#the thing ive been getting raises on at work is making scripts to communicate between adobe software with the spreadsheets our

[roseband]

oh my god i don't speak to my dad anymore cuz hes nutty but i know what he does for a living

and musk is currently pulling a "the software govs use is 50 years old which means there can be no advances"

and that's..... that's what my dad does for a living, he gets paid 500-1k an hour to make software that specifically communicates with old legacy software cause he's a 90s dev who knows the old languages still and it's more efficient to hire a freak who knows how to make something to bridge between the old and new programs than to fully trash the old system

like there's literally consultants that get hired for that specific purpose and as a software guy musk KNOWS this

[nbenrey-real]

various hlvrai headcanons

everyone on the science team (+gman & forzen) are autistic. whos gonna stop me, god?

john freeman is canon. hes the one babysitting joshua during all this wondering what the fuck is going on

gordon is trans & bi

benrey is something between nb and agender. they/themry rights

genderfluid tommy & coomer

bubby does not vibe with gender. agender it is fellas

darnold is probably nb but hes just vibing

gregory ‘gman’ goodman is tommys bioparent. he wasnt sure how to raise a half human child without fucking them up, and time passes weird for him so he didnt realize how long it really had been. tommy is understanding given his experiences with time fastness on soda, but gman owes him so many birthday bayblades and he WILL use that power for guilt-tripping 

joshua is in and will never outgrow his mlp phase because i love those funky ass plastic horses

Gordons first language is actually ASL! both his parents were deaf and he’s partially deaf in his left ear. he switched to the black mesa hearing aids because they worked better and kinda slap with the orange, though.

he spent most of his childhood not talking and then most of teenhood dealing with being selectively mute. still prefers sign tbh but cant have shit in black mesa

since he really hates being left out of communication- this also makes things like inside jokes or references irk him, so hes just. very annoyed, most of the time. this really only made the hand thing even more distressing, tbh

speaking of the hand, his new one is a really sick ass high-tech prosthetic courtesy of gman. it has texture and heat sensing and everything, but he still gets phantom pains like hell and sometimes needs to shake it a few times to get it to re-calibrate to his nerves

gordons always been neurotic as shit and had high anxiety, but dealing with a shitty ex and raising joshua by himself really kicked it into high gear right before the whole. resonance cascade thing.

knows he tends to get aggressive when he’s afraid or panicked but has just gone absolutely off the rails after black mesa because hes sick of the varying bullshit thats been going on just. in general. he can have a little ultraviolent crime. as a treat.

ended up becoming friends with chell as a kid, since they were both in the deaf community, lived in the same area, and had a huge interest in science. 

black mesa actually has really good work culture when it comes to lgbtq+ folk and suspiciously good benefits, and aperture science is just happy to have more warm bodies to throw at portals- gordon heard some of the rumors about cave johnsons weird ass tests though, so he elected to go with black mesa. now hes starting to wonder if cave johnson just ran both, because what the fuck 

somehow he keeps ending up with more and more of the science team living with him whereever hes staying, even after he moves to a bigger place for joshua. eventually they just. buy a house specifically to live together. theres an entire seperate house connected by a path thats just for joshua because gordon is paranoid someone will leave out something dangerous

can and WILL have a panic attack at the drop of a hat, this is a THREAT. also please install more battery-powered night lights, the power went out and it scared the shit out of him guys hes serious please pick up more from lowes-

craving ice cream 24/7 because GOD do i want to eat that entire container of cherry vanilla hagen daz right now SDFBGN

benrey is dissociating or spacing out 98% of the time and really has no idea whats going on dude. they just follow the script. or sometimes the skeleton does for them. the audio processing bs really doesnt help with any of this.

will i project my shit memory, audio processing issues, general-spaciness, and inability to tell when ive veered from ‘playful joking’ to ‘oh wait im actually being annoying and making them mad’ on to benrey?? yes. yes i will. 

legitimately has only ever been in black mesa. why hasnt everything reset yet. do they just have to live here until it does so they can go back. he just kind of sits in the bus-stops for the lines that used to go there after he reincorporates, occasionally joining in on heists or hanging with tommy, and just. waits.

after the like 5th night in a row, of the second week of gordon having to drive tommy to pick them up from a soaking busstop at 3 am in the morning, because ‘its storming really bad and they dont have anywhere else to sleep mr freeman and he gets so worried its so cold’- he just says fuck it and makes them join the rest of the household

gordon promptly ends up actually being concerned about this dumb asshole because jesus christ, they dont even know how to microwave things. did they just live in the breakroom at black mesa all this time??

benrey: yeah gordon: gordon: what the fuck is wrong with black mesa they haVE DORMS. WHY DID THEY-

between benrey and whatever the fuck is up with doctor coomer hes starting to think black mesa might have been causing some serious memory issues in their workers. he makes everyone do tangrams just to check, encourage neuroplasticity 

benrey spaces out halfway through one and starts playing terraria on their phone instead. gordon gives them a b- for effort

benrey and bubby are single highhandedly the reasons behind the banning of both tnt and all firespread from the house minecraft server

[luckywildrover]

ABOUT

Name: Jamie Murphy

Alias: Rover (or ‘Lucky Rover’)

Birthday: July 10th, 1992

Age: 27

Gender: Male

Job: IT Specialist // Face and Brains of LuckyWildRover, a large social media channel that predominantly focuses on video content. However, since the latter is linked to the online persona, it’s not common knowledge.

