Task 1 – What’s in Your Bag? | Adventures in Learning About Text Technology (ubc.ca)

I initially chose to link to Olivia’s task as Dr. Pena, when I asked about submitting a task as a video, mentioned that she had used a video for her Task #1, and I was intrigued.

I think the choice of using video for this task was a very enlightened one for several reasons. Firstly, as an introductory post it, as Liv mentions in her introduction, is a great way to not only see her, but also to get to know her as an individual. It creates a sense of connection that is not always possible with the written word. Secondly, the choice of video also increases the ability for most viewers to experience what she has to say – bodies of text can be intimidating for some viewers and WordPress’s, or at least the UBC licensed version of WordPress’s, lack of a screen reader function means that they often don’t have another choice. Thirdly, the choice of video, or at least the audio component of the video truly gives an authentic voice to what she has to say, far more than any text on the screen. It also allows for the photo of the contents to remain on the screen throughout, rather than the viewer having to scroll back and forth from the text to the photo as the different items are being discussed.

Liv’s description of why she doesn’t typically carry a bag really struck me, not so much from the cultural presumptions of women carrying purses or bags, or the fashion industry that supports this practice by not providing functional pockets in many women’s fashions. But, rather from the fact that I typically carry a bag with me on workdays because I don’t have enough room in my pockets for everything, I think I need throughout the day. This is likely because I am not a minimalist person, and still have a bit too much of a Boy Scout’s mentality of being prepared, “I might need this, so I better carry it with me”. It also likely a result of the fact that I teach in multiple spaces throughout the day, so I need to carry the essentials from room to room or seem unprepared in front of my students.

I connected with the contents of Liv’s pocket as many of the cards she chose to share can also be found in my wallet from the driver’s license and health insurance cards to the BCAA, Costco and More Rewards cards. Her preference for the physical cards over the use of an associated app also resonated as I too prefer to use the hard copy versus the digital version.

I also reflected on the mention of needing to borrow another phone to take a picture of the contents of her pocket as her phone was a content. I am amongst a shrinking group of people who prefer to take photos with a sperate camera versus just using my phone. I use my phone as a camera all the time and the thousands of photos in my camera roll will attest to this, but if I am travelling or intending to take photos, I will carry a camera with me to take those photos. Whether it is leading students through Japan or hiking in the Rockies I have my DSLR with me and constantly slung over my shoulder – the stereotypical tourist I know. The act of composing a photo through a viewfinder for me creates a much more intentional act and meaningful result than holding up the phone and snapping a quick shot.

My Comment on Liv’s Task:

Hi Liv,

I think your choice of using video for this task was a very enlightened one for several reasons. Firstly, as an introductory post it, as you mention in your introduction, is a great way to not only see you, but also to get to know you as an individual. It creates a sense of connection that is not always possible with the written word. Secondly, the choice of video also increases the ability for most viewers to experience what she has to say – bodies of text can be intimidating for some viewers and WordPress’s, or at least the UBC licensed version of WordPress’s, lack of a screen reader function means that they often don’t have another choice. Thirdly, the choice of video, or at least the audio component of the video truly gives an authentic voice to what you have to say, far more than any text on the screen. It also allows for the photo of the contents to remain on the screen throughout, rather than the viewer having to scroll back and forth from the text to the photo as the different items are being discussed.

Your description of why you don’t typically carry a bag really struck me, not so much from the cultural presumptions of women carrying purses or bags, or the fashion industry that supports this practice by not providing functional pockets in many women’s fashions. But, from the fact that I typically carry a bag with me on workdays because I don’t have enough room in my pockets for everything, I think I need throughout the day. This is likely because I am not a minimalist person, and still have a bit too much of a Boy Scout’s mentality of being prepared, I might need this, so I better carry it with me. It also likely a result of the fact that I teach in multiple spaces throughout the day, so I need to carry the essentials from room to room or seem unprepared in front of my students.

I connected with the contents of your pocket as many of the cards she chose to share can also be found in my wallet from the drivers license and health insurance cards to the BCAA, Costco and More Rewards cards. Your preference for the physical cards over the use of an associated app also resonated as I too prefer to use the hard copy versus the digital version.

