat my breakfast, brush my teeth and get dressed to go to camp where we play games and shout with total abandoned. My days sound so sweet when I just listen.

The Tutorial-

I recorded all the audio material for this assignment using the Voice Memos app on my iphone and uploaded it to my PC. Once on my computer, I opened the audio files using iTunes, and converted them to MP3 files by selecting the song, clicking File<Convert<Convert to Mp3

Once converted to the proper format, I opened the audio file in Audacity, a program for audio editing. I followed this procedure to cut out background noise and come up with clear, focused audio content.

My final assignment, What’s the story morning glory? was worth 3.5 stars. Good luck figuring out my morning routine!

This assignment was pretty simple. I walked around my house recording what I usually do in the morning on my laptop in Audacity, then I cut and paste the separate sound clips together into one, long clip. Then I uploaded it to SoundCloud and posted it here!

I am infamous for not being a morning person. I will sleep until the last possible moment then jet through my morning routine. Breakfast is always eaten standing up next to the kitchen counter and I brush my teeth at the kitchen sink in between opening the garage door and getting my lunchbox out of the fridge.

So why do I put myself through this crazy routine every morning? Why not just get up a few minutes earlier so I can take my time?

I tried it for a month once. I lost a bet with a friend and the penalty was I had to live the life of a morning person for one month. It sucked. What can I say? I got pulled into a sucker bet and that I was so sure I couldn’t lose and I got creamed.

So back to my month as a morning person. These were the rules:

1. I had to wake up every morning at 5:30. No hitting the snooze button allowed.
2. I had to get to the gym by 5:50 so I could join the 6:00 daily Body Pump class. Grrrr…
3. I was back at home by 7:00 to shower, get dressed, and eat a healthy cooked breakfast.
4. I had to be to work EARLY a.k.a. by 8:15.

It was the longest month of my life (almost as long as the month I had to wear nothing but skirts or dresses; same friend, different bet).I felt perpetually tired and out of sorts. My concentration at work wasn’t great and my energy would die at about 2 PM. I felt snippy and crabby. I think my coworkers were running a secret countdown on how much longer I had to go to complete the bet or maybe it was fatigue-induced paranoia.

At the end of the month, my friend thought that he had converted me into a morning person. I laughed in his face and turned off my alarm clock so I could sleep as late as I wanted to the next morning. Let me tell you, 9:47 is a beautiful time to wake up after a month of waking up before the sun.

You just can’t fight biology. I’m a night owl. I’d rather stay up later and get everything prepped and laid out so I can hit the snooze alarm a few more times. It’s saved me a few times too. Take the other day. I’m traveling on business and instead of hitting snooze, I hit the “Off” button. When my boss texted me at 8:14 I had just enough time to get dressed, throw on some makeup, brush my teeth, and sprint across the grounds of the hotel to be on time for my 8:30 meeting.

My Dreary Morning Ritual

Whats The Story Morning Glory? (2 Stars)

This audio clip includes my morning ritual. This ritual have been the same for a long time. Of course, the first sound you hear is my alarm clock. I have love-hate relationship with this device. Its the main reason I wake up so I can go class and/or work on time. However, I do get annoyed that I have to get up to turn the alarm clock off. As you could probably tell the irritation from my voice I am not a morning person. The next sound you would hear is my feet dragging across the floor to bathroom. Then you will hear me brush my teeth and take a shower.

I chose these sounds only because the events that happen my morning ritual vary. Sometimes I would eat breakfast, sometimes I just drive to campus or work. Or sometime I hit the snooze button on my day off.

This ritual have been consistent throughout all of my life. I hope yours is not as annoying…..

My train leaves at 2 am. I took a nap so I wouldn’t fall asleep in the cab but instead I tossed and turned thinking about this wretched city and I how I was excited to leave it. The sheets suffocated me- begging me to stay but don’t they know I can’t? My bag is packed in the corner. Somewhere a dog barks. It sounds trapped and frustrated. I get that. Sometimes I wish I was an explorer. Like the guy on this hotel mug. I should probably clean the place up. I usually do. But this morning I can’t be bothered. The water from the tap is cold. It feels good against my skin. I may feel like the battered side of a penny but at least this water is cool, at least this water has life. I stare at my reflection. Red eyes deadened by running stare back at me. I see the way girls stare at me in bars. Full of hate and jealously. Sometimes I want to glare back and tell them that their lives are so much better than mine. But I always remind myself that these girls aspire to marriage. I aspire to something a bit grander.