Skills: Can quickly learn how to use computer programs, coding. Parkour and good agility. Has a strong, accurate gut feeling

Struggles: Has unharnessed electrical powers: will give static shocks when stressed, and has shot out electricity when overwhelmed with an emotion. Photosensitivity: has to wear special glasses to prevent him from getting eye strain or headaches while surrounded by artificial lights.

Distinguishing features: Large lightning scar on his back, stretching from his right shoulder, down his spine, to his left hip. It would give a faint glow when his electricity is active, but it’s only noticed when the scar can be seen.

-

Positives - Energetic, Optimistic, Friendly, Bubbly

Negatives - Stubborn, Prone to over-work, Can mask own problems, 

-

 Jamie Murphy was born and raised in a rural community in Ireland. His family was large and closely-knit, with his family home being built on the land his grandparents owned. There was always something going on, a new adventure to be found in the nearby fields, jobs to do on the farms, games to play with cousins and lessons to be learned. 

One of his favourite lessons was when he learned about the Irish culture and traditions. His grandfather was a famous storyteller in the community, and could regale tales of Celtic mythology and local legends with such skill that Jamie would go to bed with images spinning in his mind. He grew up convinced there was more beyond what we could see - the fae were experts in hiding, after all. There was magic hidden everywhere if you looked hard enough! Imagine - a world where a chance encounter could lead to something wonderful and unforgettable! This outward view of looking at the world with curiosity stayed with him, as he graduated with a honours degree in Computer Science and travelled to America to pursue his dreams. Magic might not be a thing, but technology was a magic all its own.

Once there, he moved to the city to catch up with Cormac. Cormac was his cousin, and undoubtedly his closest friend growing up.The two were similar in age and looks to the point of there being a running joke in the family that they were secretly twins. Cormac had moved to America after finishing school and hit it big once he graduated university. He founded a social media channel - LuckyWildRover - that became very popular in a short amount of time. While Jamie didn’t quite understand how it happened, he was happy to spend time with his cousin while settling to life in the city. His own job focused on temporary contract work, so Cormac helped him find his feet in a little rented space.

It was a strange life, but Jamie couldn’t complain. He was happy, had a sense of security, and had good company. Life was starting to turn into something good, but this is only the start of the story.

A late-night walk home turned into a threat when a man approached him. His hood was up, and there was no trace of a face underneath. Even when the light should have given a hint, it was like the stranger was made of shadows. A knife was pulled out as the stranger pounced. Jamie’s training in parkour meant his reflexes were sharp, and he dodge the initial attack and run. He hadn’t gotten far before he was grabbed from behind and slammed into an electrical box. The knife was plunged into his shoulder with such force that it tore through and damaged the electrical box. A powerful surge of electricity shot through Jamie’s body, and the force of the knife being pulled out of his body had him drop like lead to the ground. He watched the other raise his knife again with fearful eyes… But a third figure approached. 

“You have failed your task,” the third said to the attacker, “This is not who we want.” Without so much as an apology, the pair walked out of sight as Jamie passed out.

He woke up in hospital, with one arm bound in a sling and an IV drip attached to his other arm. Cormac had been pacing the length and breadth of the ward, relief as clear as day as he hurried over. However, it switched to panic as Jamie attempted to explain what happened to him. At that moment, it was decided that Jamie would be hired by Cormac while his arm recovered. 

The following months found Jamie in a rather unusual setting. Not only was he going through a slow recovery process and adjusting to a new job, he also was adjusting to being more prone to static shocks and seeing little sparks shoot out of his hands. All he could hope was learning the ropes of the LuckyWildRover channel would be easy. Thanks to social media, he had an idea of how the life of someone like Cormac ought to work… Except it didn’t apply. Despite his face being on the camera and the channel’s focus on him, very little of Cormac himself was known. Fans, and even those who worked for and with him, only knew Cormac by Rover, his screen name. No video update mentioned Jamie being around or what happened. Even Jamie’s joke of the two doing a ‘spot the difference’ video between the nearly identical cousins was shot down. “Everything runs as it ought to, Jamie. No better way to do it”. Despite this, the pair worked rather well together, and the arrangements that had been set up continued long after the doctor gave Jamie the all-clear. While he did have some small jobs here and there, Jamie’ primary job was to be someone Cormac could bounce ideas off while he worked, and help out where he could. He had a chance to learn how to set videos up, how to prepare a script if it was needed, how the system worked to record screens, video game footage, whatever might be required. But when Jamie asked why he was learning all of this, Cormac shrugged and admitted that it was nice to talk to someone he knew about his job, rather than being known as just the stage name. The joke of Jamie being the substitute while Cormac went on a sneaky holiday didn’t go down so well.

This continued for a year, until one night Jamie had spent the night playing video games and chatting with his cousin in the latter’s house. He crashed on the couch, and woke up the next morning to discover that Cormac had vanished from existence.

Not in a ‘he fled the country’ manner, but more so that Cormac had literally been erased from existence. In a panic, he searched the entire house, the recording setup at the bottom of the garden, all the familiar settings, but to no avail. It was only when Jamie knocked a childhood photo while scrambling to find the phone did he realise this wasn’t a matter for the police. It was a photo taken at their grandparents’ 40th wedding anniversary, where all the cousins were crammed into the tiny sitting room for a photo. Even though the photo was ten years old, Cormac wasn’t there. He had stood beside Jamie that day. Any photo Jamie had was intact, but all other traces of the streamer vanished. Online social media statuses didn’t include him in the family groups, photos had him absent… It was like he was never there.

