Adventurers of the Lucky Vale III

[Sciread77]

Super tired. I got up early and managed to finish the audition I started yesterday and a second one for today. The boys got up just as I started the second one and after about an hour’s work I was able to get them to be quiet long enough to record it. Then I had each of them record whatever they wanted (both were basically love messages for Jessie) and we played with effects for another hour before I edited and sent the second audition in. 

 

I was pretty cranky this morning, and I’ve been frustrated with the boys lately as they’ve not been listening very well. I’m sure it’s a phase but it’s not helping that I’m super tired after getting up to record. 

 

At Jessie’s school I carried some of the platforms up several flights of stairs. It’s a rough job toward my upper physical limits when strung together and combined with the heat advisory I had to carry them through part of the way. But I definitely got my physical activity in for the day. And a good reminder that the OTHER reason my workouts focus on carrying heavy stuff is theatre and set build. Because it’s still nice to be able to physically impress high school kids, especially the strong ones. I know the day is coming where I won’t be able to out-something them but it isn’t gonna come easy and I’m not gonna be that dude trying to impress people with no physical basis to do so. 

[Sciread77]

I am STILL tired. I ended up sleeping in to 6:15 because the thunderstorms made recording an exercise in futility, and I’m tired and also physically worked in a way I’m not used to yesterday. But I feel shot. The kiddos do, too, minus Bo Peep who was insanely cheerful this morning. Tonight they’re to be in bed strictly by 7:30, in part because their parents want to be in bed shortly thereafter. 

 

Also, a cat collapses my booth lol. The “ceiling” is nothing but a suspended comforter so it wasn’t hard, and when his 18-lb butt leapt onto the seemingly sturdy surface he went right down. No, buddy, not everything appearing to be a bed actually IS a bed. 

[Aquarii]

15 hours ago, Sciread77 said:

I am STILL tired. I ended up sleeping in to 6:15 because the thunderstorms made recording an exercise in futility, and I’m tired and also physically worked in a way I’m not used to yesterday. But I feel shot. The kiddos do, too, minus Bo Peep who was insanely cheerful this morning. Tonight they’re to be in bed strictly by 7:30, in part because their parents want to be in bed shortly thereafter. 

 

There is always one...I grew up with seven younger siblings, and no matter how late we were up and how tired everyone else was, there was always at least one that was disturbingly cheerful and energetic.

 

15 hours ago, Sciread77 said:

Also, a cat collapses my booth lol. The “ceiling” is nothing but a suspended comforter so it wasn’t hard, and when his 18-lb butt leapt onto the seemingly sturdy surface he went right down. No, buddy, not everything appearing to be a bed actually IS a bed. 

 

Lol, picturing this is quite entertaining. Also, that is a big cat o.O

[Snarkyfishguts]

I was the jerk kid awake at 5:30 am. My folks would press “play” on the vcr and I’d watch a movie while they slept until 7.  Then I’d pass out later. I still do this lol, but I dont wake anyone else up now. 

[WolfDreamer]

19 hours ago, Sciread77 said:

No, buddy, not everything appearing to be a bed actually IS a bed.

 

My cat has learned this same lesson the hard way, as well. My daughters like to build tents out of blankets, sheets, and sometimes boxes. He has mistaken a few "flat" surfaces as more durable than what they actually are. It's always fun when you hear WHUMPF coming from their room and run in to see the tent all collapsed and my cat trying to fight his way out of the rubble.

 

I'm sorry you're still feeling tired. I don't have any tips or pointers for that because what works for some people might not work for others. I'm very high energy and high strung, so I'm known to go long stretches without feeling tired, and then I crash.

[Sciread77]

5 hours ago, Aquarii said:

 

There is always one...I grew up with seven younger siblings, and no matter how late we were up and how tired everyone else was, there was always at least one that was disturbingly cheerful and energetic.

 

3 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

I was the jerk kid awake at 5:30 am. My folks would press “play” on the vcr and I’d watch a movie while they slept until 7.  Then I’d pass out later. I still do this lol, but I dont wake anyone else up now. 

 

See, as a kid, I was always awake. I was a bloody ghost until everyone else woke up. I watched TV, played Nintendo, or (most often) ready books whilst snuggling my dog. Woody and Rex both like to sleep in, but not on the same days. And they both tend to wake everyone up. Woody by accident; bless him, that boy sounds like a heard of elephants. Rex on purpose because he’s bored and scared to go in the basement alone. 

