COMPLETE The Golden Scarecrow by Hugh Walpole - ck

[cynm1788]

And thanks, again, JoJo.

I'm sorry I'm "past due" getting this project completed, just so's ya know. Even though it's been rumored that the "completion date" field in the project setup template is destined to be vanished, I put something in there just to keep to form. I can remember how it felt to sneer at the impossible futurity, and yet here I still am, unfinished. As long as nobody is being inconvenienced, however, I can't think of why I should beat myself up over not being done already.

And a belated Happy New Year, y'all

[Carolin]

nothing to worry about. you are still fast as lightning compared to me

[jojowasaman]

You don't have to apologize to me. The posted deadline is non-critical to me. Although in, say, 12 months I might not be available to Proof Listen. But I'm sure someone else would.... Take your time.

Edit: PS--I got readings that I am "behind" on also. I took a long holiday!

[cynm1788]

Thank you, Carolin and JoJo. It's a little bit normal for me to fall apart this time of year, sorry to report. At least I can claim that this year is nowhere near as rotten as last year, therefore, I'm remembering to count my blessings. Hope y'all're as well as can be hoped.

[Carolin]

i hope that whatever bothers you will be over soon, and take all the time you need to complete this project. it will still be here when you are ready.

[cynm1788]

Thanks, again, for your kindness, Carolin. "This, too, shall pass" is one of those mantras I've overused over the years. The trick is recognizing when, in fact, a mood or mode or phase or whatever-you-call-it has passed, then not carrying forward whatever behavior patterns I've picked up because of its [passing] influence. Like with recording, I realized I'd been becoming too, too irate whenever I'd make mistakes, of any sort. As a result, I was enjoying the entire process less and less. The good news, I suppose, is that I recorded Section 10, "just now" [it awaits editing], and not only did I feel like I wasn't berating myself as mercilessly as I had done, I think I actually made fewer errors overall.

The preceding statements of self-analysis are, of course, entirely subjective and speculation-based. But the happy fact remains that I've got the next chapter underway, and that's progress of a tangible kind.

[Carolin]

i have not yet come across anyone who was really happy with their own recordings. let me refer you to this thread, though you might have seen it already.

i also find that there are some days when i hardly make any mistakes and some days when i feel i cannot speak at all. on the former, i try to record as much as possible, and on the latter, i just leave it be.

dont forget that it is supposed to be fun, and dont push yourself too hard

[cynm1788]

Ten down, one to go:

Section: 10 - IX. Young John Scarlet
URL: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/ck/goldenscarecrow_10_walpole.mp3
Length: 30:49

And, yes, absolutely, Carolin, the in-/famous "What if I Suck?" thread has taunted and haunted me, waking and sleeping, since right around My LibriVox Day One. There's logic in thinking that if one can't dance as well as Gene Kelly or Cyd Charisse, better to keep the day-job and restrict clod-hopping to the living room. That, I can live with. But I got into recording for LibriVox for a tiny, hugely personal reason, viz, reading for my audiobook-addicted grandmother, who can be critical in the worst extreme, even of her one-and-only granddaughter; nevertheless, knowing that in her domestic environment there would also be other people (e.g. her housekeeper, hospice workers, my father) comprising nothing less than a proverbially captive audience, kept the suckiness-factor even higher in my mind. Lately, since Grandma's been moved to A Home, my attention has been forcibly shifted toward that ever-increasing Audience General, but I'm still un-/mercifully fuzzy on those details: that elective consumer population, the larger it gets, will statistically include increasing numbers of listeners who don't like YOU.

Damnable statistics strike again.

At least now, within the context of solo-projects, I'm secure in the knowledge that I'm working with volunteers who are voluntary beyond question. You'd have to be some kind of masochist to take up a role in a solo-project if there were any aspect of it you couldn't stand.

Ergo, thanks, again, Carolin & JoJo, and thank you for your patience!

[jojowasaman]

Section 10 of 11 is PL OK.

[cynm1788]

Good to hear, JoJo, thanks, again.

And the Epilogue has been recorded, at last; it may take me a couple of days to edit, but if you think Section 10 sounded enough alike the rest of them, at least I won't be making myself re-record either of the closing two sections.

Funny thing, for which I have no solid explanation: Section 10 was very "clean" as far as incidental pops, clicks & whistles go; I'd love to claim credit, but I'm predisposed to be more suspicious of temperature affecting the mic (I finally plugged in my desk-side heater only a couple of days before that recording session). Looking forward to finding out how the Epilogue compares, in that regard.

[cynm1788]

And with the Epilogue, here concludeth:

Section: 11 - Epilogue
URL: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/ck/goldenscarecrow_11_walpole.mp3
Length: 40:58

JoJo, just a few lines from the very end, there is what I decided must be a typesetting error ["wore" for "were"], dutifully scanned, but if you're not reading along as you PL, I'm pretty sure you'd never notice. One can hope.

[Carolin]

[jojowasaman]

I'll get to this today. Had visitors all weekend.

_JJ

[jojowasaman]

It's all PL OK.

Wow! What a finish! Nice work, Cynthia!

[Carolin]

yeah! im on it...