For two days, Jamie was at a loss, mourning the disappearance of a man no one could remember. But why could he remember? What happened? It was like the stories his grandfather had told them back in rural Ireland, where people would make a mistake and be vanished away by something like the fae. It seemed so improbable, but it was all his frantic mind could conclude.

Then… A phone call.

The editor of LuckyWildRover called, wondering where Rover was and if Jamie knew anything. At first, he was delighted that someone remembered, but the joy sunk to his stomach when he remembered the editor only knew the channel persona. The mood quickly flipped as he learned that fans were asking about Rover, wondering why the streamer had disappeared.

All at once, Jamie realised that Cormac’s strange approach to business was deliberate. If there was magic afoot which erased his identity, his legacy would remain since the channel wasn’t about Cormac. He promised he’d look into getting an update, and hurried back to the studio at the bottom of the garden. A proper search of the desk revealed a notebook addressed to Jamie.

“If you’re reading this, things have gone to shit. Everything runs as it ought to, and no one can know what happened to me. I’m sure you understand why I can’t tell you what’s happening, but you need to keep this going. Everything you’ve learned was for this, everything you need to help you is here. All I’ve worked for is my loophole. I’ve made sure everything I own also has your name attached to it. Don’t let it vanish like I did. Rover.”

The channel and the house were all Jamie had left of his cousin, and he would be damned if he’d let it all disappear. Until he figured out a way to bring his cousin back, he’d have to man the channel and try to find answers.

Everything runs as it ought to. No better way to do it.

This is Rover. Welcome to the show.

[topicprinter]

