If you have ever been told that you have a great voice, then you may have thought of making use of that great phonation in a professional way, as a singer, announcer or as a voice over talent. sound over, or adding your voice to advertisements and recorded messages, can be a very lucrative field for a trained talent. If you would like to get the training necessary to succeed as a sound over talent then here are a few steps to take.But first before I give the step-by-step guide to a career in voice over, in the commercial world all kinds of voices are needed- low voices, whiny voices, gravelly voices, flat voices and even average voices. So, even if you do not have a classic ?good sound? you can enter the field if you have determination. When you are trying to learn sound-overs or improve your sound over skills the first step is usually to take a class.Performers are called voice actors, voice actresses or phonation artists, and may also involve singing, although a second sound actor is sometimes cast as the character’s singing sound. At its simplest, this is just a short phrase which is played back as necessary, e.g. the Mind the gap announcement introduced by London Underground in 1969. In a more complicated system such as a speaking clock, the sound artist usually doesn’t actually record 1440 different announcements, one for each minute of the day, or even 60 (one for each minute of the hour), instead the announcement is re-assembled from fragments such as “minutes past” “eighteen” and “pm”. For example, the word “twelve” can be used for both “Twelve O’Clock” and “Six Twelve”. voice Over work is an exciting career for sound-over talent but you need training to develop professional phonation-over skills to participate effectively in this industry. You often have just a few moments to analyze and interpret copy in a sound-over audition or a sound-over job.

One of the particular challenges of this job of ours is that there is indeed a very highly paid and highly visible tip of the iceberg in almost every branch of the profession. This can either be very discouraging for everyone else, who is not experiencing such fame and fortune, or worse, can be the kind of carrot which encourages beginners (and sometimes people with more experience who should know a lot better) to hold out for the glamour jobs at the expense of getting busy with the day to day gigs. Certainly, there are people who luck into attractive sound-over work because they happen to have a profile in some other area, but anyone making a vocation or a substantial part of their vocation from sound-overs is likely to have put a lot of hard work in honing their craft so they can earn their current money.

But there is a far more insidious aspect to this opinionatedness an evangelical quality that we take on when we talk or write about cruising. We assert, either covertly or overtly, that cruising is a panacea for people like us, we who have rejected the material world, are seeking enlightenment from nature, want to living off the land, crave adventure, or whatever motivators put us onto a floating home. There is a kind of arrogance in our position especially, dare I say it, among sail boaters that implies that we have found “the way.”

As I look over books and articles that I and others in the fleet have written, I recognize potential snags in what we say. We do mean well when we transmit our opinions, but the assertions can be misleading, especially to novice cruisers investing our words with more weight and significance than they should have.

“Go NOW!”

One example is the “Go Now” slogan. It is usually said in the context of “There will never be an ideal time to go, so go now!” Most of us who write and talk about cruising have this message somewhere in what we’re saying. Our point is that it can be really easy to come up with reasons why you can’t take off on a boat. We are trying to keep you from just thinking about it the rest of your life, and are cheering you on to take the leap sooner than later. We talk about the great places we have visited, the challenges we’ve surmounted, the great people we’ve met along the way. Even when we talk about the down sides of cruising, we inevitably wind up saying that the rewards outweigh the discomforts.

I myself listened to the “Go Now” cheer from the crowd. My desire to go cruising overrode other matters in my first and second experiences. I first took off on a boat that was still partially owned by the bank because we didn’t want to do what we needed to pay her off first. Better to go now, right? That monthly payment was a weight around our necks the whole time we were on the water.

The second time I left before I was mentally ready to goI had built a business that was just shifting into high gear. Because we were so focused on cruising and listening to the “Go Now” siren song, I chose to sell the business and leave. Even though I enjoyed the cruise, I still never stopped regretting that choice. I didn’t allow myself to experience fruits from all of my hard work. If I had stayed even just one more year, I could have left feeling a lot more complete about what remained behind.

“Don’t Be a Weenie!”

Another message directed especially at budding first mates comes from the “sisterhood of the water” the distaff side of cruising couples who write and talk about cruising. Almost invariably, we (and I include myself in this group) talk about the lifestyle in glowing terms. Some of us will admit that we first entered it in the shadows of our husbands or boyfriends, but we will go on to list all the fabulous things that have come from the experience. We assert that if we hadn’t made the decision to support our partners in their dream, we would have missed out on the experience of a lifetime. And we imply, usually unwittingly, that it should be okay to leave family and creature comforts behind, that having those (or similar) issues is the mark of a milquetoast.

