Any prayers, good thoughts, good vibes, whatever, would be greatly appreciated.
Any prayers, good thoughts, good vibes, whatever, would be greatly appreciated.
May the best thing that happened to you last year, be the worst thing that happens to you this year.
I'm going to be making more of an effort to not lurk and actually post this year. It's going to be an interesting year for me personally. I really hope it's going to be less interesting for the rest of the world.
My boss is retiring. Or I guess, technically retired since the last official day of the office was New Year's Eve. Still have a lot of packing up of the office to do. As he remarked several times the past few days, it's amazing how much stuff gets accumulated in 40 years.
I started there about six months after out-processing from the Navy. I just needed something that would give me a paycheck and it's been pretty good for that for the last 26 years.
Even so, I always wanted something different, better. Something that I really enjoyed and was good at. I haven't made much progress on the voice acting career this year. I still record for LibriVox and that has been a lot of fun. But there is still so many technical aspects of it that I have to get right before I start trying to get paying jobs. And no, this isn't a case of "everything has to be perfect before I can do this." With so much recording being done from home, and that was even before the world imploded, if the recording doesn't meet exacting standards, it's worthless to even try for jobs.
I have managed to turn my closet into a dedicated recording space and I'm getting closer on getting the noise floor and peak levels and RMS levels and dB and a partridge in a pear tree right, but I'd really rather just show up at a studio, record, and leave the technical details to a sound engineer who enjoys their job and let me do the part I'm good at.
Anyway, for my severance I'm going to be on the payroll for my boss's wife's company for the next year, drawing the same paycheck, but I won't be going into the office or actually doing any work. It's an excellent deal for me. Now I just have to get another job, but at least I have time to plan and prepare.
What I really want to do with the voice acting is animation which should fulfill my fantasies of just recording and not editing. To that end, I'm working on learning coding in order to finance training, because I have a hard time remembering that just because I am good at this, it doesn't mean that I don't have to work at it.
I'm pretty comfortable-ish with HTML and CSS, though I'm a long way from being hirable. Next up is JavaScript, but I'm taking time off and doing nothing, or cleaning, for the next week. Though I will have to go in and help pack things up and take more things home.
I hope every one had a wonderful New Year.
I've been meaning to post this for three weeks, but keep wandering off instead.
This is Archie.
He's three months old in the picture and will be four months on the 25th and joined us three weeks ago last Thursday. My boss knew someone who had a kitten who needed a home and put me in contact with them. That kitty found a home before I got in touch. However, she texted me that evening about a friend of hers who also had a kitten who needed a home and the rest is history.
He and Sassy get along pretty well. They don't snuggle yet and for the first 24 hours all Sassy did was hiss and growl at him. But I've seen them both face down in the same food bowl since then, so I think they've made peace. Though there are still plenty "mom, I'm being killed" noises when they play.
He is currently laying on the desk in front of the computer making it less than easy for me to type. We're still working on him staying off the table when I'm eating and attacking my feet. Well, that last part is both of them.
( Kitty Pictures Ahoy )
Sorry for the size and the lousy quality. But hey, there she is. I'm thinking about getting another kitty fairly soon. I think I'm going to ask about this one. Seems like she could use a friend and Sassy does need a playmate.
It was still what I wanted even when I joined the Navy and I managed to get to perform with an English language theatre group when I was stationed in Lisbon, Portugal. (I will forever swear I would have met less English people if I had actually gone to England.)
I've never stopped wanting to act, but a lack of confidence in my ability held me back. Well, I knew I was good at it, I just didn't think anyone else would ever see it. Over the last 10? 20? years, I've started thinking about voice acting. It's basically just reading to a large degree and I excel at reading. So, I signed up with a voice-over training company out of New York, paid them far too much money - but it got me moving in the right direction, so I'm okay with that, got a demo out of it that resulted in a response of "yeah, that's a demo, can't do anything with it, but it's a demo."