Hi all, I recently wrote this post about how Drip screwed over its most loyal customers and I thought perhaps /r/Entrepreneur would get value out of my lessons learned.----If you’re not familiar, Drip is email marketing software that’s pretty heavy on the marketing automation front. I won’t do them the courtesy of a link, so you’ll have to Google them if you want to check it out.They’ve been around since 2012 or so, founded by someone I trusted, but he sold the business to Leadpages a few years ago, and it’s been going downhill ever since.I’ve been using them for years as the backbone of two “side” businesses: IndieHive, which covers this website for freelancers and the related products and services that I sell, and Everleads, a curated lead generation site for freelance designers and developers.In 2016 and 2017, I really dug deep into Drip. I built out dozens of interconnected workflows to carefully shepherd my subscribers through various funnels and sequences with duplicate emails or annoying content that’s not relevant to them. I integrated my web front-end with their APIs so that I could customize the site for subscribers. I wrote bridging scripts to connect it to Mixpanel for analytics, and I used Zapier to hook Drip up to even more services. It was the heart of my entire business, and it was awesome.But throughout 2018, things started to go awry.I kept experiencing glitches in the workflows where people would get stuck on workflow steps that should be instant, like “remove tag”. Or people would end one workflow and start another, but not have any of the data that the first workflow had set. There were honestly dozens of these little glitches, but individually they were minor.Also troubling: deliverability started to slip. Not precipitously, and I can’t prove that it wasn’t just my emails, but I have heard from others that they were having issues with getting their emails into people’s inboxes in 2018.But the most egregious thing for all of this was that support was basically no help at all. I probably opened two dozen support requests in 2018 and I’m not sure they actually resolved a single one. We’d spend hours going back and forth so they could even understand the problem. Then they’d almost always say one of two things:“For a workaround, just insert a number of delays between steps in your workflows so that the system doesn’t get confused!” So all my workflows had little 5 minute delay steps to try and make sure things worked correctly. Which they still didn’t. Wtf.Or they’d just say they need to escalate to the developers and then I’d get an email weeks or months later from some random support engineer letting me know they were still looking into why the most basic functions of their software don’t work right. Awesome.Alarmed by this, I repeatedly researched alternatives throughout 2018, but nothing seemed worth going through the pain of migration and the risk of just having similar issues somewhere else. So I kept resolving to be patient with Drip and hope (pray) that they were hard at work at undoing whatever architectural disaster had led us here.And then…In early January 2019, while I was on a relaxing cruise with my wife for our 15th anniversary, I got an email from Drip:https://ryanwaggoner.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/drip-bullshit-pricing-email-2.pngSo basically: “Hey, we’re raising our prices in 12 days! You can keep your current price if you switch to an annual plan!”And if you read it carefully, there’s something pretty important missing from this email.It doesn’t say what the new pricing is**. Seriously wtf.**So I emailed to ask. They responded the next day (so now I have 11 days) to reveal they were doubling my monthly price.Drip raised my price from $184 / month to $368 / month with 12 days notice.That’s just about the worst way imaginable to treat your oldest and most loyal customers.And it was the last straw for me.Now, to be clear, I completely understand wanting to grow a company in a new direction, or thinking that you need to raise prices to reflect more value.But you don’t do it when your platform is half-broken, you don’t do it with 12 days notice, and you grandfather in existing customers, at least for long enough for them to migrate. Also, you tell them the price when you tell them that prices are rising.It’s hard to imagine how Drip could have been more disrespectful to their customer base than what they did here.So as of last month, I switched all my subscribers to ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign for Everleads and IndieHive, respectively. That’s thousands of dollars that Drip won’t be getting from me. I managed to get both setups completely migrated off just before their billing renewal dates, in one case with literal minutes to spare.It was a pain and required some late nights but it was worth it to deny them another penny.I’m not alone in feeling upset about this. Twitter was ablaze for weeks with people who were angry and bailing for greener, more respectful pastures. I’ve taken a sick joy in watching a lot of people migrate off Drip with much larger lists than mine.I also cancelled Leadpages in favor of Instapage. I was already unhappy with Leadpages, mainly because it feels pretty clunky and dated, they aren’t very responsive to user feedback, and they’re still missing some pretty basic things (like being able to pass form data to the thank you page. Seriously?).Side note: I was going to link to the Leadpages idea portal, but they apparently shut it down. Makes sense, since it was filled with hundreds of good ideas with many, many customer votes that had been ignored for years.Regardless, even if Leadpages was awesome, they own Drip and I won’t give another penny to such an unethical company that treats its customers so poorly.And this migration was a huge pain (which is what they were counting on), partly because of how complex my Drip setups were, but also because ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign are both pretty different from each other and from Drip. On the surface, they all do some of the same things, but once you dig in, things diverge, which made the migration especially painful.Drip is complicated. Stupidly so. In fact, it’s so complicated that there are a number of problems using it:It doesn’t really work. I mean, it does like 99% of the time, but that last 1% means that some of your subscribers are going to have a bad time. And it’s not just that their emails won’t show up. They might just get stuck in a workflow, or skip some emails in a sequence, or get things at the wrong times, or lose data, etc. And since this happens randomly, the number of subscribers who experience it accumulates over time.The customer support reps don’t really know how it works, because it’s too complicated. So you end up spending hours writing up descriptions of the problem and putting together screencasts to show how things don’t seem to be working, and the only response you get is that they’ll have to ask the developers.It encourages you to setup really fancy complex automations which, even if they did work, are way beyond what you actually need. Just imagine: you can do anything! You can track everything! You can have an unlimited number of tags and fields! Track and automate all the things!Your setup can end up being really brittle and deeply tied to the Drip architecture, which is a problem if you want to migrate off. And it’s hard to expand and modify over time without breaking all kinds of things for your subscribers who are in those automations.The setup is hard to document. It’s easy to end up with a large collection of documents and spreadsheets and screencasts to try and explain not only what you did, but why you did it.It’s hard to audit and debug when things go wrong. And things will go wrong. It’s hard to tell exactly what’s happening with your subscribers, where things went off the rails, and how to get it back on track without screwing things up further.In the end, Drip for me felt like a really shitty programming language. Technically possible to do almost anything, but so painful that in the end you wish you hadn’t bothered.By contrast, ConvertKit is simple. And yes, I think it’s too simple in places. I think there are some genuine gaps in the functionality that makes it a little too hard to get done the things you want.But I’m also aware of the fact that I’m coming from Drip and a really convoluted setup, so being forced to simplify is probably a good thing.And ActiveCampaign is not simple, but it’s powerful in a bunch of ways that Drip should have been. Additionally, it has the distinction of actually being, you know, functional. Crazy, I know.Also, ActiveCampaign apparently is more open to feedback than Drip. I posted a Twitter thread listing some things that I like about it and Jason VandeBoom, the founder of ActiveCampaign, setup a call with me to go over some of my feedback. And ActiveCampaign isn’t a tiny company; they have hundreds of employees and are much larger than Drip. It meant a lot to me that Jason would just jump on the phone with a random customer to see how they could improve.Meanwhile Drip’s emails aren’t even signed by an actual person. During this whole debacle, I don’t think anyone from Drip actually responded to anyone’s tweets or complaints. A couple days after the initial announcement when things were blowing up on Twitter, they sent this out another email that was basically "sorry, not sorry"Just like their price increase, all of their corporate communication just screams “We don’t care about you. Go away.”So I did.I’m actually really glad that I dropped Drip, after all that. Partly because of how much better ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign are as tools, but mostly because it taught me a lesson about how you need to be careful when you’re a small company about who you integrate with, because while your interests may align now, that could change at any point.But this rant has gone on long enough, so I’ll save that point for a future post.Disclaimer: just in case Drip decides to sue me (which would be so on-brand for them at this point), ALL the descriptions of Drip’s functionality, failings, and communications is to the best of my recollection and should not be taken as a literal word-for-word account.----Happy to answer any questions about my experience with Drip, ConvertKit, or ActiveCampaign. Would also love to hear anyone else's experiences with any of those (or others you'd recommend in the space of email-based marketing automation).Original post: https://ryanwaggoner.com/drip-pricing-review/

[voiceactinguk]

Final Fantasy 4 Radio Show! Casting!

