It be the month of November, a mere few days from where people ingest massive helpings of turkey and then fall asleep watching football and bad parades before engulfing a piece of pumpkin pie. Wait, this would be the part where I insert something about family, togetherness and love. Clearly you have not been paying attention. Cynicism is probably my middle name for the next month or so but hopefully my wife can break me out of them. More inside.
Video Games
We will start off with the usual smattering of games on my Xbox 360. Currently I am still knee deep into Skyrim. I am level 45 on my Wood Elf, and very close to being done with the Thieves Guild quests. I’m about two -three quests away from completing the main storyline and 3/4’s done with getting all the cities under the influence of the Guild. Solitude is the only one I haven’t influenced yet. I would expect to have that completed by probably the next blog.
Then just maybe I will go ahead and go for the main quest after that. Seems almost a little silly that I have done just about everything else that I have wanted to, even a sprinkling of Daedric quests. Furthermore, with my character soon to be at level 50, I have probably worn out my welcome and would like to actually “beat” the game. I kinda want to play the extra content (besides building houses) as well.
In other gaming news, I am still playing Peggle 2. *booooo* I know, I know I blame the optional objectives. I play it in much shorter spurts though, usually 15 to 30 minutes at a time. Also, I am at 179 optional objectives out of 180. That’s right, I’m down to 1 before the game is 100%. I also took a look at my score on the worldwide leaderboard, #614. Not too shabby I would say.
Anyway, my lone objective left is Clearing All Pegs on the Snake level of Celestial Realms. Basically to describe the level, all of the pegs follow a circle of pegs on top of a line of pegs going down…oh heck with it. You know what it looks like? A bunch of dicks. This is also exactly how it plays as well. The level requires you to hit a ton of skill shots, mostly of the one peg and free ball variety. Over and over again. The crappy part, I have been within two pegs before and could not complete it. I hit the red peg but did not hit the blue peg at the same time. It was also my last ball. *sigh*
I will get there, I know I will. But will it happen the next time I play or in a couple of weeks, I’m not sure. I am also playing Plants vs Zombies on my Kindle tablet which I got for free from Amazon during one of their freebie weekends. I play a stage or two at a time (done the first two rounds of 10 stages), and I am having a lot of fun with it. I do have plans to go dig out my 360 disc and see if my skills translate over which I would imagine they would. I understand I’m late to the party on that game, but sometimes it takes me a while to play certain games.
Black Friday
That fantastic holiday of gluttony and over-indulgence is almost upon us. No, I am not talking about Thanksgiving, but Black Friday, the infamous shopping day. I am usually an online type person, sticking to Amazon like a fly on sticky paper. So what exactly am I looking for on this fateful holiday, well I will tell ya:
- Several video games, all 360 including Borderlands – The Pre-Sequel, Wolfenstein – The New Order, Murdered: Soul Suspect, and Bioshock Infinite: The Complete Edition. Wolfenstein & Murdered: Soul Suspect will be $20 at the Microsoft Store (online). Borderlands Pre Sequel has been spotted on a few BF circulars for roughly the $30-$35 range. However, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for $25 (or to get it as a gift) The same with Bioshock Infinite. My guess, I will probably pick up two – three games.
- Blu-rays – This is harder to predict what I get since I tend to have a lot on my wish list. So therefore sales will sway me to certain titles because of a good sale. There are however two titles I am really looking for. Arrow Season 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy, both of blu-ray. GotG should not be too difficult, there are plenty of sales out there and this title will be all over the place. Also, throw in the fact that I have seen the movie twice already, I am not in a super hurry. Arrow Season 2 I have seen on a few circulars for Black Friday, but always the dvd version. Considering I have the first season on blu, there is no way I’m accepting dvd simply because it is on a massive sale. I am hoping for $20 which is what I spent on the first season set.
