September 2013

Monthly Archive

I Dare You!

24 Sep 2013 | : blog

I read this book when I was 16 or 17.  You’ll like it no matter what your age is.  http://lnkd.in/bCnju9Y I found a copy in the trash can in my Vocational Agriculture(FFA) classroom. I grabbed it  out and read it. What a great motivational book. I wondered why anyone would throw it out.  But I was glad they did. It helped shape my young life for the better. Why call a book “I Dare You’? and And who was this guy William H. Danforth who wrote it? That’s what this essay is all about, so please continue reading. William H. Danforth (September 10, 1870 – December 24, 1955) founded Ralston-Purina in St. Louis, Missouri in 1894. He was a co-founder of the American Youth Foundation (AYF) imgres.jpg Ralston’s checkerboard logo evolved from a personal development concept Danforth put forth in his book “I Dare You”  in which he used a checkerboard to explain it. Danforth proposed that four key components in life need to be in balance. In the illustration, “Physical” was on the left, “Mental” on top, “Social” on right and “Religious” on the bottom. To be healthy, you needed the four squares to stay in balance and one area was not to develop at expense of the other.  The concept became intertwined with the company in 1921 when it began selling feed that was pressed in cubes called “checkers.”  He dared people to be their best in those 4 areas of life.  He had exercises to help in each area. I was big into his breathing and other health exercises.  He did them daily and worked until almost the end of his 85 years as a healthy younger than his age guy, advising others that they could too. Nestle PURINA has written a fine history of the sickly boy who became the healthiest man around.  How? All from a dare by a school teacher to become healthy.  http://www.nestlepurina.com/danforth.aspx Here are some highlights but you should go and read it all. “The “dare” idea served him well  as was witnessed by his success in pioneering the commercial feed industry, and in being his Company’s active Board Chairman and a tireless traveler and leader of youth until his death on Christmas Eve 1955 at the age of 85.” ” Mr. Danforth made no secret that he took his health seriously. He would proudly relate that he had never lost a day at the office on account of illness. He walked his mile a day because it made him feel better, and his rule was to get eight hours of sleep a night with the windows open. He ate moderately and kept his weight down.” I used to walk briskly to the street corner and back nightly as a young man, I don’t now because I live on the corner.  But when I return home from a hard day at construction work and the dog goes for a walk, he most often sees to it that I get more. I still try the open window unless it is really cold outside.  Weigh what I did or less than in High School but am much slower at 63 than even at 50 when I could still work circles around men 30 years my junior. “ For all of Mr. Danforth’s heavy executive schedule over the years and his “daring” for high stakes in the business world, he avoided letting business crowd out a happy balance of living.” I let bills and business often crowd out the other things in life. Maybe I need to read the book again. ” In 1927, Mr. and Mrs. Danforth established the Danforth Foundation as a national educational philanthropy. The Danforth Foundation has extended help in the form of fellowships or scholarships to many college students and teachers. In addition, the Foundation has helped to build 24 meditation chapels on college campuses and in hospitals.” He served in the 1st WW “  the Third Division, American Expeditionary Forces.”    And brought the word “Chow” for meals back to use in his feed business. ” In a 1955 Monday Morning Message, while he was in his 84th year, he pointed out the significance to him of some of these unchanging fundamentals. “Some folks are continually making changes,” he said. “I flatter myself that I like new ventures and new experiences. But when it comes to fundamentals I believe in finding the right foundations and building on them. I’m a poor changer. For instance, here are some of the fundamentals I have never changed: I have been a church member for over 60 years; married to one wife for over 60 years; a lodge member for over 60 years; a Purina man for over 60 years.

“Four-Square principles have been pillars of strength in my life.  I have never had cause to change. The longer I live with such fundamentals, the more valuable they become.”

 WELL I DARE YOU TO READ THIS BOOK!  http://lnkd.in/bCnju9Y

Do auditions translate to jobs?

24 Sep 2013 | : blog

 I’m in a group at linkedin.com called Voices.com.

A week ago the group originator started a conversation and it has received much attention from the voice over community.

Here is the  question and my responses and maybe one or two others to answer my above question.

How many auditions did you do today?

Voices.com Co-founder

If you’ve been keeping track of how often you step up to the mic each day, comment and join the conversation.

 

 Stephanie Ciccarelli

 

 

 

 jay beachamjay beacham

The voice as an instrument-your source for voice work-actor -singer -voice talent

When I was paying for an audition factory to provide audition opportunities, I regularly did ten + a day.
Now Once a week is rare. Audiobook reads are longer and take more time.
With just as little likelihood of being hired.
The amount of auditions don’t seem to correspond to the times being hired.
The only jobs I’ve gotten are from people who know me outside of the internet. The internet only being used to transport the demos and final work.
 