Now casting for Season One of the Final Fantasy 4 Radio Show! Final Fantasy IV (known as Final Fantasy II in the U.S.) was a video game originally published by SquareSoft for the SNES in 1991. It has since been re-mastered and re-made multiple times for multiple systems and now we are creating an unofficial radio adaptation of the classic story of sword and sorcery. The game follows Cecil, a dark knight, who begins to question his king's motives, which sets off a chain of events that leads him on the path to righteousness. Along the way he and his friends discover an ancient forgotten history of their planet (and beyond!). Season One (6 episodes) follows the story of FF4 up to, and including, Cecil's climactic transformation into a paladin. Season Two will see the heroes valiant efforts to stop Golbez turn deadly. Season Three will follow their time in the underworld of the dwarves. And, finally, Season Four will reveal the secret of the crystals as well as Cecil and Golbez's tragic shared past before culminating in a battle for the fate of the world that you will not want to miss! This is a FULL RE-SCRIPT of Final Fantasy 4 into radio play format, and will be published on YouTube and as a Podcast on iTunes (fingers crossed). I'm taking full artistic license with the plot, characters, and dialog; pulling from every different version of the game. It is still very much FF4, but delivers a fresh, exciting new adaptation! using the format: AUDITIONS ARE OPEN UNTIL WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1st  Send your audio files (one file per character) to ff4radioshow@hotmail.com using any standard audio format Listen to the PILOT EPISODE or take a look at my previous project, The FINAL FANTASY 6 FANDUB To contact me directly with any questions email ff4radioshow(at)hotmail.com *The actors for Cecil and Rosa are continuing their wonderful work from the Pilot episode. Apologies to anyone hankering for those roles. *A NOTE ON ACCENTS* I love accents! I want you to try any accent you believe you can do well consistently or you believe fits the character. BUT be warned that I am a HARSH CRITIC of sub-par accent work. No Dick Van Dyke nonsense. OPEN ROLES NARRATOR Male/Female, Ageless Delivers an intro and outro for each episode. Warm, pleasant voice tone.  Able to project excitement and generate interest in the show to come. Audition Lines: Quote:This is a tale of far away and long ago... A time when knights and kings gripped the world with fists of iron and steel! A world where magic and technology clash together in awesome competition for power! This is The Final Fantasy Four Radio Show! Quote:The airships of the mighty Red Wings from the Kingdom of Baron race across the sky on their way home after a successful mission in the mystical country of Mysidia. The crew look forward to their return to hearth and home, but one man, their Captain, Cecil the Dark Knight, casts his gaze backward... --- EXTRAS! Male/Female, Varied Ages Crew of Red Wings (x3), Merchant, Baron Soldiers (x2), Cap'n, Chancellor, Sailors Nine varied background roles. Nine chances to try out your crazy voices! THESE ROLES ARE VERY IMPORTANT! I love to have a bouquet of extras available just in case. Please audition here if you are unsure of which role to try for! Audition Lines: Quote:Hey! How's it going? You doin' anything later today? Quote:Y'arr. Fifteen souls went ashore that day. An' only ol' Flint himself sailed away.  Quote:Bilbo Baggins was a hobbit who wanted to be left alone in quiet comfort. But the wizard Gandalf came along with a band of homeless dwarves. Soon Bilbo was drawn into their quest, facing evil orcs, savage wolves, giant spiders, and worse, unknown dangers. Finally, it was Bilbo -- alone and unaided -- who had to confront the great dragon Smaug, the terror of an entire countryside... --- BAIGAN Male, age 20-40 Baigan does not care about you.  Baigan only cares about Baigan. Sarcastic and apathetic. A drawling, sneering, douchey voice. This character may return in Season 2. Audition Line: Quote:Hmph, isn't killing what you do? You are a Dark Knight after all, Cecil. I didn't think you could still feel pity. --- KING BARON Male, age 40+ King of the country of Baron. Regal and imposing. He has a secret plan for which he is gathering the world’s Crystals. This character will return in Season 2. Audition Lines: Quote:Ah! Cecil! The Kingdom of Baron hails your return! We trust you have the Crystal? Quote:If the state of the Red Wings so concerns you, Dragoon, that you would eavesdrop on the Royal Chamber, then you may join him in his penance. Take the ring! And do not enter Our sight again until it is done!  --- KAIN HIGHWIND Male/Female, age 18-30 Cecil’s closest friend. A sporty sort of person who enjoys fighting for it’s own sake, rather than for any cause or loyalty. Kain was abandoned as a child and now clings to Cecil and Rosa. Perhaps Kain clings a little too closely though, and wishes for things to always stay just as they are between them. Kain has noticed Rosa’s affection for Cecil and is beginning to grow jealous. Voice type: Athletic and yet also oddly indolent. Think Jaleel White's Sonic the Hedgehog, or Ashleigh Ball's Rainbow Dash I would prefer to cast this role female to balance out the skewed gender ratio of the original story, but am accepting male voiced auditions. Audition Lines: Quote:Majesty! I petition on Cecil's behalf. Please reconsider! He has done no wrong, he questions out of care for his subordinates. He meant no disrespect, I assure you! Quote:Ahh, I woulda come with you anyway. Slaying monsters is right up my alley! Anyhow, the King'll relax as soon as we finish his "mission of contrition". We are his favorites. --- CID POLLENDINA Male, age 30-50 A rough, tough, jolly sort of fellow. Cid takes life as it comes and is enthusiastic about everything he does, damn the consequences!  He has a daughter whom he is very proud of but not very close to. Cid is always working on airships and other mechanical inventions. Cid's voice should feel bombastic and loud (without actually clipping out, plz!) Think Brian Blessed or perhaps John Lithgow. Audition Lines: Quote:What's the matter, kiddo? You and your goons better not have wrecked up my airships! Quote:The King's been acting mighty peculiar. You know, the other day he asked me if I could design an airship that can torch an entire city? I mean, obviously I could! But... makes me wonder if Baron will be going to war soon. --- MIST DRAGON Female, age 20-40 A mysterious dragon made of living mist. And also Rydia’s mother. The strongest of the valley’s summoners and it’s chief protector. One time, Non-recurring role Audition Line Quote:Leave at once and no harm will come to you. We will not allow further trespass. --- RYDIA  Female, age Child/Teen A young child just beginning to learn the way of the world and find her incredible strength in summoning and taming beasts. Rydia has a kind heart and has been taught to never kill or injure. She is able to sense the feelings that others carry, even if they are not aware of it themselves.  Rydia will be aging for season 2 to teen age. Priority may be given to actors able to play both ages. Voice Type: Childish but not immature. Sounds like 10-14 years old. Audition Lines: Quote:Mother! Get up! Please! The fire- *gasp!