Posts Tagged ‘voiceovers’

Feeling alright these days, no IT shadows since last week, though the farthest I’ve gone in the last few days is an 8-miler.  Tomorrow I’ll go for 11 and hope for the first double-digit in a month that doesn’t require a stop for stretching.  I’m seriously pooped though and the heat doesn’t help.

I haven’t been sleeping, mostly because of an evil red cardinal living in our courtyard that loves taunting Kitsia, our cat, who’s always laying out on the deck.  The cardinal will stand on the deck rail starting at 5am and chirp loudly and unceasingly to get a rise out her, but the cat doesn’t give a shit.  I’ve taken to scaring it away myself by storming onto the deck with a really mean face, yelling “Go away you stupid bird!!”  But the bird doesn’t give a shit.

In work news, I got that voiceover job for the Rita’s commercial (the funny one requiring a bit of Swedish pronunciation) so I’m doing that this afternoon.  Yay.

Other than that, been doing a lot of designing and redesigning for Adorableshirts.com so I hope to get those up in the next day, then do a couple more running shirts for Gifted Runner, then the big job after that will be getting my music section off Fishpie.com and make its own seperate shop/website.  So I’ve gone from not doing anything designwise for a year to giving myself enough work to be steadily occupied for the next few months and beyond.  I wish I had more of a money-lust, then I’d work hard all the time.  As it is, I wait until some dwindling has occurred, then hurry to catch up.

On a funny note (though entirely aggravating to me), I discovered that after redoing my x-rated shirt site using Zazzle products instead of Cafepress, someone else on Zazzle had immediately copied two of my designs!  With great joy I submitted a copyright violation report with Zazzle and they removed the offending copies without ado, but still.  People are so stupid sometimes.

As far as running goes, I’m hopefully going to get my mileage back to the 60s starting this week.  June saw weekly averages of low 50s thanks to the IT band adventure.   This actually worked out well in the end, since a cutback is a healthy thing anyway and I wouldn’t have done it voluntarily.   So now I’m crossing fingers and toes for a strong mileage return without incident (though keeping toes crossed sounds like another cause for injury, so maybe I’ll stick with fingers).

Oh, and I never did share a chuckle at the havoc my IT rehab ended up wreaking.  Overzealous stretching awoke my dormant ankle bursitis (I’ve since laid off the heavy stretching so my ankle’s back to normal, thank god) but I also burned the side of my knee by icing it so much and not using a cover over the gel ice pack, so I now have a large scabby circle there.

If it’s not one thing…

Things are going pretty well, I did 11 on Sunday, 7 on Monday and 8 yesterday.   I still needed to stop and stretch on Sunday and Monday but yesterday was quiet and considering both Monday and yesterday were slower paced runs (which makes IT pain hurt more) it’s a good sign.  Today I’ll go for 9 or 10.

I’m in good spirits because I’ve been keeping busy.  After I got Gifted Runner redone, I redid another one of my t-shirt sites (x-rated shirts and no, I won’t provide a link (h) ).  After all this re-making of old crap, and to wipe the nasty off, I was inspired to do a brand new t-shirt site based on sweet, innocent kiddy designs.   I’m still working on adding stuff, but here it is, AdorableShirts.com.  Forgive the stupid name, that’s me whoring for Google’s attention.

I also sold my first ad space on Websitebeginner.com last week which was a giggle-worthy event.  Sometimes I get emails from people inquiring about advertising and because I really don’t know how to deal with pricing for it, I just toss the emails away.  This time, because I need the moolah, I replied and the guy was very easy to deal with, so it worked out great.

While we’re on the subject of cash, yesterday morning I had a voiceover for a funny commercial, one where I start speaking at a normal rate, then speed up till I’m talking super fast – was great fun.  But it’s been slow for VO work the past month.  I’m up for another funny one, though, where I play a Language Instructor teaching Swedish – I had to learn the pronunciation off an mp3 for the audition.  I got a call yesterday that it’s between me and one other person, so crossing fingers I’ve got it.

I’m still planning on racing that 5K this Sunday, though it’ll be a hot one and I’ve not done anything fast since the last race, so no PRs for sure.  I might even ensure a particularly sucky time by getting drunk the night before since my friend’s having a party.   But then I’ll have to leave my magic shoes at home because that would be embarrassing to suck in magic shoes.  Then again, the race is “Run For Cover” to fight melanoma and I don’t wear sunscreen half the time, so I’m a total poser anyway.

That’s how I’m feeling, not truly blue, but dancing around it.

Yesterday, I had to cut my run short because my newest Inspires have been bugging my right foot and it hurt too much to continue. The decorative piping that joins the tongue to the shoe puts pressure on the knuckle bone of my big toe and while I’ve tried different lacing techniques, it hasn’t helped, though I’ve kept it at bay by switching with my older Inspires. So after hobbling home, I took a pair of scissors and snipped through the piping to make more room.

It’s not the first time I’ve done shoe surgery, still I never enjoy cutting into a pair of $70 sneaks. Hopefully it’ll resolve the issue. But I’ve taken today off because my foot feels a little bruised when I apply pressure. I’m also icing it every so often. That’s baby blue.

Meanwhile, the 10K I’ve been looking forward to this weekend looks like it’ll be in shitty weather. At the moment, sleet and wind are firmly in the forecast. Aargh!! I so wanted to kill my PR in one ceremonial swoop, and while that should still happen to some extent, it won’t be as dramatic a murder as I’d hoped. More blue.

At least I had a good amount of work this week (4 out of 5 days is a lot in voiceover land). Most of it was the usual dry stuff, except for one job where I played a dog for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art – I love doing character work, so that was big fun.