I also reflected on the mention of needing to borrow another phone to take a picture of the contents of your pocket as your phone was a content. I am amongst a shrinking group of people who prefer to take photos with a sperate camera versus just using my phone. I use my phone as a camera all the time and the thousands of photos in my camera roll will attest to this, but if I am travelling or intending to take photos, I will carry a camera with me to take those photos. Whether it is leading students through Japan or hiking in the Rockies I have my DSLR with me and constantly slung over my shoulder – the stereotypical tourist I know. The act of composing a photo through a viewfinder for me creates a much more intentional act and meaningful result than holding up the phone and snapping a quick shot.

Liv’s Response to My Comment:

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your post and for watching my video. I noticed in several of our classmate’s post, they discussed all of things they have to carry for work. I work form home and before reading other people’s posts I did not consider how working from home has liberated me from carrying extra things such as a laptop, charging cords, lunches etc. I’m sure my video would be quite different if I had to commute to work every day. In addition, the workplace has changed a lot in the last 10 years or so. Before, I would not carry a laptop around with me but now with open concept offices, small laptops, charging docs etcetera there is an expectation that workers keep their devices with them at all times.

I appreciate your comment about carrying a camera around with you. I’ve noticed younger folks carrying around small digital cameras from the 2000s and using flip phones. I’m not sure what the reasoning is behind this behaviour but it does make me feel old, lol! Sometimes I think about how much of our collective photographic history is lost because of all the photos that sit in our devices that will never be shared or uploaded. I’m curious how this will affect our collective memory of this era.

Tasks | Ubc Met Etec 540 Tex (louisaagreen.wixsite.com)

I chose Louisa’s Voice to Text task because the photo of Thor her Golden Retriever puppy made me think own my own, slightly older, Yellow Labrador Retriever puppy Pika (Pie-ka). It was a great story, even without the punctuation I was still highly engaged and did not have difficulty following the progression of the story. Your description of your experiences/adventures in puppy ownership had me smiling as I remembered many similar experiences with my own puppy Pika (Pie-Ka) a white English Labrador Retriever who is now ten months old and has entered her teenage angst stage.

As I read through the story, I was very impressed with the accuracy of the vocabulary from Google Docs, there were relatively few incongruous words and many of the proper nouns were accurately capitalized. My use of Notes on my iPhone produced a greater degree of incorrect words, I was left scratching my head trying to figure out what I had said that could produce what was on the screen. Interestingly, though Notes produced more incongruous words it did provide more punctuation that Google Docs did for you.It raised the question: In and ideal, if not a bit scary, world programs would not produce errors, until then though given a choice would you prefer more accurate vocabulary, or more accurate grammar?

Louisa mentioned that her husband commonly sends messages that are lacking in punctuation, it made me wonder if he commonly uses the voice-to-text function of his phone to send the messages. If so, our experience with this recording task may explain why his messages are lacking punctuation. I know when I use the function, I am very explicit in speaking the punctuation, and still usually go back to change a few things.

Like Louisa, I had a similar perception of my own voice to text story resembling stream of consciousness prose with random thoughts being included where if I had scripted my story, I would have been more focussed.

Louisa mentioned the limited scope audience for oral story telling. I am not sure if that still holds true with modern means of recording and transmission. But it raised the question for me: Do podcasts, audio and video recordings of oral stories break from the tradition of oral storytelling? Or do they allow for oral story telling to adopt the static nature of a written story, to be experienced by potentially millions of people with no variation from one to the next?

Louisa used Wix as her authoring tool, where I used UBC Blogs powered by WordPress. Having used Wix in the past I know that it does allow more freedom to embed items and greater variety of layouts compared to the limitations of WordPress as licenced by UBC. The choice of Wix however did limit the ability for the viewer/audience to interact with her post. There was not the inability to comment on the content page or individual post. I do like that she created the blog page on her site for interaction, but being separate from the post loses a sense of intimacy/immediacy for me.

My Comment on Louisa’s Task:

Louisa,

It is great to share a class with you again.

Congratulations on the new property and puppy, Thor is very handsome!

Finding rental properties that accept pets in Vancouver is also an issue for many people.

A great story, even without the punctuation I was still highly engaged and did not have difficulty following the progression of the story. Your description of your experiences/adventures in puppy ownership had me smiling as I remembered many similar experiences with my own puppy Pika (Pie-Ka) a white English Labrador Retriever who is now ten months old and has entered her teenage angst stage.

