(phone rings)

Will: Hey dude.

Ted: Coffee?

Will: See you soon.

(10 minutes later)

Ted: Hey dude.

Will: Ungh.

Ted: I'm fine, thanks for asking.

Will: Pain.

Ted: Might I ask what caused this pain?

Will: An evil, evil man.

Ted: Really. What's this evil man's name?

Will: Tony Horton.

Ted: ...is that the guy from those infomer-

Will: Yes, he's from the p90x infomercials.

Ted: Huh. So you're doing p90x now?

Will: Hence pain.

Ted: How's it working for you?

Will: I've definitely seen a bit of muscle growth. Other than that, I appear to have a great deal of weakness leaving my body.

Ted: What caused you to pick up the phone and dial?

Will: I saw it on ebay for about fifty bucks, which is half that it sells for new. Plus, I've been thinking that not only do I need to look good for the image side of my music career, but it takes a lot of strength and energy to play for two straight hours. Hopefully, it'll be easier when I'm in better shape.

Ted: It'll be good for you at the very least.

Will: That depends whether or not you consider being barely able to walk "good for me."

Ted: So how far in are you?

Will: A few weeks, actually. I just haven't stopped being sore.

Ted: I've actually been working out a little bit myself.

Will: Really. How?

Ted: Fighter circuits.

Will: What are those?

Ted: Spending five minutes doing different exercises that completely draining your body of all energy, and then taking a quick break and doing it again. Twice.

Will: You training for MMA?

Ted: I've started taking Ninjutsu classes.

Will: Ah. I should try that.

Ted: You should.

Will: Okay. I'll be right back, I'm going to go get 2 iced coffees to hold against my pectoral muscles.

posting

(ring)

Will: Hey dude, what's up?

Ted: Not much. Saw you were online, so I figured I'd call.

Will: Dude. It's past midnight.

Ted: And we're both awake. So what.

Will: How did you see I was online?

Ted: You're posting on facebook.

Will: Why didn't you just facebook chat me?

Ted: I'm a fan of human interraction. At least on the phone, you hear the voice of the person you're talking to. So, why are you up so late? Weren't you up early today?

Will: I was. I'm staying up until I finish this blog entry.

Ted: You're really trying to keep up with it, huh.

Will: The only way to get anything done.

Ted: But, what are you actually getting done? Didn't you say you don't want any readers?

Will: I said I wouldn't prevent anyone from reading it, but that I didn't plan on having any readers. Key difference.

Ted: Noted.

Will: It's mostly to practice my writing. If I don't make it routine, I won't do it. That's just the way I work. I'm the same way with exercise and music. If I don't do something at roughly the same time every day, I'm less likely to do it. I'm sure there's a better way to organize, but it's better than nothing.

Ted: True.

Will: Thus, I won't allow myself to go to bed unless there is a new blog post.

Ted: Even if you have nothing to write about?

Will: What else are blogs for if not to write when you have absolutely nothing to write about.

Ted: Word.

Will: Okay. Blog entry done. Going to bed.

Ted: Cool. Probably see you tomorrow dude.

Will: I'll expect the call around the same time to go hang out at the same place.

Ted: The way life should be.

Will: Night, dude.

Ted: Night.

"work"

Ted: Smash?

Will: Sounds good. It'll give me a good break.

Ted: From what?

Will: Work.

Ted: "Work?"

Will: Hours upon hours of emails and phone calls.

Ted: To who?

Will: Booking agents, the guy who's doing the art for my CD, a photographer, etc.

Ted: How's that going?

Will: Eh.

Ted: How so?

Will: It's hard to feel like I have more of a buzz going than I did when I wasn't devoting over forty hours a week to my music.

Ted: Well, it's got to be doing something.

Will: No, it is. At the very least, I'm a much better performer than I used to be. More people have seen me perform that havn't seen me before, and even though there aren't many of them, those people count. They will hopefully remember me and go out of their way to come to my shows. The problem is, no one's doing that yet.

Ted: No one?

Will: No one I don't know. Almost everyone at my shows is a friend of mine or someone a friend of mine brought along. No one is coming who is completely unconnected to me.

Ted: Yet.

Will: You're optimistic.

Ted: Dude, it's going to happen if you keep up with it.

Will: I hope you're right.

Ted: I mean, I can tell from the number of times that you're too busy to hang out that you're working hard. Granted, that doesn't guarantee success, but it's going to help.

Will: Hopefully.

Ted: So, what are these phone calls and emails about?

Will: Well, to the promoters, they're just out of the blue emails saying that I'd love to play and link to my press kit. With the artist, it's to find out how close I am to being able to send off my CD for duplication. With the photographer-- Well, I mean with everybody, all I do is send them emails and wait for them to reply. That's the main thing I've been doing, really. Waiting for people to get back to me. I do other things and send other emails while I'm waiting for those replies, but I'm perpetually waiting for someone else to take the next step in the conversation. It sucks to be powerless like that.

Ted: How long does it take for people to get back to you?

Will: Bookers usually don't. If they do, it can range anywhere from minutes later to months later. I don't want to pester them too much by over-emailing them, so I have to wait long periods of time before I email them again. I'm continuously discovering just how small a place the music industry is.

Ted: I'm sure you'll make something happen soon, dude.

Will: Well, I'll certainly try.

Ted: Do, or do not. There is no try.

(Pause)

Will: How long were you waiting to say that?

Ted: All week.