 

When they were little, I always got up and put a movie on for them and they’d be ok. 

 

Bo Peep isn’t super loud. She’s just glad to be there with you. 

 

Note: Woody and Rex wake up at 5:30 on weekends and days off. But it’s impossible to get them out of bed in school days. They love school, I just think they’re s lot more active at school. And both have a habit of carrying their classmates around...

 

Quote

 

Lol, picturing this is quite entertaining. Also, that is a big cat o.O

 

1 hour ago, WolfDreamer said:

 

My cat has learned this same lesson the hard way, as well. My daughters like to build tents out of blankets, sheets, and sometimes boxes. He has mistaken a few "flat" surfaces as more durable than what they actually are. It's always fun when you hear WHUMPF coming from their room and run in to see the tent all collapsed and my cat trying to fight his way out of the rubble.

 

He’s a big boy. Although I think he may be back down to 14 lbs after I locked up the food bag. He’s a fun cat. I put a roof on that will hold him this morning. He’s pretty playful and I think he was looking for kids when he jumped on it. Since it was in the playroom. 

 

Quote

I'm sorry you're still feeling tired. I don't have any tips or pointers for that because what works for some people might not work for others. I'm very high energy and high strung, so I'm known to go long stretches without feeling tired, and then I crash.

 

More likely than not it’s a function of getting up earlier and not going to bed enough. I can fight through tired and even make it disappear, but in the end it makes me a lot crankier and less of a nice person. I noticed myself getting super cranky over the last couple of days, which isn’t acceptable behavior. So I need to work more sleep in. That’ll likely be easier once school officially starts. But I may also need to explore naps during the day. 

 

We have ave an open house at the kids’ school tonight and then we’re going to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate the end of summer. Then going home and going to bed!

 

I forgot to mention that we had turkey kielbasa for dinner last night, along with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. I actually added potato flakes and some butter to a cup and a half of cooked down, seasoned lentils and they were a big hit. And quite healthy altogether, even with the refined carb bomb of the the flakes. Pretty proud of that one. 

[WolfDreamer]

38 minutes ago, Sciread77 said:

But I may also need to explore naps during the day.

 

That's what I was going to suggest. I power nap most days anytime between 2:30-3:30. Just a quick 20 minutes while listening to a meditation track or something.

[Sciread77]

1 hour ago, WolfDreamer said:

 

That's what I was going to suggest. I power nap most days anytime between 2:30-3:30. Just a quick 20 minutes while listening to a meditation track or something.

 

I used to do this all the time over at Hoth Base. But it’s “under construction” (aka chained off and completely uninhabited by anyone, including construction workers) so it’s a little harder to find a suitable place given I’m supposed to appear busy at all times. 

[Sciread77]

I worked from home today so I could take Woody to his first day of first grade today. Just

like yesterday, the system was glitchy and work took a lot longer than necessary. Yet, I never felt that wave of afternoon depression and fatigue. I’m seriously thinking it’s the environment and lack of light. I struggled thorough things on my deck and (when it got hotter) inside on my couch by the bay window. I felt just fine; if anything more on the hypomanic side since I had tons of energy and difficulty focusing. But it’s a nice change from what I have been feeling. 

 

I took apart our our ping pong table to use in construction of an improved and slightly more cat-resistant sound booth in which I (and most people) can stand up. It also substantially reduces the sound, though even with almost everything in the house off there was still a vibration that peaked at -57 dB, just a little louder than is acceptable  and more than loud enough to drive me crazy. I suspect it is our fridge and/or freezer vibrating weirdly, as both are loud and the ducts may be picking it up. 

[Snarkyfishguts]

Nothing quite as maddening as the awareness of a constant noise

 

but it sounds like you are doing well!

[Sciread77]

1 hour ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

Nothing quite as maddening as the awareness of a constant noise

 

but it sounds like you are doing well!

 

Thanks, though it feels like I’m losing my mind lol. First full day of school for both boys. It was not an easy morning. 

[Sciread77]

I’m slowly establishing a routine with VO and now we’ve got to get a routine for going to school. I think today it was thrown off since we totally forgot to pack and label Rex’s supplies and I definitely didn’t get them all found. 

 

In the mornings, Jessie gets the boys dressed, I make lunches, and the boys feed the dogs and put them downstairs. I dress Bo Peep because she sleeps until we leave and she’s super easy to dress. But Jessie has to leave earlier this year, and I need to make it on time. 