There is a wonderful voice coach here in Houston and I finished a beginner's workshop with him last month and will schedule a follow-up session to discuss where I go from here after the New Year. It was a wonderful experience and I'm looking forward to the discussion. He's main philosophy of voice acting is that you have to know yourself very well because that's what you're sharing with your listeners. I've come a long way in that regard since Spring 2017 and some new ground has been dug up the last few months, some because of the class and some because it's time and I'm ready.
The prison ministry I'm involved with starts the weekend retreat off with a talk about the Prodigal Daughter - it's a ministry for women whose lives have been impacted by incarceration hence the gender-bend. I have always identified with the good daughter who stayed at home and did what she was supposed to. If someone needs something done and doesn't want to worry about if it will get done competently, I'm the one they ask. I've pretty much always thought of myself as Ethel to someone else's Lucy. I'm the sidekick. The best friend. But the coach and the guys in the class have made me wonder if maybe I can't be Lucy. Everybody in the class was really good and discussing one of the recordings, the coach said I was designed for this. One of the guys called me flamboyant and charismatic, which I know wouldn't be in the top 50 words I would choose to describe myself and probably not in the top 1000.
Anyway, all this is leading up to me announcing I've joined LibriVox which is a site that does audiobooks from public domain books, plays, short stories, poems. A lot of the stories come from Project Gutenberg. They ask that you do a test to check out recording quality before volunteering for a project. If anyone wants to listen and let me know what they think, I'd love to hear about it.
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I hope you enjoy it.

February 2007 -
October 17, 2019
Tyra Grace Annie
Corrected the date. She was 12, not 7.
- cat,
- kittie,
- parrot cat,
- tyra
Supernatual Parody 2
Here's the link if you want to check it out.
Check out this reaction video as well. You'll have to watch it a second time. Oh, darn.
Here is the article that tells more about the making of the film.
Go. Watch. Remember the world has its bright spots.
Thanks.

Come and join
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Rules and Information
Sign Ups: Artists | Authors | Fic and Art Betas
Also, a friend's church is doing a mystery dinner theater in two weeks, but they need an actor. I've e-mailed about it, but I'm not sure if I'm hoping to get the part or not. BTW, it's called God the Father with the logo like The Godfather. Huh, wonder what the offer I can't refuse will be? :-)
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Art Prompt Title: Parachute (Fanmix)
Art link: 2002
Artist:
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Fic Title: Parachute
Author:
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Characters/Pairings:Jackson/Stiles
Rating: Mature
Word Count: 8,424
Warnings: Drug and alcohol use. Car accident. Mentions of physical attack on secondary character.
Summary: This is about Stiles too and he deserves his freedom even, maybe especially, if it permanently locks the door on Jackson's prison.
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Art Prompt Title: Art
Art link: 1027
Artist:
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Fic Title: Tethered (by the thinnest thread)
Author:
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Characters/Pairings:Derek, Stiles, pre-Sterek
Rating: Gen
Word Count: 4,472
Warnings: None.
Summary: “You'll find Stiles on the north border of the preserve. Hurry if you want to find him alive.”
http://www.gofundme.com/Keeping-my-dogs-home
Help if you can, boost the signal if you can't - or even if you can. It won't take much to keep a family together.
I should be quoting poetry or something inspirational, but I've heard several lines on TV shows that I love and feel the need to share with the unsuspecting few of you reading this. The lines are generally generic enough that there really shouldn't be any spoilers, so I'm not marking as such. Let me know if I'm wrong.
In no particular order:
Sleepy Hollow – Abbie Mills - “I will rain so much legal brimstone down on you, God himself will be jealous.” Total Ivanova feels.
Nashville – male guitarist is given a guitar to tune that once belonged to Hank Williams, Sr. in 1952 or 53. Off his reaction - “Are you gonna tune it or breast feed it?”
The Crazy Ones – Sarah Michelle Gellar's new sitcom with Robin Williams. They show outtakes over the credits. RW - “Where'd you learn to do that Dukes of Hazard car thing?” SMG - “Sunnydale.”
My absolute favorite. Finally watched some of the extras on the Iron Man 3 DVD, such as Gags and Deleted Scenes. Jon Favreau to/about Tony “You've been spending your time with people twice as tall and half as old.”
Hope I've made someone smile.