* Quote:He kills everything. Do you think... can I help him? Or is it too late? Quote:I'm coming with you! You'll need all the help you can get to tame that creature! --- DOCTOR Male/Female, ageless  A blustering medic. Will talk anyone’s ear off if given half a chance but has a kind heart and a charitable streak a mile wide. *First season role only Audition Line: Quote:Oh, you poor lamb. What has happened? Oh, but, no. You needn't say if you don't wish to. Lost your parents. I'm sure, I'm sure. Tragedy! Oh cruelty! But let's just look at you! All worn and filthy from traveling. The earthquake, no doubt? Thought we might see a few come through here, I did. But you're the first. And such a dear young thing! --- TELLAH Male, age 40-80 World renowned sage of the mystical, magical arts. Tellah settled in the desert to raise his daughter, Anna, and to meditate on the mysteries of the shifting sands. Tellah has lived by his own code for a very long time and believes wholly in his own judgement. Stubborn to a fault, Tellah’s strength is his greatest weakness. Voice Type: Cranky old guy, slightly reedy or nasal. Audition Lines: Quote:You there, Knight! Did I hear that right? You aim to clear the waterway to Damcyan? I beg you, let me come with you! I have tried to get through the waterway alone to no avail. The beast is strong. Strong, I warn you! But perhaps the three of us together... Quote:It is vicious. A writhing mass of tentacles and malice. And I am too old now to face it alone. Once, perhaps... But I fear something else may be waiting for us. I sense a darkness beyond. A doom yet clouded in the fog of the future... Quote:Stay and weep if you must! Do what you will; I don't care! Anna will be avenged. You keep your nose out of it! This death will be mine alone. --- EDWARD CHRIS VON MUIR Male/Female, age 18-30 The prince of the country of Damcyan and husband of Anna. A highly skilled musician and a born diplomat. Edward believes that any disagreement can be solved with communication. He detests violence. I would like to cast this with a female/feminine voice but keep Edward as a male role. Audition Lines: Quote:You're right. I'm nothing but a coward, just as you say. I only wanted him to leave. Leave us in peace. My Anna... and me... Quote:Put your sword away! There has been enough death today. Antlions are docile creatures. I shall get you your pearl. You stay here. Quote:Anna... what can I do now that you are gone? Everything is lost. Our kingdom is fallen, and I... I could do nothing. I still can do nothing. You loved to hear me sing and play but what good are they? What good is music in a world falling apart!? --- ANNA Female, age 18-30 Tellah’s daughter and wife of Edward. Anna is just as headstrong as her father and has eloped with Edward. A powerful magic-user, but not strong enough to stand against Golbez. Audition Line: Quote:Father! Stop it! ... just stop. There's... nothing you can do. Edward is... my husband... I love him... --- YANG FANG LEIDEN Male, age 20-50 Master of the monks of Fabul. Yang is highly disciplined Despite this, he is a humble man, and so does not bask in his glory, but rather tries his best to be respectful. Voice type: A deep, gentle, calming voice.  Audition Lines: Quote:I was lucky. We are all lucky. Most of their force already left, certain of victory. My comrades... we were ambushed. Drawn out onto the mountain by a decoy. Quote:Had enough of my friend's sword? Then perhaps you'd like to try my fists!? Hy-aahh! --- GOLBEZ Male, ageless Unknowable master of darkness. Golbez is the Dark Knight who replaces Cecil in the Red Wings. Little is known about him, but he shows a callous disdain for life and only a grudging respect for power. Golbez hides a terrible secret in his past. Voice Type: Deep and scary. Vader-esque. Audition Lines: Quote:Hmm? Ah. You must be Cecil. My predecessor in the Red Wings. Enough. I did not come to gabble with insects. Kain! Take the crystal. Quote:Ask not the eagle how he soars, little prince. My motives are beyond your ken. Quote:Fighting? This is no fight. I am simply collecting crystals. You are the ones who insist on throwing yourselves in my path. --- YIN  Female, age 20-50 Wife of Yang. (AKA Sheila, Ursula) Not much is known about Yin. She is fiercely protective of her husband and home. Audition Line: Quote:Soon after you left the sentries spotted those airships coming in from the west. The King ordered the city to evacuate. But I stayed put! None of those Baron thugs are going to touch MY house. --- "KING" FABUL Male/Female, ageless Ruler of the country of Fabul. All the more regal for their humility. Can be "Queen" or "King". Could be a child ruler or an aged monarch. Audition Line: Quote:Yes, we have been informed of the situation. And I must apologize to you, Master Yang. I unwisely sent your monks to their doom in the mountains, and shamefully fled when the airships appeared. --- PALOM Male, age Child/Teen An apprentice Black Mage from the land of Mysidia. Though young, Palom has proven himself a skillful, if arrogant, student of magic. He is a casual show-off, even to adults, and refers to himself as "The Mysidian Genius" or "Prodigy".  Audition Lines: Quote:Watch it, buddy! You're talkin' to the most powerful dark wizard in the whole world! Quote:Some people say that a monster from the depths of night resides at the summit. Others say there's nothing there. Like, it's a metaphor or something. Like, the whole time, YOU were the obstacle. --- POROM Female, age Child/Teen An apprentice White Mage from the land of Mysidia. Mature for her age, Porom is already an accomplished spellcaster. She is respectful and polite, and often has to keep Palom in line. She loves her brother and supports his quest to become a Sage, but believes he lacks the discipline. Audition Lines: Quote:Perhaps you were unaware, sir. I just so happen to be one of the most puissant white witches in the world. Quote:Well, I WAS just gonna lead him quietly into a cell in the tower. But you're right, Palom, yelling and making a scene is a much more sensible option! --- ELDER OF MYSIDIA Male/Female, age 40+ A leader of the town of Mysidia. Unusually long-sighted and kind. They are Porom & Palom’s teacher and an old friend of Tellah. Audition Line: Quote:Escort this man to the summit of Mount Ordeals. I see a dim star shining in the once-dark night sky... this will be a test for all of you. --- SCARMIGLIONE Male/Female, ageless The archfiend of Earth and appointed guardian of Mt Ordeals. It is an undead monster which Golbez has set to keep Cecil out of the summit cavern.  Audition Line: Quote:I am the gaoler of this forsssaken peak. Golbez set me here and now I have company at lassssst. Come! I shallll pulllll you into my embrace. --- KLUYA Male, 30+ A mysterious reflection in the summit cavern? Or something more? He is only a dim, echoing voice now.  Audition Line: Quote:I have waited for you for an age, it seems. And yet our meeting has come too soon, for now I must do as I have been dreading. The time is come! Hold your sword of darkness to the light!   FF4moonLogo3.png (Size: 366.21 KB / Downloads: 0) http://dlvr.it/PvCr4m www.voiceacting.space