There are voices that are not being heard. In addition to meeting many women who love cruising, I have met a number of women on the water who were very unhappy. Some were deeply depressed. They missed their families, they missed their homes, they didn’t like sailing, and didn’t enjoy what they considered “roughing it.” And many of them felt very guilty about it. A few even admitted that they were afraid that the relationship with their partners would end if they hadn’t agreed to go cruising!

What makes a woman go cruising against her preferences? That is a very complex subject, and not one I’m qualified to tackle…so I won’t go there, except for one thing. I believe that we – the first mates who do love the lifestyle contribute to the problem unknowingly. I went back and reread some of the stuff I’ve written in the past, then I read material from other women on the water, and it came to me that we may be putting peer pressure on budding first mates. And that I experienced this kind of pressure when I first went cruising.

Don’t misunderstand. I’m glad I did it. I love to cruise. The peer pressure worked on me. I did embrace the challenges and allowed the rewards to outweigh the discomforts. But what about the women for whom the peer pressure didn’t work? Those who gave it a try, found that it wasn’t their cup of tea, but are afraid to say so? Could their unhappiness be avoided? I think so.

A first mate in training needs to be very clear with her partner about the terms under which she will participate that is, what aspects of their cruising life are important to her, what are non-negotiable, and what she will compromise on. For example, flying home to visit family and friends twice a year might be a non-negotiable term; if so, the cost for this item will need to be incorporated into the budget, which might impact how far they will cruise.

On the other hand, she might be willing to compromise regarding how often they will stay in marinas three nights a month, say, instead of the ten or more that she’d prefer in order to save money. Understanding her terms will allow the cruising couple to create a plan for the lifestyle that will suit both of them.

Do This, Don’t Do That!

I recently read an article by a guy who is out cruising, giving advice about how to prepare for a life on the water. The points he made were valid, but I felt my hackles rise as I read. His style of advice-giving was so pompous. He pontificated about the “right” way to do things…the “right” way, of course, being the way that he did it. The subliminal message was that you’d better do the same or you’ll be sorry.

YOU WILL TAKE SAILING COURSES BEFORE YOU LEAVE!

YOU WILL PRACTICE AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY!

YOU WILL CONSTRUCT A BUDGET AND NET WORTH STATEMENT!

If you’re like me, anyone who orders you to follow a particular route in any of life’s enterprises is suspect. The challenge for me with these people is to keep from throwing the baby out with the bath water I have to make a conscious effort to separate their communication style from the information, and then consider the information in its own right.

Please remember that none of us in the cruising village is an expert. The best we can do is give our opinions and suggestions based on our own experiences and style of cruising. You need to decide if the information we’re giving you fits your own circumstances. I will do my best, in giving my own opinions, to refrain from evangelizing and dictating the “right” way. Please forgive me if I slip from time to time after all, I am a cruiser!!

Trish Lambert has been a cruising sailor for over twenty years and a first mate three times, with three different skippers and three very different cruising styles. She knows first hand what makes cruising successful, and what she has to share may surprise you! Whether you are a skipper or first mate, a singlehander or part of a cruising couple, sail boater or power boater, Trish can help make your cruising dream a reality. Check out her site at http://www.takehersailing.com for a wealth of cruising information.

Are TVs Evolving? The short reply is, yes. Not a long time ago just about all televisions were of one type – Cathode Ray Tube (or more regularly known as CRT). While these usual models are still available in the shops, there is a totally new group of tellies just around the corner. The self-styled “digital revolution” has made it doable to get hold of significantly more television programmes and get much superior quality images on your TV screen. The most recent televisions are furthermore more compact and trendy. Some new plasma and LCD tellies are so exceedingly lean that they can be added on your dinning room wall like a picture.

The Different Kinds of TV’s. If your television is more than ten years old, the odds are that it is a prehistoric CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) TV. The new set of tellies comes in three key styles – Plasma tellies, LCD TVs and HD (which may consist of both of the other two). Our telly buying guide might aid you grasp the difference:

Plasma TV’s. The most familiar preference for large flat-panel TV’s, plasma screens can be as little as three inches thick – unquestionably thin enough to attach to a wall. The display is absolutely flat, so you can quite simply view the pictures from a wider point of view without causing a reduction in sharpness. Plasma TVs employ a matrix of tiny gas plasma cells to form a crystal clear image. Enjoy crazy low prices on Cheap TV Digital at http://www.digitaldirect.co.uk!

LCD Tellies. Similar to plasma displays, LCD tellies are flat and elegant, consuming a limited amount of area. Available in many numerous dimensions, LCD televisions offer superior resolution images when contrasted with plasma screens. LCD TV’s can be seen from a number of points of views, but in comparison against plasma, there is a noticeable loss of quality. LCD TV’s function via a network of miniscule liquid crystals packed amidst a backlight & a plate of glass.