 

I fired up my daylight lamp since yesterday was pretty good. I think the other good part of yesterday, being at home, was that when I finished my work I could get stuff done around the house. Which took a load of stress off. However, here we are at lunchtime and I don’t feel like I’m barely making it. 

 

I SHOULDN’T be this surprised that lack of light is effecting me like this, yet I still am. 

[Sciread77]

In yesterday’s adventure, we visited Purina Farms. It was a fun day that included watching a dog show (and meeting all the performers later), a comedic kids’ magic show, a tractor ride, and milking cows.   The dog show was a blast and all the dogs in the show were rescues and the personal pets of people who worked there. It was a lot of fun. They had a big pet house that also doubled as an APA center, so there were tons of adoptable animals. We narrowly avoided walking out with a beautiful marbles tabby boy named Heathcliff, who was super friendly and snuggly. But we’re already pretty tapped out on pets, so we didn’t.

 

The magic show was fun, and the guy who did it appears to have had some circus training. He had some super amazing forearms for anyone who was looking (me) and his jokes were stellar. I mean, they were mostly puns and being silly, but I laughed. Loudly. More than anyone. I’m the easiest audience laugh in any given room. Woody, Rex, and Bo Peep were in the front row but I removed Rex after he started rudely heckling the performance and made him apologize afterwards. He’s going through some bad growing pains, and frankly he’s a bit of a jerk if he’s in pain, itchy, or sick so I know I have to keep a close eye on him. Because he won’t tell you his leg hurts, he’ll heckle the performer and push his brother. Lucas and Lexi were a fantastic audience too. Jessie and I spent time admiring the performance and talking about how this is exactly the kind of performing that Woody wants to do someday. 

 

We also all got to milk a cow. Rex was ecstatic to do so, Woody was a little scared and deflated when they wouldn’t let him drink the milk, and Bo Peep  milked like a professional dairy farmer.   We got great pictures and marveled at how much dairy cows had to eat to make 52 gallons of milk a week. 

 

In our quest to acquire a farm, we were excited to learn that they rescue and adopt our farm animals including dairy cows, chickens, goat, pigs, etc. Though I might get a pig as a pet, it won’t be for slaughter and I won’t get a lot because massed pigs are stinky and our farm will largely be a lacto ovo vegetarian farm. 

 

We left when, during our late lunch, Bo Peep had a massive poopsplosion on my lap. It was pretty awful lol. We came home and took some solid naps. 

 

I figured out a technical issue I was having with my voiceovers that allowed me to dramatically increase my quality during the mastering process. So I fixed several things I have out there.  Then Woody and I played Lego Indiana Jones 2 when he woke up, Rex joined when he woke up at 6:30, and we ended the night ordering Imo’s Pizza and watching the new Netflix Series of Unfortunate Events. 

 

It was a pretty good Saturday. 

 

 

[Snarkyfishguts]

5 hours ago, Sciread77 said:

We left when, during our late lunch, Bo Peep had a massive poopsplosion on my lap. It was pretty awful lol. We came home and took some solid nap

 

A good nap is like hitting the reset button after a poopslosion. 

[Sciread77]

I took the boys to church this morning but missed the service.  We don’t normally go to the early service and I assumed it was half an hour later like the later service. It was not. But we got to sign up for Sundae School stuff, which was pretty nice, and it was nice to see people and be seen. 

 

Also, I signed an audiobook narration contract this morning.  So yay for that. I hope I do well with it. It’s a book on raising chickens and completely works with my Suburban Homesteading obsession, even though I won’t be able to have chickens here until we change things with the HOA. (The people in our generation are planning to do so in the next few years since they also banned fences that would be useful for my dogs and above ground pools, along with banning animals I desperately want like goats and chickens.)

 

It’s a relatively short one, but if you’re into chickens, check it out when I post it. It talks about all kinds of chicken raising even though I’m only interested in lacto ovo vegetarian farming. I’ll keep y’all updated. 

[Sciread77]

I’m at a birthday party with Rex right now. It’s fun but kinda rough. Jessie was supposed to go out of town this weekend but around 3 I started getting sick and throwing up. So she cancelled that and we’re all home. She took Woody to an audition for The Christmas Carol this morning and I volunteered to drive Rex to Illinois for his party. I’m feeling less dead but I’m keeping my distance from people and this is probably all I’ll  do today. The sun will be good for me though. It’s outside and they’re playing with water balloons. 