[leonardchang]

Harvardwood Interview

By Nicole Torres

Born in New York City and raised in Long Island, Leonard Chang largely credits his love of literature to his mother. Growing up, Chang read a majority of her English and American novel collections which she had brought with her from Seoul to America.

While his amateur writing career began at the age of seven writing long letters to camp friends, his ‘aha’ moment, the moment he knew he wanted to be a writer, came in high school during a memorable interaction with his best friend Joe. Perhaps during a conversation about their futures, Joe remarked that he wanted to be a writer and a lightbulb went off in Leonard’s head. He thought, “You can do that?” and from that point on the seed of desire to become a writer was planted in his brain. During high school, the two of them embarked on a mission to co-write a novel together, and while Leonard remembers it as “youthful, ambitious, and terrible,” he also remembers it as “damn fun to write.”

After studying at Dartmouth and interning with the Peace Corps, the next stop on his professional journey was Harvard. Leonard notes that the best thing about Harvard for his writing career was the time and space it provided him to work on his writing. He lived off-campus, recalls spending more of his time in cafes and bookstores than in classes, and impressively completed his first novel while he was still an undergraduate. This freshman effort he also remembers as “youthful, ambitious, and terrible, but damn fun to write.”

After Harvard, Leonard received a scholarship to attend the MFA program at University of California Irvine. Although the program was incredibly competitive, Leonard remembers his time there fondly as a great growing and learning experience that provided him with access to and the ability to learn from world-renowned writers. Not quite ready to leave at the program’s end, Leonard elected to remain an extra year and worked as a teacher while completing what would become his novel The Fruit ‘N Food, which won the Black Heron Press Award for Social Fiction and is taught at universities around the globe. Not too shabby for a first novel.

The Fruit ‘N Food was just the beginning of an impressive array of award-winning novels that would follow, including Dispatches from the Cold, a popular and critically-acclaimed noir trilogy, Crossings, and Triplines. Many of his books have been translated into several languages and are taught in courses throughout the world.

In addition to his accomplishments in literature, Leonard has also made a name for himself in television. His initial foray into television was largely inspired by the television revolution brought about by shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, and The Shield— just a sampling of the many shows he watched while he was living and writing in Oakland. Inspired by the great content and writing on these shows, his decision to break into Hollywood was almost impulsive.

He recalls, “I made the decision very quickly, literally giving away everything in my apartment, loading my trusty Honda Civic with my computer and rock-climbing gear, and driving down to Los Angeles to housesit for a friend while I began writing TV pilots.”

Soon after arriving in Hollywood, Leonard searched for communities of like-minded individuals. He quickly came across Harvardwood and the Harvardwood Writers Program. At the time, the program had just begun and he jumped on board immediately, participating in its second workshop. It was certainly time well spent, as one of the pilots he wrote during the workshop ended up becoming his main writing sample and was eventually optioned by Fox. As Leonard puts it, that was the beginning of his career in television.

