Friday Five for November 21, 2003
Yeah, I know … I didn’t answer last week’s Friday Five … I’ll get around to them. Eventually. I know it’s no excuse, but I can’t begin to tell you the maximum quantities of work-related stress I was under last week and weekend … and the questions didn’t interest me enough to distract me at the time …
This week however, though only suffering from moderate levels of stress … but maintaining the same quantities of insomnia … I’m mooding to answer these questioooons …
1. List five things you’d like to accomplish by the end of the year.
Hmmmmm … there’s not much time before the end of the year … so one should be somewhat reasonable in setting this goal … like me think …
One, I want to start hanging out with The UnUsual Suspects as Amy instead of Joe Hairdy;
Two, I want to finish my holiday shopping before Christmas Eve this year;
Three, I want to get myself a part-time job of some sort;
Four, I want to go to a holiday party as myself;
Five, I’d like to make my friends and family proud that I’m their friend or family member.
2. List five people you’ve lost contact with that you’d like to hear from again.
Seriously, I really can’t think of anyone in my day to day life. I’ve only a few people that I consider friends … and all of them I’m in contact with regularly … but I would like to be able to spend more time with each and every one of them.
I would also like to go visit my grandparents’ gravesite a bit more frequently that I have been … it’s a bit of a drive, but I always take a pint of whiskey with me and do a couple of shots with Grandpa.
And lastly, there are my on-line friends who I wish I could spend more time with … and I miss Si … I wish she was still hanging around.
3. List five things you’d like to learn how to do.
Heh … only five !!! Give me a break !! I can’t limit it to five … oh well …
One, I’d like to learn how to build a lightsaber and competently handle it, (you do get the double meaning there, don’t ‘cha? :));
Two, I’d like to gain even just a minimum level of fashion sense, meaning Singer, Sister and Satan have got their work cut out for them;
Three, I’d like to learn another language, I’m thinking Irish this time;
Four, I’d like to get a Ph.D., so that when we’re really drunk, The UnUsual Suspects could legitimately call me “Doctor, Doctor” (you see, my law degree is a doctorate, so if I had another doctorate degree they could call me a really bad 80’s song and it’d be …. aaaah, forget it, you’re right, too much of a stretch);
Five, I’d like to learn how to have a family and make it happen. (I know, it’s really not answering the question, but I’d really like a family and figured I’d mention it again :))
4. List five things you’d do if you won the lottery (no limit).
As if I hadn’t thought of this before !!!! First of all, I’d need to win a huge lottery, because I’ve got some spending plans … and secondly, my plans really aren’t that altruistic … so if you’re thinking I might use the money to make the world a better place … phorget it … it’d be a better place for me and my peeps.
One, I’d pay off all of my debts, mortgage, student loans and the like, along with those of my parents, Ex and Brother;
Two, I’d buy some really kick ass computers for myself;
Three, I’d give at least a million dollars (each) to Mom and Dad, Bro, Shaft, Singer, Hottie, Sister, Miss Daisy, Tenant, Ex and Morrie. You see, I’d want all of my friends here to be millionaires too. The only condition is that we would all have to belong to the same country club … because think of the trauma we could cause if we did !! 🙂
Four, I wouldn’t work. Be real.
Five, I’d travel the world on Lara Croft-type adventures.
5. List five things you do that help you relax.
I watch television, I sing along with my mp3s, I surf the internet, I talk with my friends and family, I shop. Pretty bland, huh?
A voice with a nasal quality can be quite piercing and carry fairly well. Yelling, OTOH, can be difficult. Save the soft-edged voice for conversation and use the more shrill voice from the mask of the face for being heard in noisy situations.
And, while I think about my last comment, I am coming to think some people make me repeat things just to annoy me! Bastards!!
Some comments on Amy C.’s voice tips plus suggestions of my own (I’m a singing teacher, by the way):
*) It seems that the croak method is geared to producing what singers call “sotto voce”. It is a half-voice, produced with less than 100% of the vocal folds. It is not falsetto. Falsetto (which is a bad term – counter tenors use it with great success to produce beautiful sounds) is made by vibrating only the edges of the vocal folds. Sotto voce is in-between full voice and falsetto.
*) Resonance and registers. The lower sounds, made with full vocal folds, tend to resonate most easily off the chest. This area (register) of the voice is called “chest voice”. The higher sounds resonate most easily from the sinus cavities, pharynx and hard palate. Because these resonators are in the head, the high register is called “head voice”.
*) Males tend to speak heavily in chest voice. If you talk in male-mode, you should be able to feel the resonance easily. Females tend to use head register.
*) My suggestion is to develop sotto voce using Amy C.’s methods, but additionally to practice placing the voice. Imagine that there is a rank of organ pipes in your head, running from 32 ft contra-trombone (the pit of your chest) to 2ft piccolo (way out in front of your face and high up). Try to place the voice in the upper part of the organ pipe rank, cutting all chest resonance and using only the pipes in the head.
*) Males talk in a monotone, using force to emphasise important words. Females use more pitch variation. If it helps, imagine the voice going up and down the rank of organ pipes. Visualisation of this kind is really helpful in learning to control the voice.
*) A dead giveaway of maleness in speech is that downward inflexion at the ends of phrases. Am I ever trying to get rid of it! It is ingrained from earliest years 🙁
*) Anybody got any ideas about what to do when speaking in noisy situations? I find it really hard to make myself heard sometimes. I speak in a delicate way, but at my present low level of skill in producing a feminine voice, I cannot speak loudly without either producing giveaway chest resonance or sounding like a super-camp queen.
Hope all that’s of some interest!
Hooray on a stick! The link to voice techniques finally worked.