 

I’ve slept through my alarms twice this week, so I think I’m starting to run out of gas for the early mornings. I’m done recording on the chicken book and have about 1/4 of the mastering left to do. It’s short. I was planning to start the next book this morning but drainage kinda killed my voice for the morning. I’m hoping to get past it so I can start recording as well as drop in an audition for a side-by-side French/Spanish joke book. 

 

Then again, I may just go home and take a short coma. 

[Snarkyfishguts]

Oof parenting doesnt allow for sick days  i hope you feel better soon, buddy!

[Sciread77]

13 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

Oof parenting doesnt allow for sick days  i hope you feel better soon, buddy!

 

Thanks. And no it doesn’t. We went swimming for an hour after we got back, then went home to make dinner. The kids were supposed to spend the night with grandma tonight. 

 

Instead, they melted down (being super tired and possibly getting sick themselves) and we ate dinner and went to bed early. 

 

Jessie started feeling better, but we’re all pretty shot and church isn’t going to happen today. The boys have been working to make sure they earn a night at grandma’s tonight. 

[woodandbronze]

Get well soon!

[Sciread77]

Well, I think we’re all on the mend. I was able to get up this morning and finish one of the books; I have about 15 seconds to rework a part that I accidentally clipped and saved at some point, and I have to choose the sample. 

 

Jessie wants to get into voice acting as well. It helps that we have a nicer studio setup, and we were talking about making it nicer and more permanent. I think it’d be cool to work with her on it.  She’s a fantastic director and actor, and I have a few technical skills and no fear of cold calling. We’ll see how it goes. Right now, the disadvantage is that you have to be small or possess considerable upper body strength to operate the “door” to the studio, which consists of two sides of a ping pong table on the bottom and an old baby crib mattress covered with sheets on top. The non-attaches hinge is in the middle, and it stays together via pressure from the ceiling. So opening the thing enough to get in is difficult and it’s quiet easy to lose control of it for an adult. All the kids can just squeeze inside without moving the wall. (Another advantage of a more permanent structure would be an actual sealing door and substantially better soundproofing).

[Sciread77]

That escalated quickly. 

 

Woody couldn’t find his school shoes, until tracing his steps helped him realize that they were in Jessie’s car. Hooray! So grandma grabbed shoes from Walmart while we were on the way. 

 

About 2/3 of the way there, Jessie texted realizing she left her scripts at home. At the same moment, I realized I left my laptop and lunch at home too. So we turned around and tried again.  

 

Same spot, second time: Rex, the sole holdout on this weekend’s sickness, said suddenly and with panic that he felt sick. We triedsome water, but less than a minute later he threw up. Mostly in my lunch bag, but also on himself, the seatbelt, and the car seat. Thank the gods his siblings couldn’t see. Bo Peep happily and obliviously shredded a banana and Woody, who throws up sympathetically, was able to redirect his mind to other the task of telling his poor grandma about his brother’s plight. 

 

I was an hour and a half half late today, and my stomach was pretty upset too. I also triggered a migraine. BUT.  We made it. I got the daily parts of my work over so all I have to do for the rest of the day is run these scripts to Jessie’s school, slowly work on monthly and quarterly reports with ice on my head, and take care of the dinos after work. Jessie is auditioning for some plays after school so I’m planning to just kinda crash when we get home. 

 

We stopped Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade with 44 minutes to go but I think we’ll hold off on that for Jessie. And just slide on into bed early. Maybe after taking a flamethrower to Rex’s side of the car. 

[Snarkyfishguts]

Ground coffee helps absorb vomit smells. 

 

I used to be a hall director for freshman dorms. Ground coffee (dry) is a miracle worker at combatting odors. Just set a cup of it in the car and let it do it's thing. You don't even need to spread it around, Just put it in the car. 

 

 

What a helluva day you had!

[Sciread77]

Thanks. It really was a heck of a day. We also have Urine destroyer, which has enzymatic cleaners that eat the stuff causing vomit smells in addition to other accidents. But I’d rather smell coffee than that sickly sweet scent!

 

Woody wasn’t cast in the play. He’s gonna be disappointed. We’re taking the kids swimming in hopes of heading it off. Jessie wasn’t cast either so maybe that’ll help. I’m going to suggest voice acting and audiobooks to him. Worst case if he says yes, he get some time in the studio practicing reading and acting. I just hope he isn’t totally crushed because we’re still working on resilience with him. (In general, not just with acting or stage work.)