Since breaking into Hollywood, Leonard has worked on shows such as Awake and Justified, and has written several screenplays. The latest show for which he is both writing and producing is Snowfall, which centers around the birth of the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles. The show takes the perspective of a varied assortment of Los Angeles characters and Leonard explains, “It’s our attempt to personalize and reveal stories about Los Angeles that haven’t been fully explored before, and despite the content, we tried very hard to focus on the characters and their real or constructed families—we looked for authentic people beyond some of the hackneyed stories about this world.”

But despite all his success in the television arena, Leonard has not left his novel writing days behind him. He also has a new novel coming out, The Lockpicker, which is a crime thriller that centers around two brothers. He spent a great deal of time researching the criminal elements of the novel, speaking to a number of professional criminals, and learning the ins and outs of burglaries and lockpicking. It was an effort that paid off, as early reviews of the novel are heralding its attention to detail and realistic criminal elements.

Asked about whether he has a preference for television or novels, Leonard maintains that he does not. To him, they are very different experiences and he explains, “Novels are very much a singular and personal experience, whereas TV is more collaborat[ive] and almost familial; some of the friends I’ve made in TV will be life-long. When you spend 8 to 10 hours a day with writers working on a show, a natural camaraderie develops, and I’m grateful for some of the friends I’ve made. This is what a lot of new writers don’t necessarily understand about TV—it’s not just the writing; there’s a communal aspect to making TV that requires more than just being a great writer: you need to be a part of a family.”

At least for the immediate future, Leonard seems to be focusing on television and film, and he is working on a multitude of different projects. When asked what is up next for him he replies, “I’m still a part of Snowfall(we’re done shooting the first season but are still editing), and I’m working on a few different TV projects in various stages. Some projects I’ll pitch; others I’ll write on spec; others I’ll work with directors or producers. At this very moment (literally today): I prepped a pitch based on a memoir about a stripper and sex worker; I met with comic book creators about adapting their comic book for TV; I read a draft of a feature screenplay which I was hired to do a revision for and which the first writer did another great draft; I worked on a spec pilot; and I’m prepping for a meeting with a director who wants to direct a TV version of a feature, which I hope to adapt. So I move from project to project, which is fun.”  Just a simple day in the office.

The number of projects on his plate might seem overwhelming to some, but hearing him describe his work ethic it comes as no surprise. Aspiring writers often hear the advice, ‘write every day’, and he certainly takes that adage to heart. Leonard writes every day, and he has been doing so since high school. These days, a typical day for him starts very early, around 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. If he’s on a show he heads straight to the office, and if he’s not on a show it’s gym first and then off to write. And he keeps at it all day, with the occasional meetings and calls interspersed between. As Leonard acknowledges, such discipline might seem “punishing” to some, but not if one enjoys the process of writing as much as he does.

That does not mean that everything he writes is publisher or screen-ready. Rather, Leonard emphasizes how often much of what he writes he ends up throwing away immediately afterward. He explains, “Then I look at what I’ve written and usually throw it out. But each draft gets honed and crafted, and the more I write and throw out, the closer I get to finding the jewel amidst the choss.”

He recommends the same process to aspiring writers, “If you want to write, you should be writing—and writing every day. No excuses. I know everyone has busy and full lives, but if you really want to write and have a creative life, then you must prioritize it. Forget about the Muse and being inspired to write—it’s a skill, a craft, a muscle, a way to see the world, and the more you do it the better you get. Here’s where you start: give yourself a daily goal. Write one page a day. It doesn’t have to be good. In fact it will probably suck, but that’s okay. Because if you write one page a day, then in 30 days you have a half-hour script; 60 days you have a hour pilot; four months you have a feature; nine months you have a novel. Then you throw it out and start over. And guess what, in another few months you have a better version. But more importantly you find your rhythm, your routine, and you begin to understand how important writing is to your life, and then the product becomes less vital than the process, and everything from there is gravy.”

This final statement gets at the core of Leonard’s motivation and writing philosophy. His own personal motivation for writing is that he enjoys the process so much, and he does not place as much emphasis on the finished product. Of course he wants his work to be genuine and authentic and resonate with the reader, but at the end of the day he writes for himself. His test? The following question: “Will I work on something even if no one but me will read it? If the answer is yes, then I do it. Writing is not just a job or a profession—it is very much a way of life for me; it helps me assimilate and process the world around me.”

This philosophy is something he shares with some of his favorite writers. In reading their biographies Leonard noticed a theme: “What struck me about many of my favorite writers is that even if they suspected they would never be successful or famous or rich, they couldn’t not write.”

He continues on to recall a particularly memorable anecdote. “When Faulkner was in his 30s he was getting rejected by everyone. He thought his career was over. He literally thought he would never be published again. His previous novels [had] failed, either commercially or creatively. But rather than demoralizing him, it liberated him. He wrote: ��One day I seemed to shut a door between me and all publishers’ addresses and book lists. I said to myself, Now I can write. Now I can make myself a vase like that which the old Roman kept at his bedside and wore the rim slowly away with kissing it.’ And he then went on to write one of his greatest novels, The Sound and the Fury. That always struck me as the key. Now I can write. That’s the feeling you should always aspire to. F— everyone else. Now I can write.”

http://www.harvardwood.org/mp201705