In  my experience, I would get tons of jobs, if I sat at home and waited and jumped at each thing that came along.

Once a casting lady from Atlanta called me. She liked my voice and 9 other guys’ voices. On a day when I was working at a non voice related job away from home, I got home late to an email about a read, I being her first choice. It was 10:30pm Utah time making it very late in Atlanta. I called the next morning to learn that it had been filled. She’d wanted a 1 hour turn around.

In film it is the same. On a Monday, an email arrived for me to be at a shoot as an extra Tues, & Wens. or Wens. & Thurs. that week in northern Utah, I live in southern Utah and had a pre-scheduled acting gig on Wens. in southern Utah.

This is an instant business. Casting directors never plan ahead. And they want quick turn around times and there is a surplus of voices or actors to choose from, who are are sitting waiting for the call or email.

So the number of auditions one does will never translate into jobs.

Other responses to her question are:

Ralph Ralph “Allen”

 

 

Ralph “Allen” Allenbaugh

President, Owner Ralph Allen Media

I think that there are a lot of really special and well qualified and talented people doing voice work. The successful people soon learn how to prospect for clients that use free lance talent.
I guess the need for prospecting is a huge part of this job.

 

 

Jeff Lavoce

Jeff

 

 

Jeff Lavoce

Voice-over at wordsofwisdom.biz

I do agree with the above comment. Nowadays, its about how smart you run your business, and how well you prospect, and that is not just voice-acting. If your voice is spot-on, I would suggest a business/marketing course, rather than yet more voice-coaching.

so get your voice out there, and get prospecting! 

 

So the number of auditions one does will never translate into jobs.

That’s my opinion.

Jay Beacham

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s still blowing in the wind.

07 Sep 2013 | : blog

 It’s still blowing in the wind.

I was going to the street mail box yesterday and my next door neighbor says “Hi” to me. He’s holding his little 2 year old daughter in on arm and with the other a spray wand attached to the spray tank strapped over his back.  He’s spraying the green intruders in his front yard rock landscaping.

President Obama is very concerned about chemical warfare being used in Syria.  He wants to blow the place up while most Americans don’t want to.

Are those war chemicals so bad? What about the weed chemicals?

What is worse?   With a quick Google search I found weed poisons one can get at Lowes, Home Depot, Amazon, Scott and hundreds of other places on 10 pages.

I did find a link to a “Home made” Organic from Daily Green

http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/homemade-weed-killers#slide-1

No expensive chemicals needed.  And they even advocate learning how to pull weeds again.  Why?  Because these chemicals linger for “Decades After Use in Homes and Gardens”.


Read more: Homemade Organic Weed Killers – How to Kill Weeds Naturally – The Daily Green
Follow us: @the_daily_green on Twitter | thedailygreen on Facebook
Visit us at TheDailyGreen.com

One commenter really gave a good explanation of  the matter.  Here is her comment:

Colleen Marie Gray

 

“Roundup from Monsasnto is highly toxic to the environment , animals and humans! Doesn’t even come close to a safer alternative mixture of vinegar and salt!
1 out of 6 Americans today suffer from Asthma and allergies! You have to question if this could be from all the chemicals we’ve been exposed to today.
Anything we can do to live a cleaner healthier lifestyle without exposing ourselves to more chemicals is the way to go! Monsanto has poisoned enough people with all their dumping of chemical waste in our waters. What they don’t have to disclose in the US today is the truth of what’s in their ingredient line up.
Big companies can have just a few chemicals listed on the package but there may be as many as 7 or 8 toxic chemicals that they don’t list. It’s not required by law! And the companies hide behind the line of “it’s proprietary”! No….it’s just how they can use down, dirty and cheap chemicals to accomplish their goal without considering the ramifications to human, animal life and our environment. In other countries such as Europe they do require full disclosure on their skin care, cosmetics and cleaning agents.
Keep up the good work! Doing it naturally is always the best solution!”

And what are those chemical ingredients?

How Does Roundup work? See:

 

 

 

 http://home.howstuffworks.com/question357.htm

I’ll quote some from the article:  Glyphosate-based herbicides all work on the same biochemical principle — they inhibit a specific enzyme that plants need in order to grow. The specific enzyme is called EPSP synthase. Without that enzyme, plants are unable to produce other proteins essential to growth, so they yellow and die over the course of several days or weeks. A majority of plants use this same enzyme, so almost all plants succumb to Roundup. 

