February 24, 2009 at 11:14 pm (Baha'i)
I’ve started a new blog, here on WordPress. The tag line inadvertantly became the title: Living the struggles of thoughtful, deliberate parenting
I needed somewhere to put my musings on spiritual parenting, and I’m really enjoying the blogging format. So if you’re interested, check it out!
February 22, 2009 at 7:11 am (Baha'i)
Tags: audiobook publishing, Baha'i audiobooks, recording studio, voiceover, voiceover breathing
Oh, the things I’ve had to learn on this journey!
I was feeling pretty good about something I had recorded a couple weeks ago, so I sent if off to the audio engineer in whose studio I recorded the “Wings of One Bird” statement, for his professional opinion.
I discovered that I pound my P’s and my B’s, that my pacing was all over the place, and that I breathe like a panting racehorse.
I used to play flute, which taught me good diaphragmatic control. Unfortunately, it also taught me “the fast inhale,” to get the most air into my lungs in the least amount of time. I say unfortunately because when there isn’t a 50 piece band around you to cover the sound of your inhale, you sound like, well, a panting racehorse.
Compounding the problem is the ujayii breathing I learned during years of yoga. You constrict your throat intentionally to make yourself sound like a rushing ocean. I couldn’t say for sure why, but I speculate that it has to do with maintaining awareness of your breath. The net effect is that it makes your breathing louder.
My singer friend, GS, told me that I need to stop breathing like a wind player and start breathing like a singer. I guess wind players breathe from the throat while singers breathe from the stomach.
At first, I had no idea what she meant, but I tried it. It took me a while, but I’m getting the hang of it. There are two parts to it. The first part entails starting the breath down in the belly. When we’re babies, we belly breathe, but at some point, we start breathing shallowly from our chest. The second part involves the throat. Or more correctly, it “uninvolves” your throat. I found the most effective thing to practice was not just relaxing my throat, but consciously trying to keep my throat as open as possible. This produced the quietest breath possible.
I’ve been practicing this when I lay down to go to sleep at night. It’s very relaxing, and it actually feels more natural, like the way we used to breathe when we were babies.
I recorded a little a couple days ago. I fixed the plosives problem, and my breathing sounded just about perfect. (You don’t want it to be too quiet, or it’s unnatural sounding.) Now if I can just get this pacing thing down…
February 19, 2009 at 4:46 am (Baha'i, Verdanta, audiobooks, business)
Tags: Eliminating mouth noise, mouth noise, voiceover
I tried to record the other night, but I was having a terrible time with mouth noise. A few months ago, this was something I had never even heard of. Now I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that I had a terrible case of it!
It turns out, when you put a sensitive mic in front of your open mouth, there is the potential for all sorts of embarrassing sounds to be picked up, amplified and recorded. Tummy growls, burps, and now, mouth noise.
I’m not sure of the exact cause of mouth noise, but it sounds like when you sit quietly in a foamy bubble bath and you can hear the bubbles popping around you. That’s what mouth noise sounds like, little tiny bubbles popping. Except that the mic amplifies the sound, making your mouth sound “sticky,” in a very disturbing way.
Regretfully, I spent what could have been a productive recording evening researching ways to eliminate mouth noise. But I thought one way I could make sure that time wasn’t completely wasted, I would share with you what I found. Here is what I gleaned from a couple of different discussion boards:
I make no promises as to the effectiveness of any of these remedies -
try them at your own risk!
I will definitely be giving at least some of them a try, and I may add my own opinion as to the effectiveness of those remedies that I get around to trying.
If you’re a voiceover, please tell us which ones you have found most/least helpful!
February 14, 2009 at 7:03 am (Baha'i)
I did it! I rode the Mormon trail, and I rode it very well!
My friends were all worried that I’d seriously injure myself. My biking partner/mentor (who took me) kept telling me not to be nervous. I kept telling her, “I’m not.” In the end, I didn’t break a thing, not bone, skin or nail.
Everyone talks about how difficult the Mormon and National trails are. We talk about them in hushed tones filled with awe. “You ride Mormon? Wow, you must be a great rider!” But when I got out there today, I knew that whatever the mountain was, it wasn’t the mythical impossibility that we had collectively constructed in our community psyche.
