My New Project

So, I've given myself a new little project. I'm recording myself reading a few of my stories, at least the published ones, to put on a CD for myself.

At least, that's the plan.

I tried to record one or two in the house, while Handsome was busy watching television in the other end of the house.

No dice.

It's like he has this special sense, and as soon as you are doing anything that requires the tiniest bit of quiet, he suddenly feels the irrepressible need to make noise. Lots of noise.

When he discovered what I was doing, he went away to leave me some quiet to work in. I, however, am no novice to the psychology of the Handsome, and I waited. I watched. And I caught him trying to sneak back into the dining room so that he could get on the recording somehow.

Aha.

So I'm working on it in the dead of night, reading my stories off the screen in front of me, dictating them into a headset microphone, just like when I have story time for Handsome.

Almost.

I have a program that I use to edit my sound files. It gives you the playback, but it also gives you a visual representation of the sound to help you out. It looks a lot like a seismograph. Where the line is flat, that's a silence. Where the line squiggles, that's a sound. It lets you see everything.

Here, I'll show you.

You see this spot where the line squiggles? That's my voice as I'm speaking.
Now, see this part where it's flat? That's a pause between sentences, so it's silent. Oh, wait a minute, there's that tiny little squiggle... oh yes, that's right. Right there is where I sniffled slightly as I was making the recording.

See that set of squiggles after the sniffle-squiggle? I remember that now. That was where I said "Oh, $#!%, I sniffled."

Oh, and you see that bigger squiggle, right after that? That's where I realized I hadn't paused the recording while I pointed out the sniffle.

Oh, and that giant squiggle right there is where I realized that there is a separate pause button, and you don't just hit the 'play' button again. See how tall those squiggles are? Wow... I must have been getting pretty loud right about then. And that squiggle goes on for so long...

Talk to you later!