  • most people react badly to glyphosate (and other chemicals mixed with it) when ingested or applied to the skin, so you want to avoid any contact with the chemical.
  • Roundup will kill almost any plant, including aquatic plants, so you want to be sure to avoid spray drift onto other plants or into water…

About 100 million pounds of Roundup are applied to U.S. farms and lawns every year, according to the EPA.  What are the cumulative effects?

So What does the manufacture say about it?

Read for yourself:  http://www.monsanto.com/products/Documents/glyphosate-background-materials/back_history.pdf

Not harmful? Scientific American had the following article about Roundup @

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=weed-whacking-herbicide-p

It’s the inert ingredients that don’t have to be listed in combination with the main ingredient that cause the havoc to humans.  The comments have some great information.  Be sure to read them too.

What is agent orange?

 Agent Orange or Herbicide Orange (HO) is one of the herbicides and defoliants used by the U.S. military as part of its chemical warfare program,

Read more about it and other chemicals used to deprive the enemy of their food supply @  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange

Many of these chemicals are “known to be a human carcinogens

And does this stuff ever go away?

Of the two herbicides that make up Agent Orange, 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, the latter is considered to be less biodegradable. While degradation of 2,4,5-T with a half-life on a scale of days can be achieved by adding bacteria of a special strain, “no substantial degradation” was observed in the same soil without addition of bacteria. The half-life of dioxins in soil is more than 10 years, and that of TCDD in human fat tissue is about 7 years.

And when combined with other chemicals?  Tests haven’t been conducted on most of those things in combination.

I wrote a post last year that fits this discussion. I am including it here in it’s entirety:

Blowin’ in the Wind.

 06 Apr 2012

 

Many people get ill in the Spring, I even had a chest infection(bronchitis) last week.

Why?

Well I believe the answer is blowing in the Spring breezes.  Let me explain.

The grass and quick growing spring vegetation starts growing and the towns, cities, counties and home owners, not wanting to work and abhorring green, start spraying poisons of all kinds all over, day after day. These chemicals are not only poisonous to plants but to man and animal alike.  And with the winds are blown every where when applied and when outgassing in the sun.

The people breath this stuff in and then become ill and the illness is just blamed on “it going around”, “I’m old”, “I’m run down”, etc.

The sprayers are waging a chemical war on the world and the weaker people get ill, and the yet weaker ones die and the weeds live on and on.

Part of an article talks about weeds, I’ve only included one paragraph and a link to the rest of the article.

After New York unleashed Operation Ragweed–spraying 200 to 300 gallons of the toxic brew on each acre treated–other communities joined the fray. Although they bought into the idea, as Zalck puts it, “that killing ragweed with herbicides would produce new vegetation, cleaner air, and healthier people,” that’s not what happened. After soaking its landscape with over eight million gallons of 2,4-D, New York City threw in the towel. Worse, and consistent with the contemporaneous blanket spraying of DDT, phenoxyacetic herbicides worked their way up the food chain, compromising air and water quality, and public health.”  http://www.kcet.org/updaily/the_back_forty/commentary/golden-green/roundup-thinking-about-weeds.html

Most of the weeds sprayed, just dry up and leave the dried remains to be a fire hazard.

Another article about weed killer points out  ”Americans just race to fix one problem by replacing it with a potentially larger problem.”

http://www.safelawns.org/blog/index.php/2011/01/80-percent-of-canadians-protected-by-pesticide-laws/

As I describe  in my book “The Canaries are Dying”, the weaker people get their immune systems weakened to the point that they develop disease and die due to exposure to the chemicals in our environment.  And like the Monster of Dr. Frankenstein, science becomes a menace to society because mankind attempts to improve on God creations.

The best way to get rid of the weeds you think are so harmful to your health, is to dig them out.  Then no one is harmed but the weed.”

So Chemical warfare.  Who’s waging it?  Will it harm us?

A book might be helpful.

 Silent Spring   http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Spring-Rachel-Carson/dp/0618249060

Handbook-Natural-Methods 

 http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Natural-Pesticides-Methods-Practice/dp/0849336511/ref=sr_1_26?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378606656&sr=1-26&keywords=herbicide+handbook

 Let’s stop poisoning the world.

Some resources:

 

Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature
Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature

Learn more

 

 

Add to Wish List

 

 

 

 

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(Leave a relevant comment and not just a self promoting one.)

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