Freedom.

I pull on my traveling dress and hat. Cotton brushes against my legs as I pick up my suitcase. With one more glance around the room, I close the door. Good riddance.

Victoire Absinthe isn’t much of a morning person. She isn’t one for talking most of the time, but especially not at 3 am. This sound clip follows Victoire through her early morning hours before she takes her train to a new city, and a new life. To be frank, she’s forgotten where her ticket says she’s going. She’s exhausted but restless. Freedom nips at her heels like an angry dog, pushing her. But is this freedom? Sometimes she refuses to ask herself the real questions on her quest for something better.

What’s the story morning glory?: 2

If you would like to complete this assignment for yourself, check out this Link.

What’s The Morning Story Glory? assignment was not to hard. I just had to remember to record the sounds of the things I did in the morning. I do not normally cook breakfast for myself in the morning. I like going to seaco to get and omelette from Estelle. Since, I used my cellphone to record the sounds I had to use Zamzar.com again to convert the mp4 to mp3 so I could use them in audacity. Once they were converted and uploaded in audacity I trimmed a few clips and move them around to create my morning in sounds. I don’t really spend too much time at my house in the morning once I wake up. I tend to get out of bed get my clothes on and go get food at seaco.

2 Stars

Here’s My Story And It Ain’t Glory.

Ah, the home stretch. I’m finally completing my final audio assignment. There were a lot to choose from but i wanted something interesting and personal. I saw the title “What’s The Story Morning Glory” and that caught my attention because really, what IS the story? I actually think this a song by  Oasis but i’m not too sure. Either way, i’m already hooked. But wait! I must read the assignment first..

Assignment:

My morning routine. Well, I wake up 30 minutes before my first class of the day. That leaves me 10 minutes to get ready and 20 to walk all the way to Combs since i live in Arrington. Meh, not too bad, right? I mean it does explain my choice of outfits though. I saw that some people tried this assignment so i went for it as well. How hard could my morning routine be?

Routine:

This week is all about audio, right? Right. What you need to do is listen. Your ears are your eyes for this assignment. The title for this section is misleading. I’m not going to talk about my morning routine. What i will do is record it and you tell me what you hear. Obviously i already know the sounds since i recorded them! So take a couple listens (it’s only like a minute) and comment what you hear. Then try to piece it all together into a story or rather, my routine! It’s not secret. I’m a normal human who does normal human things. LISTEN! (Ps- i like donuts).

Recording:

This took me  a good amount of time to figure out. What do i record with? I mean, i’m not a reporter and don’t have one of those personal sound recorders, so what’s a normal girl suppose to do? Well, i thought long and kind of hard. What have i been using to do audio this whole week? My beautiful lap top. What i also need is Audacity because that’s where i’m going to be recording from. My laptop isn’t the smallest thing around, it’s about 15 inches of pure gold. So,yes, i did go around my whole room recording sounds through Audacity. It wasn’t as bad as you think because i live on campus so my room is small anyways. I figured it would be a lot easier to record straight to Audacity so then i can cut and fix all my sounds. For example, the clicking of the mousepad. I definitely had to cut that out so you wouldn’t be hearing a loud “click” every 10 seconds. There you have it! There wasn’t a real process to this other than recording, cutting, and then adding the sounds into one file. I guess that’s a process though, right? I think this came out to be pretty successful because every time i listen to the track i can picture myself getting ready. Now, when you do figure out the sounds, i’ll tell you if you’re right. Enjoy!

For a bit of fun with working with my own recorded audio rather than samples, I decided to attempt the morning glory assignment. My morning routines are typically pretty short, as I am an irresponsible college kid and don’t give myself time to eat breakfast. But still, it was fun replicating something I do everyday without having to worry about the grogginess that goes along with it. I simply used my phones recording program to record the audio, acted out everything, and used Audacity to manage audio levels (I know the shower part was way too loud initially). The only annoying part was having to convert the file using VLC media player into a format Audacity actually recognized.

Difficulty Rating: 2 Stars