- Miscellaneous items. Since my life is simply more than games and movies, I’m not sure what this entails yet. I’m a sucker for those Funko Bobbleheads and I would love to have a Nightwing, Batman Beyond and a Deadpool to compliment my lone Robin that sits on my work desk. But those won’t get Black Friday sales unless I find store coupons where its XX% off a single item.
- Chances are I will also have others to shop for too as my family has expanded by leaps and bounds this year. So hopefully that list will be handy as I peruse Amazon and other web sites in about a week or so.
Voice Acting
As mentioned, I took a couple of voice acting classes in November, with one on the 3rd and one on the 17th. The first class was more of here is voice acting, here is what it is about, pitfalls, categories, etc. The class had a ton of information and worked in the sense that it made me very excited to pursue this desire of mine just a little more. However, the second class is what I really want to touch on. We will just call it the auditions.
As it turns out, the studio where I went for the second class is actually very close to my work. Seriously, we are talking maybe two or three miles. It is the studio of the instructor, Jim Conlan who is certainly a master of his craft. There were nine of us, I recognized a few from my November 3rd class, but a few were also unknown to me. With that said, all of them showed off their various talents and showed eagerness to take this beyond a simple case of hopeful thinking.
That aside, with the exception of maybe a couple of people, we were all pretty nervous to be trying to do voice acting in front of strangers and in front of somebody who does this for a living. Especially me. See, naturally I am not very good in front of strangers. In fact, I have strong symptoms of what I call “people claustrophobia”. Crowds, elevators, any place with plenty of people, I tend to clam up. This would also include a small recording studio.
Anyway, I received a small script called “The Lion and the Mouse”, it is the essentially a shortened version of the Aesop fable where the lion wants to eat the mouse, the mouse pleads for his life, the lion lets him go and the mouse ends up saving him later from nasty hunters. Fairly simple story, but does allow for a couple of voices along with narration.
The first time up there (we run through the script twice), I was very nervous. I also contracted a runny nose that afternoon (which turned into a cold) which only hindered my voice. So, what does nervous (with knocking knees) and being sick mean to your voice. A shitty take. Now, through the power of editing (which Jim is excellent at), it sounds better in the finished copy but still was very rough.
Jim’s criticisms were solid and I couldn’t even begin to argue with any of it. They were spot on. My voices ran together and I sped up a little bit at the end. My voice of the mouse was a pretty fun one, but I know that given full health and less nervousness, it would have been better.
The second time, the nervous did subside quite a bit but my runny nose and my stomach (which was now hurting) did not help the situation. The end result was much better, but I was frustrated with myself that my body and voice were not giving me one hundred percent. I have listened to the MP3 file Jim put together quite a few times now and while I have loosened up a bit on myself. I am hard on myself by trade but I think I have to be, because if I’m not then I do not improve.
Now the question is, where do I go from here? Jim has a workshop starting in January that lasts 8 weeks(16 hours total) and costs $450 (two hours every Thursday). The workshop plays out like the second class where there are a bunch of scripts and you keep recording and recording (to get better and better). As you might expect, I would like to go. Really like to go. And, as of Monday, only four spots are left. Heck, if I don’t do it this weekend, there won’t be a workshop for me in January.
Why haven’t I done it? I have the money and I think it is a worthwhile investment, but I am a little scared. With everything that is going on, I want to devote my time to my wife. She deserves my every attention and even though she is the first person who really has pushed me to explore my real interests (instead of doing whatever everybody else wants me to do), I want to make sure she is taken care of. I’m not a selfish person by nature, but then again I’m not getting any younger.
By the next blog, I will have made a decision, or else the decision will be made for me in a negative fashion.
In Closing
That wraps up another column for me. I could keep going but the time for we writing this is not too much longer. Oh, life’s responsibilities, how we cannot run away from them. The next blog will probably be after Thanksgiving/Black Friday, I’m guessing the first week of December. I hope there is much more to share with you and I’m thinking there probably will be. Take time this holiday to enjoy your family and everything that comes with it. I know I will be.