“LOL No … not a comic book … a sitcom !! My life is a sitcom !! :)”
wanna bet?
😀
*goes back to inking the next scene
I just thought: perhaps you could implement “AmyChat” here. There seems to be quite a crowd of regular visitors here and frequent exchanges in the comments. It’d be cool to do it in real time.
Eeek! The tight shirts sound so uncomfortable. I am learning how sensitive it gets in that region, and I don’t fancy tight underwear myself. Also, what’ya gonna do in summer? You’re going to feel really hot wearing a suitcoat all the time. As for always pursing your lips, that’s got to be a drag. I’ve just got this comical image of a girl with Gordon Gecko hair in nine layers of clothing sucking her lips and saying, no, she isn’t warm enough in the July sun, thankyou very much.
I’m glad you’re okay !! Cars can be replaced … people can’t. 🙂
Yeah … I’ve been busy … business is great when the economy is weak … lotsa crime … though I can tell the economy is picking up somewhat around here … the eco-based crime is slowing up some.
LOL No … not a comic book … a sitcom !! My life is a sitcom !! 🙂
Aaaaah … thanks !! 🙂
I know !! In the game of phone tag … I’m it ! 🙂
Yo Amy…I’m Ok, the truck suffered some slight damage, and the deer…well, he was put down by the responding officer…Two massively broken legs… Should have jumped out in front of my car. Its not like I wandered off the road and accidently hit him or anything. They are stupid stupid stupid creatures…
Here’s what I say to you. Ya just gotta say fuck it and go full time. You just have to. Who the heck are you kidding anyway? Certainly not anyone that LOOKS at you!
So…you’ve been busy defending all those perps huh…Whats coming down with the gang anyway?
Stay tuned? Sounds like a serial comic book!
Talk later…(you OWE me a call ya know)…
Makenna
Hair slickin’ back is a big part of it !! I’m basically use bondo … and slick it back Gordon Gecko-style. Based on a Shaft observation, I hold my mouth a different way in boy-mode to disguise its natural contour now (purse my lips, makes them appear thinner and shows less teeth). I wear my suitcoat around the office frequently with tight undersized t-shirts compressing things down. It’s really become a pain …
I certainly don’t enjoy condensension … but have already experienced it as part of things so far. Which is why I’m convinced, I do have to get some practice learning new ways to accomplish things.
Sure Volta had a pile – stingiest bastard I ever met. Tried to barrow a few cells, but no, he was giving lectures making frog legs jump….
As for working as Amy, oh boy are you in for a rude shock, unless you enjoy condescension. You’ll need to learn completely new ways to accomplish things.
Aside from feeling uncomfortable when in Joe-mode, isn’t it getting a bit impractical? I mean, if your photos are anything to go by, you don’t look anything like a man now. How do you disguise yourself as a man? Do you slick your hair back and gum on a moustache?
Geezuz Makenna … are you okay ?? One of (Hottie) The UnUsual (Hottie) Suspects had a (Hottie) little car/deer incident last (Hottie) year … but I’m not (Hottie) going to mention (Hottie) names or anything.
Hmmm … street gang … I like the sounds of that !! lol … Yeah, my peeps totally rock, I’d do anything for them.
We’ve got some big happenings coming up on The UnUsual Suspects front … so stay tuned !!
Other than coming to the office in Amy-mode when I don’t expect others around (which at this firm with the others, is anytime after 5:00 p.m. or any weekends), I don’t mix the two worlds at all. I keep work and me totally separate. I did have one experience where I tossed out the wrong voice in court once, but quickly recovered. 🙂
Well well, aren’t we the ambitious chick!
Me? I just want to fix the grille on my S-10 which a deer took out last night…Stupid animal!
You and I gonna talk soon. I wanna hear more about this street gang you hang around with. You think they got a Fairfield County chapter?
Makenna
Now I get it. Do you use any of Amy-mode while you’re being a lawyer? I can understand that that might cause misunderstandings if you’re being Joe in court, but what about when you’re with your colleagues in the office?
I’m gradually becoming more and more Tamsin at both my jobs, but I think at the moment that everybody just thinks that I’ve become the gayest person in town! 🙂 That said, I feel so much happier, because I feel that at last I’m being much more myself and not forcing myself to be something that I didn’t want to be anyway. (I mean, it was horrible growing up because I come from a working-class town in the Midlands, and I caught lots of abuse just for liking classical music…had I also said, “I say, I should rather like to be a girl” I probably would have been beaten up every day for the rest of my life.)
And how do we keep missing each other on messenger? I’ve been on more-or-less continuously for the last 7 hours and you’ve updated your site more than once in that time.
I want the practice and experience. As with everything, your interactions and exchanges are bound to be different. I’m very effective doing the work thing in boy-mode, and I expect myself to continue being that way … but as everything else, it will take some practice for me to get to that point. So I want a part-time job so I can get some practice doing the work thang as Amy in a rather non-demanding setting. 🙂
What do you want a part-time job for? Don’t you lawyer-types already control 99% of the USA’s money? I suppose you could always come to England and do my job in the internet shop. That would teach you the true meaning of boredom.
“I’d like to make my friends and family proud that I’m their friend or family member.”
i’m sure you’ve done that already…
meanwhile,
i remember the guys from electric shop (9th grade)
talking about volta’s pile…
🙂
LOL 🙂
(Psst … Volta is the dude the is credited with inventing the electric battery and the electrical unit of measure was also named in his honor … woo hoo !! I’ve been waiting 22 years to use that bit of informatioooon.)
Each Jedi must build her own lightsaber. Each is unique. I built mine so long ago I had to power it cells I copied from Volta.