I did wake up once, before my alarm went off, but the sun was already up. A real man (or woman!) would've gone to the computer, which was still awake on the table, and started working, but I went back to sleep instead. I'm learning to live with a lot of things.
As far as editing goes, I'm just about finished with the audio to "Meet the New Clerk," the story about Meeshelle Lovett, and the ghost that she's so afraid of. I've tried different techniques over the years, when doing ghost or demon voices. My favorite is to copy the voice in a second track, then pitch one of them down, to make an unnatural reverberation, like when I do a Soundwave or Optimus Prime voice.
This time, though, I had, when I did the recording, voiced every one of the ghost's lines twice (or three times, or four times, or five times, or most oddly . . . once), so I could overlay two different versions of the line at the same time. And it SORT OF works. It sounds strange, sure, but the cadence is sometimes different, or the emphasis, and they don't sound as clear as when I just double it. I lowered the volume of the second voice (the take I didn't like as much) way down, and put an echo on the louder one. Then I went ahead and lowered the pitch on the second voice too, to have twice the audio effect on there. I'm not sure if it will be effective (on a couple takes, I had to all but mute the second track, so you could understand the first one, which is meant to sound like a wet, droning, Jack Nicholson doing a Tennessee accent kind of thing).
I just finished the audiobook, and went on to the author's note (I wonder if anybody appreciates those the way I do--I always read them at the end of books, but am disappointed when it's just a list of people he's thanking, rather than an explanation of the book's origin or challenges), then discovered there was a file of relines, which I hadn't yet incorporated. Well, back to the drawing board.
I went through the new lines, and it's all from the last bit of the story, long stretches of the same scene, but different performances on two different nights. I didn't enjoy having to redo the ghost's lines, so I used the earlier ones where I could. I can see why (in the far-off days of Spring 2021) I felt like I needed to strengthen the performance, add a bit more bravery instead of just fear. It's almost as though there was a test screening (like I mentioned yesterday), and the notes said, "I'd like Meeshelle to show a bit more backbone, and call the ghost a name, just for the ladies in the audience."
I just finished it, and including the author's note, it's two hours and thirteen minutes. That makes me proud, regardless of the shame I OUGHT to feel for having spent thirty-plus hours getting to those two hours.
Sit-ups Today: 111
Sit-ups In August: 1219
Last night, while I was exercising, I put on a really recent WWII Action movie called MIDWAY (I had tried to watch it a week ago, but something was wrong with the disc, and I grabbed a second copy from the library--they had three). It has a lot of the ultra-modern swagger and douchebaggery that you find in movies post-FAST & THE FURIOUS, and that made me like it a hell of a lot less, and at one point (right in the middle of some wholly-convincing aerial dogfights), I paused it and decided to go downstairs and record another short story for a future episode.
The one I picked was Bram Stoker's "The Squaw," which I had heard people talk about in the past as being pretty horrific. And wow, it is so grim and grisly that, despite three or four archaic terms, you'd never guess it was from a hundred years ago. I'm not sure I will run it on the show, though--it's super unpleasant.
I did eventually go back to the movie. And it was . . . alright, I guess. Roland Emmerich was the director, so everything was competently done (the special effects were so top-notch, I never felt like I was watching computer-generated planes, not once), but the movie did nothing for me.
I remember, when Big Anklevich first saw HIGHLANDER, that he referred to Christopher Lambert as "the least-likeable lead actor in a movie" he'd ever seen. Of course, that was years before Ed Skrein showed up in MIDWAY.
Push-ups Today: 0 (yep, I blew it--my nephew was having a sleepover in the living room, and instead of doing push-ups in my room, or out on the lawn, or in my neighbor's daughter's window well, I just forgot about them)
Push-ups In August: 1362 (darn, sit-ups almost took the lead!)
At one point, I went out onto the back deck, set up my father's chair, and grabbed my library book to read. The sun was shining directly on the deck, and it was like sitting in front of a fireplace. I very nearly said, "Screw it," and went back inside to do something else, the heat was so unpleasant. But I got a drink and my last donut (I only brought two this visit, which I'm sure my waistline thanks me for), and told myself I'd at least read a chapter before going back inside.
But after being out there a few minutes, the sun hid itself behind the tops of the trees, and everything became much more pleasant. In fact, I'd say the weather was absolutely perfect. And as I kept reading, a multitude of woodland animals came out to play. Mostly, they were tiny, a squirrel, a flock of finches, then a big woodchuck that looked at me with venom, and darted away faster than you'd think possible. The birds were delightful in that they would land atop a flower, and the weight of them would cause the stem to dip down, like some kind of bungee jumping activity. A few minutes later, I heard a hawk cry, and I looked into the sky, and right above me, two hawks were circling together. "Good for you, buddy," I said, presuming it to be the one I'd watched and heard calling the night before.
A big female deer came by after that, and I kept reading, but was surprised by how close she got to me. Every time I turned a page, or took a sip of Coke Zero, she would freeze from eating the plants which are absolutely everywhere right now, then would go back when I didn't make a threatening move. I got my phone out, and she didn't seem to bothered by that.
Before I knew it, it had been ninety minutes I'd been out there reading--and it went by in a flash, like when you fall asleep and wonder where the time went. I let myself go a full two hours before finally saying, "Okay, I guess I should go do something now." But before I did, I contemplated the fact that this leisurely sit amid nature was something that city folks might pay a thousand dollars to experience. And all it cost me was a quarter tank of gas.
Once again, the time has come to pack things up and head for home. And once again, there is the sad end-of-summer melancholy. This is my nephews' last full week of vacation, and it has really upset the oldest one, who is afraid of having to go back to school and compete with other kids and such. I pity him, but I also envy him, because he's got so much life ahead of him, some good, some bad, but almost all of it new.
I have written exactly nothing today, and that is disheartening. I feel like we've reached the end of this little experiment, and while it must end, it's been a good one, both fun and a real drag, and I'm proud that I managed it, at least once in my life. It's not exactly climbing Mount Everest, or swimming the English Channel, or sleeping with two honey blonde sisters, but it's something.
I came home fairly late, absolutely NOT wanting to leave (my brother and I are supposed to help my mom clean up her yard tomorrow morning, as she's hired some workmen to cut down the backyard trees, and who knows what that will entail, except that it's at eight in the morning), and drove home in the semi-dark, afraid of deer the whole darn way.
Then, even though it was getting late and I hadn't written more than a sentence, I went on my run, craving that endorphin rush that I get (most times) when I get home. Eventually, I did sit down to write, and inched ever closer to the end of the book. At one point, I punched my output into the Word Counter program, and I was at--EXACTLY--666 words.
So I left it at that, forgetting that I had written thirty words earlier in the day, so there was no reason to stop there. Whoops.
Words Today: 696
Words In July: 6889
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