I accepted that the trail (the future) simply was (acceptance), and that my job was just to see it as it was (be present and aware), to know that I was capable of more than I thought I was capable of (faith), and to know that if I needed to walk, I’d walk (humilty).
Did I ride it perfectly? Of course not. But I rode my absolute hardest, and did better than I ever could have hoped.
Now I just need to apply all the lessons I’ve learned from mountain biking to my off-trail life.
February 7, 2009 at 12:45 am (Baha'i)
Tags: Enlightenment, positive thinking
I love to mountain bike.
I ride the Desert Classic in Phoenix, AZ. Its miles of dusty desert single track have something for everyone. Last year, I bought a really nice bike, and it’s brought me a lot of joy. In fact, I’ve gotten pretty good. I’m much stronger and more confident than ever before. It’s a powerful feeling that translates well into the rest of my life.
A couple weeks ago, I told my Jedi master mountain bike friend how well I’ve been doing. She challenged me to tackle the Mormon Trail, a much more technical trail within the same park. To give you a sense of perspective on what that means, she offered to loan me her body armor.
My first reaction was “Yipes!” but my second reaction was “If not now, with her, then when and with who?” We’re going Monday.
Which brings me to my ride today. I was cruising along, thinking about Monday. Everyone talks about how hard the Mormon and National trails are. I pictured how difficult it must be and how little of it I would be able to ride. And yet, I would gain a certain degree of credibility for having tried it at all.
I started composing the story I would tell people after it was all over. I couldn’t help it, I’m a compulsive writer. I like to take the tragic, irritating, and depressing moments of my life and turn them into stories that make people laugh. It stops the flow of negative energy that those kinds of situations can so easily generate.
This is what I came up with: “Yeah, I took my bike on the Mormon trail once. But I decided I’d rather go on trails where I get to ride my bike, not carry it.”
Pretty good, huh?
Well, I thought so. Until I realized that I had already decided that I was going to fail miserably on Monday.
I’ve been reading Tolle’s book, The New Earth, wherein he talks about how we use storytelling to create suffering in our lives. He was primarily talking about creating suffering around events that occurred in the past. But I’m more advanced than that, I can create suffering by dooming myself to failure in the future!
I mentally kicked myself and said “Stop it! If you’re going to tell yourself a story, at least give it a happy ending! You’re a great rider, and you’re going ride awesomely on Monday!”
At least I caught myself this time. But how often do we tell ourselves negative stories where we don’t catch ourselves? How often do we create suffering for ourselves by writing our life stories as dramas, tragedies, or even tear jerkers?
The next time you catch yourself writing yourself into a soap opera, STOP! Notice what you’re doing, laugh out loud, and then write yourself a HAPPY ending!
February 5, 2009 at 6:06 am (Baha'i)
Some wise person once said that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step…” The implication is that the hardest step to take is the first one, especially when the journey is an especially daunting one.
What this particular wise guy failed to mention is that every step you take is a “first step.” Every next step looks impossibly difficult. It’s only once it’s behind you that you realize it wasn’t that bad. And you know this because the step in front of you is clearly the most difficult step.
Get the picture?
The next step is always a challenge. If it’s gotten easy, look around. You might be stuck! I like challenging myself. I’ve said so over and over. And the upside of this is that I know when I’m stalling. I know when I’m trying very hard to avoid taking my next first step.
Like right now. The recording of the first ten pages of Advent. I took a first stab at them, and wasn’t happy. Shoghi Effendi is a hard read, and much more so when it’s out loud. So I set myself the goal of finishing ten pages, in one week. That week came and went, and nothing.
Two weeks ago, I met with my friend DK. We have a little club called the “Divas Mastermind Group.” Basically, we share our “big plans” with each other, ask challenging questions, make suggestions, set goals, and hold each other accountable to the goals we set at the last meeting. We’ve let the club slide for a while, but two weeks ago, just about the time I realized I really needed a kick in the pants, DK called me and we met. I set the goal of ten pages, rough edited, due in two weeks time. Two weeks is tomorrow, I recorded those ten pages, and I’m reasonably happy with how they turned out. I need to transfer it to my iPod and give it a listen.
So now you know the secret of how to give yourself a kick in the pants: you hand your boot over to a trustworthy friend and ask her to do it for you!
