Damn, Friday already. I have two midterms next week and then I’ll be Stateside by Thursday. I’m looking forward to the trip. I’ll feel a lot less stressed once Rem and Martin make it back to the land of dogparks. Poor things. Yesterday they had their final pre-flight checkup. The damn lab tech jabbed Remy so many times and in both legs trying to draw a drop of blood. Anyway, the official documents will be ready Monday and then off my babies go on Wednesday. We’re almost through the final hoop.

So this week was pretty hectic. Aside from my therapy sessions (that is, my blog entries), I actually got more work from Big Blue. This voice acting thing is not half bad, although the client can sometimes be a really picky beotch. You see, I’m a very matter-of-fact kind of person. Technical work suits me because it doesn’t require creativity. The scripts I get are dry as hell and chock full of technical terms and acronyms. It’s totally up my alley, because I’m kind of serious and boring that way. So this week, I recorded my shit and sent it off to the PM. The feedback from the client? Too instructional, needs to be more peppy and upbeat. Well, fuck you. Who do you think I am, Summer from the OC? I mean, seriously, you’re asking me to read about telecom applications and protocols “that allow you to add, modify, and delete accounts.” What about that reads upbeat and peppy? Ugh. Ultimately though, client demands are client demands. I re-recorded and re-recorded a million times over. Next the client complained my part wasn’t conversational enough. Here’s a sample dialog. Go figure:

Person A: I am worried about reliability and security.

Me: I understand your position. With XYZ ABC Portfolio, you are working with the most reliable, well-known brand in telecommunications services. We have a 99.999% network SLA as well as a ubiquitous, secure, and redundant network.

Yeah, as if real conversations sound like that. So all damn morning I struggled with spicing up my clips. To make matters worse, thanks to the ever-changing Shanghai weather, I awoke with some gunk in my throat. Plus, I was fighting some springtime allergies. As a result, my first redo was a bit scratchy (think Demi Moore). I actually thought it sounded nice, but then my PM said it sounded too soft and soap opera-ish. See what I mean? Mixed messages plus demanding as hell. In the end, I spent forever coughing up a lung, trying to purge Demi from my system. Gee, how big a pain would it be to have to really rely on your voice for work? I mean, how do you frickin’ maintain consistency with something that changes all the time, especially with different foods, temperatures, overall health/condition. For me, it’s nearly impossible to replicate recordings from one clip to the next. I guess that’s something I’ll have to work on; this is a pretty nice gig in spite of the silly feedback. If this turns really serious, I may have to consider insurance for my voice or something, like for those hand models. Insurance for their hands. Yeah, big girl stuff.