September 27, 2009 at 2:24 am (Baha'i, business)
I just realized that my blog officially passed it’s one year mark last month.
Yay, me!
Actually, I really am proud of myself for hanging in there this long. I started working on Verdanta about a year before I started blogging about it. At that time, I had developed a reputation with my husband of reading a new book, getting all excited about it, making big plans, and then… nothing. (Real estate, anyone?) Verdanta started the same way, but this time my husband called me out. He told me to show him the numbers.
Of course to show him the numbers, I had to figure out exactly how to find the numbers. That led me to Score, which got me going with my business plan (Thanks, Jim Newman!), and the rest, well, you can go back and read my blog from the beginning for the rest!
My husband and I treat our marital anniversary with about the same degree of fanfare. The day after, or the week after, one of us will say, “Oh, hey! Happy Anniversary!” And that’s pretty much that. My mom says, “Why make a big deal? If it’s good, there will be more. If it’s not, why would you want to celebrate it?” I guess that’s where I get it from. My husband, well, he’s just lousy at remembering dates!
For those of you who’ve been with me for a while, thank you! Your support and encouragement are part of the reason I’m still around. For those who just joined us, welcome! And God willing, we’ll be together for another anniversary next year!
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September 21, 2009 at 7:05 am (Baha'i, Verdanta, audiobooks, business)
Good news! I’ve finished recording and editing the last ten pages of Advent of Divine Justice!
Unfortunately, I’m no longer happy with much of the rest of the book, so I’ve already started over.
Fortunately, it’s going MUCH faster than before.
If all goes according to my intentions, (notice I didn’t say, “according to my plan?”) I should finish recording and editing in about three weeks.
Of course after that, there’s mastering, getting a website online to sell it (Hans is working on it!), potentially getting hardcopy CD’s made to sell through conventional outlets, and who knows what else.
Can you believe it? I’m getting close to having a tangible product! One which was born “potentially” during a walk I took two years ago!
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August 20, 2009 at 5:35 am (Career, Mastermind Group, Work, business, work as worship)
A few years ago, I and two of my friends decided to form a mastermind group. (For those who don’t know what this is, I refer you to this site for an explanation.) Basically, we were three women who had dreams and aspirations, but who wanted “a little something extra” to help us reach those dreams sooner.
We started meeting every two weeks at various coffee shops. Each person had 20-30 minutes to report on their progress, specifically addressing their status on concrete goals set by them the previous week. It gave us something invaluable – accountability! (Also known as “a swift kick in the pants!”) When it was working well, it was fabulous, and we all made great strides towards our goals.
Unfortunately, life kind of got in the way earlier this year and we stopped meeting.
Thankfully, as of this morning, we managed to fire it back up! And this time we have at least one new member, possibly two, which will only make the experience that much richer.
I thought I was doing pretty well on my own, but the group reminded me of several things that I had forgotten needed doing. As soon as I got back to my office, I had a burst of productivity, and I remembered why we had started the group in the first place.
If you have big audacious goals, but you aren’t progressing as quickly as you’d like, consider starting a Mastermind Group of your own. It’s not nearly as hard as you might think - all you need are a few friends, colleagues, or even acquaintances who also have big dreams.
Think about it… and then do something about it!
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May 18, 2009 at 4:49 am (Baha'i, Web Design, business)
The hardest thing about deciding to study something about which you know absolutely nothing, is knowing where to begin.
I wanted to learn something about designing websites. Not so much so I could build my own, but so I could have an intelligent conversation with the people who would be building it for me, namely my husband and my brother.
I checked out a dozen books from the library, but just narrowing down where to start was frustrating. Thankfully, with my husbands help (“Don’t read that one, it’s worthless. This one’s really good though,”) I finally honed in on a couple that I really liked. I thought I’d share them with you so in case any of you want start your education in web design, you – like Dorothy – will know where to look to find the beginning of the yellow brick road:
This is a great primer in HTML, CSS and XHTML. Most books I looked at excelled only as sleep aids. This one was different. It was actually fun, in a geeky kind of way. Very engaging.
This would be good to tackle after the Head First book, because it assumes basic knowledge of HTML. If you already know HTML, then this is a good one to check out because it helps you build sites with the minimum amount of coding.
This is a fabulous introduction to website usability. You’ll never surf the web the same way again.
This is an excellent all around training website. You can start your training with HTML, then continue with CSS, XHTML, Java, etc… It’s a pretty dry in its presentation, but effective, and very well organized. Plus, it’s free and that’s always a good thing, right?
Keep in mind that these are references for complete novices only. If you already have a working knowledge, then these might not work for you. Then again, they might. Either way, good luck!
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May 9, 2009 at 3:55 am (Baha'i, Verdanta, audiobooks, business)
I was kind of feeling sorry for myself this afternoon. I had asked to be relieved of some (but not all) of my responsibilities in the teaching field so I could concentrate on Verdanta. But since then, I’ve received NO calls or emails regarding the target neighborhood I used to be the Neighborhood Coordinator of. Nothing. Nada. I was thinking “Gosh, I didn’t mean that I didn’t want anyone to call me ever again.” But then I realized it was probably just as well, since I have been putting so much time into Verdanta. (30+ hrs/week, on top of my full time Mommy gig!)
That’s when it hit me. Hans showed up about the same time as I handed over the Neighborhood Coordinator responsibilities to my replacement.
Do you remember when I blogged about feeling like the tortoise? When I prayed for guidance and my answer was “Be patient… It will become clear”?
Well, it just did.
Apparently, it’s time for the tortoise to take a break so the hare can get busy! The difference is that this time, I know what I need to be doing!
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May 7, 2009 at 3:33 am (Baha'i, Verdanta, audiobooks, business)
I have a new cohort in crime!