My next role is to play a duck this Sunday. Hopefully the sleet will roll right off my back and I’ll just keep waddling to the finish.

What a morning. I was sitting here in my robe, putzing around the house thinking about when I would run, checking in on the forums, when at 10:13, I get a call from a recording studio, “Where are you?!” Oh shit! I totally forgot I had a voiceover at 10am! To a perpetually early Virgo, this is akin to killing a baby.

I apologized like mad, slapped on some clothes and drove like a bat out of hell. Twenty-five minutes later I walk in the door, sooo apologetic, the client and my friends at the studio are “no problem, don’t worry, everything’s ok” and I did the job. Still, that feeling of fucking up pervaded the day.

As for yesterday’s running report, I had planned to keep my 14-miler in slow territory and even though Hudson said “last 15 minutes hard”, I figured I’d skip that bit, since I’d done the tempo and 200s the previous day. I was feeling pretty good though and while the idea of speeding up seemed like a pipe dream at mile 10, I figured I could try it for a mile, see if it sucked, and if it did, slow down again.

As usual, the thought of doing is often worse than the actual deed. I picked up the pace around mile 11, it felt ok, so I picked it up a tad more, ending the run with 7:50s for the last two miles. Avg. pace for the run, 8:42.

After my job debacle this morning, I put off today’s run as long as I could because it was window-rattling gusty outside. Once again, I was making deals with myself “I give myself the ok to do a measly 4 miles as long I get those hill sprints in.” which got me out the door. It ended up being a fine recovery run, 7.6 miles w/ 7 hill sprints.

My highlight of the run was (with no other runners in sight thanks to the gusting wind) when I languidly picked my tights outta my ass at the very millisecond some fast guy appears next to me from behind saying “Hi, windy day, huh?”

Timing…I just didn’t have it today.

Backtracking first…

Monday’s 7 w/3 mile tempo ended up being a fabu run; molasses start on the first tempo mile (7:57) but the next two miles (7:38, 7:36) made up for the initial sludge.  A new song on the mp3 player, “Let It Rock” got me pumped so much, I rewound it for the whole 3 miles worth.

Yesterday had its ups and downs.  On the downs, remember my wonderful dentist appt the other day?  The cleaning was great, I had stellar hygiene, but a couple cleanings ago, my regular hygienist Patty (who had become a friend and partner in crime) was fired or quit.  “Partner in crime” because for a couple years, before the doc would come in to check me out, she’d whisper “he’s going to tell you replace this filling but don’t worry about it yet, you can wait on it”.

It was a huge old filling, but it hadn’t given me any trouble and I loved that she was my renegade hygenist.  When she left, I was assigned a chipper company girl in her place.  She’s very nice and all, but now there’s no one to tell me to ignore the doc, so I finally gave in to the pressure and got Step One of a crown yesterday.  The shit costs $868.  I miss my Patty.

On yesterday’s ups, I had such a great run that what was supposed to be 7 ended up 9.  It was the first really cold day here, windchill 30, but it was sunny and vibrant outside and I just wanted to keep going.  Later, we went for a fun dinner with our friends Lara and Jeff where I got drunk as a skunk and ate duck.   Anyway, it was almost enough to make me forget the interval session I had planned today, but I went to bed with it weighing on my mind because it was one of those long things I hate.

Yeah, I’m on the Flo Plan which includes only VO2 sessions of my liking, but Pfitzinger has a cruel one for pre-race week (2 x 1.25 miles @5k race pace with recoveries 50%-90% of the interval time) and because it looked like something I knew I’d hate, I made myself do it.  I figure if I dread it, it must be good for me (in intervals, anyway).

It ended up being ok, I averaged 7:16 pace on the first one (9:05), recovered for 6 minutes (65%ish), than went 7:19/mi (9:09) on the second one, so 7:17/mi avg. for both.  Really not bad and now I have that amazing feeling after a hateful workout that says “I did it! I’m done! I can be a restful pig now.”

I was so cooked afterwards, that I ended up run/walking the 3 miles home, which I never do.  Even with the walking, it still ended up a regular easy pace, so no biggie, just a point of interest.

Now I’ve done my physical labor for the day, I’m going downtown in a minute to do a voiceover of some short, in-store spots.  Not sure what it’s for yet, but speaking of in-store stuff, did I ever mention how jealous I am of whoever gets those self-checkout voiceover gigs for grocery stores?  Can you imagine what a giant job that would be?  I mean, there are only about a zillion products in a store.  Plus, how fun to hear your robotic voice say “Move your.   Tree-ripe peaches.  To The Belt.”

And now.  I must.  Go.
Later.   Kids.

What a tease the weather is, letting us think we’re headed for a comfort and cool last week and then today, back to the salt mills.

Yet another schedule switching this week: was supposed to be 5x1000s today, but thought it best to place a couple days between that workout and Monday’s race, so 12 today.  Nothing much to tell, didn’t attempt any MP miles since I have 17 w/14 MP to look forward to on Sunday.  Averaged 9:21.

One little thing was I broke in a brand new pair of Inspires, the ones I’ll be wearing for Steamtown.  Woohoo!  Also, I forgot to mention that I had a new high-mileage month for August: 236, so that’s pretty cool.

This might win an award for shortest blog post so far, but I’m tired and have to get ready for a voiceover session soon.  It’s 3 radio spots in one session, so that’s a lovely thing, moolah-wise.

Speaking of voiceovers, want a laugh?  Check out this cartoon for Commerce Bank.  I play Tommy, the blonde boy with glasses who is apparently somewhat mentally challenged.  There are more here, just in case you need some in-depth lessons on fiscal responsibility…