Greetings everyone!
I gave my assistance in the Music and Sound sub-forum and thought it would be a good thing to introduce myself properly. This is probably going to be a long read, TL;DR at the bottom.
My name is Christian, 24 year old guy from Sweden who love creating. I have always been creating stuff and I enjoy anything craft-related.
My main hobby which I'm very passionate about is music and has been since 1999 when I first started using eJay (yes I know right...) but a few years later (late 2002) I tried FL Studio which was back then known as Fruity Loops and I was hooked.
It took some time to get to know the software because back then YouTube didn't exist and there were no real tutorials or guides to follow so I am a 100% self-learned when it comes to creating music. I've learned by trial-and-error. Sometimes huge errors but that's part of life and you always learn something from it so for me it's just something positive in the end.
The thing about me is that I don't try to become famous, that's not why I make music. For me it's all about the creativity and love for what I do and I can't ever see me changing that for something as trivial as to get attention. But of course, as much as the next guy do, I also appreciate good feedback. And nice comments always warms my heart.
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Another thing I like very much but not really been able to do lately is traveling. I've traveled mostly in Europe but I also spent three months in India in early 2011. That was a journey (or rather adventure) I had been 'planning' for a long time. I had some friends whom I were going with but due to some unforeseen reasons that didn't happen and I met a new friend and a new school in 2007 and we clicked immediately.
One day I brought up that I liked Asia, particularly India and South East Asia and it turns out that he also had that interest.
So well we started talking about it and we really wanted to do this. But since being the slackers of the school our vision was met with nothing but negativeness and people told us that we were never going to be able to do such a thing.
After we quit school we both were lucky and got a job. I worked for a few months as a "photograph/graphic editor", basically what I did was taking pictures of stuff (carpentry tools mostly) then removed them from their background in Photoshop and storing them in a database.
During breaks and my spare time I worked on a travel blog, making a design with WordPress with an Indian theme so it would fit well.
On the first paycheck we booked one-way flight tickets since we had no idea how long we would stay, we would let our budget decide that. 5th of January, 2011 were the date we were going.
So we started saving our money, I even worked in the days between Christmas and New Years Eve.
Then we took off! And what an amazing trip, we didn't plan "let's first go there then there and then there and let's end up here", no, instead we were going to take day by day and see where we end up. I think this is why we had such a great adventure.
First day we were tricked into buying a two week guided tour of Rajasthan, the so-called Golden Triangle tour. It was great and all and we actually manage to keep the price relatively low, at least in comparison to a fellow traveller we met a long the way who payed more than me and my friend did together.
We got to know our driver so well that he invited us to stay with him and his family for some time so we accepted, even tho it meant that we had to pay him (that's how it works :P) but I don't regret it. Except for Goa the greatest time spent in India where in Himachal Pradesh with the great Himalayas watching over us from above. Visited some great places up there.
After three weeks we went back to Delhi with him and took the express train to Goa. Jumped off in Vasco Da Gama in central Goa, fully dressed for a snowy Manali. Took a cab down to Palolem since we had been recommended to stay there for a more calm visit. Basically; northern Goa = Tourism deluxe and lots of parties and southern Goa = Still tourism but much less and no parties. Anyway it was just a few hours drive away to northern Goa.
First week I got sick, really sick. Anything I drank would come out from my behind in less than 30 seconds (I'm not exaggerating) and continued like that for a few days until I had enough and told my friend to go get something and he came back with some electrolytes salts or something like that, rehydration powder to mix with water. The next day I could eat again, not much but I was already starting to feel better.
The day after that I was almost completely restored but down because I've missed a whole week of Goa.
We hired a scooter each and just drove, drove without direction. Okay that's not completely true, we had heard about this unexploited virgin beach somewhere close but we really had no clue where to find so we drove on feeling and at last we found it, it was one of the last beaches of Goa before entering Karnataka to the south. It goes by the name of Galgibagha, the turtle nesting beach. We didn't see any turtles tho :(
But the unique thing about this beach was that instead of being surrounded by palm trees it was surrounded by eucalyptus trees, and the fact that it was unexploited! It was just us on the whole beach.
When we left the best thing on the whole journey happened to us, I stopped for ice cream just 30 seconds with scooter from the beach and the shopkeeper told us that the house across the street was for rent and it turns out he rented it very cheap because it was in the end of the season.
500 rupees! Back then it was ~$10 or €7,1. Even cheaper with the current exchange rate!!
A whole house to ourselves, two minutes walk from a completely unexploited beach, I couldn't believe it. We would have liked to continue more south then up to central India, more north to the east and ending with Varanasi or Darjeeling but we liked it so much where we were so we stayed there for four more weeks until we ran out of money and had to go home.
And here I am, I've had a few jobs since then but at the moment and searching so I can save up for another journey, either India again but I would also like to see the rest of South East Asia.
And for something more personal about me. I'm not religious but I don't judge people who are. And if I were to believe in something it's something based on the beliefs of Buddha, meditation.
I don't see my mission in life to carry on my genes and settle down with a nice girl, get a big house with two cars and a dog. I settle for whatever I have and have learned to enjoy life no matter what's going on in my life at the moment.
Well... I told you it was going to be long, I just can't stop writing when I start, sorry! But here's a TL;DR for all of you who didn't read it all (which I guess is probably everyone ;) )
24 year old guy from Sweden, loves music and traveling. Traveled Europe and went to India for three months in early 2011, amazing trip. Would like to go back but also to see South East Asia.
If I could combine music and traveling for a living my life would've been made.
The way I'm going to try and contribute to this project is by making music and sounds.
I'm glad to hopefully become a part of this amazing thing!
Good night to you all!