It turns out, someone - in Budapest, Hungary of all places! - has simultaneously been doing what I’ve been blogging about for the past eight months. Who knew?
I was a little nervous when I first found out about him, as he was when he found out about me. Oh no! Competition! But I think it’s going to be all right. It was hard feeling like I was the only one in the world doing this, a sentiment that he shared as well. Having a partner of sorts feels… comforting. Especially when you consider that there’s a third partner in all this – the one who gave us the same idea, and then when the time was right, helped us find each other.
His name is Hans Peterson, and he actually has a year head start on me. He already has an active website, and has been producing and publishing podcasts to get experience. Check out his site, it’s called Voices Divine.
You may be hearing my voice on there soon as well. Remember when I said it didn’t look like Baha’u'llah wanted me to get distracted by podcasting? Good thing I listened. I would have wasted a lot of time trying to get the website part up and running – and now I don’t have to! Providing podcast material will be good practice for me, in much smaller, more manageable bites. But you’ll hear more about that later!
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April 26, 2009 at 5:53 am (Baha'i, Entrepreneur, Mother, Verdanta, business, life balance, livelihood)
You’d think that working for yourself would make you extra motivated to get to work. Turns out, that’s by no means a given!
Recently, my business partner (aka, my husband) and I had a discussion wherein we discussed the amount of time I was putting into Verdanta. Specifically, he was questioning how serious I was. I assured him that I was VERY serious, but admitted that I was having difficulty prioritizing my time. Part of the problem was, I still identified myself as a “stay-at-home mom.” The very term implies lots of leisure time, so how could I say no to friends who wanted to meet me for coffee, or talk on the phone, or have me attend just one short meeting?
After our little chat, I decided it was time to start thinking of myself, calling myself, and acting like a working woman. It was a lot harder than I would have thought.
Then a couple weeks ago, my husband was working on the taxes. It was the first time he’s had to deal with a small business tax return, so it was extra painful this year. Afterwards, he mentioned that he wasn’t sure if there was a minimum number of hours you had to put into a business to call it a business. Just to be sure, he suggested I start keeping a work log.
I started to write down each day the different activities I worked on, and the amount of time I spend doing them. Then I calculated a daily as well as a weekly average. I’ve been keeping the log for a little over two weeks now, and I’m averaging over 30 hours per week! That’s pretty darn respectable, considering my full time job as Mom still comes first. It turns out, for a compulsive list maker like myself, if I have a choice between watching TV, and reading a book about web design, I’m going to choose the activity that I can write down in my log. There’s no doubt that I put in an extra 10 hours each week just by choosing log-worthy activities over pure leisure.
This was just what I needed to kick my butt into gear!
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April 10, 2009 at 11:15 pm (Baha'i, Verdanta, audiobooks, business)
After I received the feedback from the recording engineer, I made some adjustments, and started over. To date, I’ve recorded and edited the first 30 pages of Advent of Divine Justice.
Last week, I asked my toughest critic to take a listen to my latest recording. I got a call from him later that morning. He said, “It sounded really good. The pacing was good, there was no background noise in the silences, and you didn’t over-emote, ” which was something he had pointed out in a much earlier version.
I then sent if off to the recording engineer again, who said that from a recording standpoint, it was good.
So. Now that recording engineer has OK’d it, and my husband has put his stamp of approval on it, 
I’m wondering if there’s anyone else out there who would like to be a test subject and take a listen? I’ll take the first five people who are willing to listen carefully to what I’ve done and offer their honest, carefully thought out opinion. (Specific likes, specific dislikes, suggestions…)
If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, don’t delay! Contact me today!
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April 8, 2009 at 5:23 am (Baha'i, Career, Faith, Service, Verdanta, audiobooks, business, life balance, volunteering)
In a recent blog, I was conflicted because I felt like one area of service in my life was competing with another. It didn’t help when my beloved ABM (Auxiliary Board Member) reminded me that the 4 core activities are THE most important thing we should be working on right now.
Well, as of today, with the help of my ATC (Area Teaching Committee) Secretary, I’ve offloaded a significant portion of my responsibility. I will continue to support the core activities through tutoring, teaching, etc…, but I will do it within clearly defined time slots. (A discipline issue on my part.)
But the biggest update for me is that I’ve finally uncovered the one detail that I missed when I originally wrote this blog entry: if I weren’t working on Verdanta, I would be working somewhere else, and it probably wouldn’t have ANYTHING to do with the Baha’i Faith, nor would it be as flexible or fulfilling as Verdanta.
It’s all going to work out just fine. I knew it would. Didn’t you?
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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:
- Avoid dairy, caffeine, spicy foods, pizza, chocolate and wheat products.
- Drink lot of water WELL AHEAD OF TIME. Opinions vary on how much water and how early, but at the very least: one litre, one hour ahead of time.
- Don’t swish your mouth too aggressively during a session. It tells your mouth that it’s OK to stop making saliva, and that’s bad.
- Take little sips while recording.
- Try drinking Gator Ade
- Use a room humidifier (ahead of time. You don’t want to hear it while recording)
- Brush your teeth clean before starting
- Use Chapstick
- If your asthmatic, you may need to use your inhaler. (This one is all mine - I heard myself wheezing in the headphones.)
- Lick your shirt. (????)
- Allegedly, pectin is a good thing. Sources include grape jelly, licorice, and Jelly Bellies.
- Increase the distance between the mouth and the mic
- Use a software solution, such as Sonic Solutions De-clicker
- Manually edit out mouth noise.
- “Entertainer’s Secret Throat Spray” or “Breathe Right Snore Relief”
- Suck on or nibble slices of granny smith apples, with the skin on. (Only grannies will do!)
- Sip on Cranberry juice. (Plain flavor only.)
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!
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