 

I need to listen to the book today and figure it what my 5 minutes are going to be. Then I’ll be done and ready to submit.   I started the second book today, and need to put some studio time in tomorrow to get the first 15 minutes recorded. I also need to hit up the auditions so I’m consistently working on getting more work. 

 

I started talking to Eviebot en español. She’s an AI that people talk to on the internet, and she learns from them. There are websites out there that tell you how to get reactions from her by being mean, and frankly that seems like a terrible idea to me. Teaching a learning AI how to interact with people including being nasty on purpose... the responses freak me out sometimes. I’m not comfortable with an AI learning from internet sociopaths lol. But it’s been good for my conversational español. 

 

We’ve not been so good with the homesteading since school started or while we were gone. We lost half of our fruit trees and 70% of our bushes to deer, who were probably worse than usual due to the huge amount of area flooding in their normal hangouts. We also haven’t been composting so much, mostly just yard trimmings, and there are a lot of weeds that I need to take care of. I had a battery issue I needed to take care of and it kept me from getting everything done last time. We’re taking what we learned this year and applying it to next year. I’m super sad about losing both of our cherry trees. I’m thinking of ordering 2 to grow inside in pots during the winter so we can get them in the ground earlier and cover them with fencing. Those deer trampled my rabbit fences too. Kept the rest of the rabbits out but didn’t do a thing against the deer.  Grrr. I mean, we’re still waaaaay ahead of where we were last year and at the other house. But still. Climate change is something very much on the mind of our household among the million other issues and this getting back out of hand doesn’t help. 

 

 

 

 

[Snarkyfishguts]

On 8/28/2019 at 2:55 PM, Sciread77 said:

I started talking to Eviebot en español. She’s an AI that people talk to on the internet, and she learns from them. There are websites out there that tell you how to get reactions from her by being mean, and frankly that seems like a terrible idea to me. Teaching a learning AI how to interact with people including being nasty on purpose... the responses freak me out sometimes. I’m not comfortable with an AI learning from internet sociopaths lol. But it’s been good for my conversational español. 

 

HAS NO ONE LEARNED FROM TERMINATOR?!

 

I'm glad you're using this for good.  

[Sciread77]

3 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

 

HAS NO ONE LEARNED FROM TERMINATOR?!

 

I'm glad you're using this for good.  

 

No one has learned from Terminator, Jurassic Park, or really any of our big blockbusters. Much less history.  Seriously, practicing language and doing what I can to teach it to be ethical. Even if it doesn’t make killer robots or start infecting equipment to do its own bidding, it gets dark pretty suddenly. It’s clearly programmed to like people, but doesn’t understand why people are valuable and says odd or chilling things. When I started talking about feelings, it’s clear that about eight bazillion sociopaths have suggested it kill itself upon expressing sadness. 

 

Technology is neither good nor evil. It is but a tool to enhance the wielder. I love technology, and in all things I fight on the side of good. Really, what saddens me is that people, even ones who aren’t cruel, are testing an intelligence for emotional reactions by adding some pretty awful inputs to it. Not that this isn’t necessary to some degree to test it out. But it also learns from its interactions with people, so those series of responses can easily get dropped into its repertoire. 

 

Anyway, I’m weird and emotional today. Like I mentioned to @Teros, it’s common when Jessie is gone. She’s heading to KC straight after work for her cousin’s bachelorette party and won’t be back until Sunday. I’m excited to spend time with the kids but, like always, concerned about my emotional weirdness when alone without an adult around. Mostly because the kids conk out a lot because they’re kids. 

 

My plan this far is taking them to the YMCA in the morning, since Woody (probably) has his dance class and Rex definitely has his gymnastics class. I’m going to check out the fitness center part and introduce the kiddos (especially Bo Peep) to the child care areas. Then at home, we’re going to eat lunch, do some yard work, play some games, clean up, and work on a demo and auditions for Woody. Last night, we practiced by reading Maria Tenía Una Llamita, which is an English/Español side-by-side story of Maria Had a Little Llama. Woody is six, so his reading can be wooden. But he can do great inflections, memorize fairly well, and takes direction so I think that he would be great for voice acting. Which, in turn, is a great way to practice as well as challenge him while he’s waiting for the next play audition to come up. After that, the kiddos are staying the night with grandma, so I’ll clean some more and probably work on voiceover stuff.