December 2016

Merry Christmas To All…

headphone ornament in green and gold, hangs from an artificial palm treeThe headphones from Erin were hung on the palm.

Everything’s bright, and everything’s calm.

For family and friends, and blog readers here.

Merry Christmas to all, and we’ll see you next year!

 

Why I’m Quitting Voices.com

Update April 2022: This post still brings me regular email! And I think it’s only fair to point out that it’s SIX years old, and things have changed at Voices.com. They’re transparent about their fees, and there are other things that have improved. My experience is historical now and out of date.

As I write this, I’ve been a full-time voice actor for nearly 4 years. I still maintain that carefully selected Pay-2-Play voice-over casting websites can be a worthwhile supplement to a full-time voice-over career, but they shouldn’t be relied on. Thanks, Lisa

Since joining Voices.com a few years ago, I’ve been its champion. I have the greatest respect for homegrown founders, Stephanie and David Ciccarelli and the company has grown dramatically. But I’m not going to renew with them as a voice actor when my membership expires in January. Since I’ve been so public about my support for them in the past, I feel I should be just as open about why I’ve changed my mind. I’m directly responsible for no fewer than a half-dozen people joining the site. I need to update my stance.  …

Site Rules

For me, last week’s celebration and goodbye for Erin Davis was also a mini-reunion with many of my former colleagues. For more than three years – although it feels like the blink of an eye – I was the newscaster on the CHFI morning show and, for a time, filled in for Erin as cohost when she was on vacation. After I moved down the hall to 680 News, I still saw those great folks all the time.  …

A Beautiful Send-Off

Now that Erin Davis’ last CHFI morning show is over, her future is hers to create. She doesn’t feel like setting an alarm clock? She doesn’t have to. She doesn’t want to talk about tragedies in the news or what Adele is up to? She won’t. She can read/not read a newspaper when she wishes and choose how to spend her time. And that’s really what we all want. We might say we want wealth, but that’s only because wealth buys us freedom. Erin Davis, you’re free. 

Go Fund Yourself

How did Go Fund Me and other crowd-funding websites become about securing some extra cash from strangers? They used to have legitimate reasons such as raising money for non-profit ventures. Then some guy crowdfunded his potato salad as a joke and people gave him $50,000. Now you can start a fund for just about anything. …

Attack Ideas and Not People

Perhaps you’ve read a self-help book or two about how to argue. Maybe you’ve taken a class or been in marriage counselling or took another type of conflict resolution lesson. So, you know that the number one rule is to focus on how you feel, and not to attack the other person. And you separate the behavior from the individual. “I love you Timmy, but I don’t love that you hired that hooker!” …

Uniformity

I can’t count how many times I’ve forgotten what I wore to work earlier in the week. Or the day before. Or earlier that same day. Sometimes I have to check the laundry basket to confirm it. It’s partly because of chronic fatigue. I could organize my closet in such a way that my outfits would rotate evenly, but I don’t.  …

Quirky Convos

We’ve all taken a coffee from a barista and when they’ve said, “Enjoy your coffee”, responded with, “you too!” If not that exact scenario, there’s probably been an occasion when something similar happened. You feel like an idiot. But we all do it.  …