As I read through your story, I was very impressed with the accuracy of the vocabulary from Google Docs, there were relatively few incongruous words and many of the proper nouns were accurately capitalized. My use of Notes on my iPhone produced a greater degree of incorrect words, I was left scratching my head trying to figure out what I had said that could produce what was on the screen. Interestingly, though Notes produced more incongruous words it did provide more punctuation that Google Docs did for you. In an ideal, if not a bit scary world programs would not produce errors, until then though given a choice would you prefer more accurate vocabulary, or more accurate grammar?

You mention that your husband commonly sends you messages that are lacking in punctuation, does he commonly use the voice-to-text function of his phone to send the messages? If so, your experience with this recording task may explain why his messages are lacking punctuation. I know when I use the function, I am very explicit in speaking the punctuation, and still usually go back to change a few things.

I had a similar perception of my own voice to text story resembling stream of consciousness, prose with random thoughts being included where if I had scripted my story, I would have been more focused.

You mention the limited scope audience for oral story telling. Do you think this still holds true with modern means of recording and transmission? Do podcasts, audio and video recordings of oral stories break from the tradition of oral story telling? Or do they allow for oral story telling to adopt the static nature of a written story, to be experienced by potentially millions of people with no variation from one to the next?

Louisa’s Response to my Task 3:

Bridget Anakin’s MET Learning Portfolio – Task #4 Potato Printing (google.com)

I chose to look at students who had carved potato stamps as the creative nature of the task seemed so different than many of the other assignments from my MET program. I chose Bridget’s task as I was intrigued to see that Bridget had decided to carve separate stamps for each letter. For this task I carved my five-letter word into a single stamp. She mentions that she only had small potatoes, which necessitated carving single letters rather than an entire word.

Looking at the progression of printing, my carving of a single word block would represent early methods of block printing, where Bridget’s is more reminiscent of the movable type method of printing refined and made famous by Johannes Gutenberg (Peña, 2023). As I mentioned in my response to Bridget, the variety of words that could be produced by her five stamps far exceeds the single word my single block was capable of. Both methods would dramatically increase the speed of copy production, though block printing is slower to set up and requires new printing blocks for each page, though tedious to assemble moveable type allows much faster transitions between pages, or documents being printed.

Her choice of separate letters also makes it a bit easier, at least with most of her letters in that they would be carved the same whether forwards or reversed for stamping, with the exception being the “R”. It is quite the mind shift to think backwards, I know it took me a few moments to figure out how to layout and carve backwards, and I had to start over twice, in the end I had to image looking at my word through the body of the potato to get it right.

Bridget and I both decided to stick with capital letters to avoid the difficulty of carving more intricate lowercase letters. It is interesting, I was not brave enough to try R, I was originally contemplating “PRINT” but shied away due the “P” and the “R” and instead chose to carve an “O” as I found it easier than the tight angles. Bridget on the other hand stayed away from an “O” thinking that the curvature of the letter would be more difficult to carve.

Like Bridget, I really enjoyed Upside down, left to right: A letterpress film from the weeks course material, and connected with the fact that it takes a long time to initially set up the block of text to be printed, but the speed at which copies can be made after the plate is properly set up is amazing. I imagine that after becoming experienced in setting up the plates it could be a relaxing process to layout the letters for a printing plate, allowing your focus to shift to the task at hand and blocking out other thoughts and stimuli a form of Zen state, much like writing by hand can be.

Bridget ended her reflection with a contemplation about whether the other option for this week’s task, a handwritten composition would have been easier or more difficult to complete. I actually tried both options for this task and found that while the potato printing took less time, it was harder in the sense that it required more thought and attention for me to complete than the handwritten passage, I think because I am familiar with writing by hand and carving is not something I do, especially carving backwards letters. 

References:

Peña, E. (2023).  [4.2] Mechanization: Before and After [Course Module Notes]. Canvas. https://canvas.ubc.ca/

Danny Cooke Freelance Filmmaker. (2012, January 26). Upside down, left to right: A letterpress film [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/n6RqWe1bFpM

My Comment on Bridget’s Task:

Hi Bridget,

I really liked how you went with separate stamps for each letter, a great adaptation to having small potatoes! It also is more accurate to the concept of moveable type printing. The Wordle part of my brain is imagining all of the different words you could print with those five letters, or six if you flip the W into a M!

Your choice of separate letters also makes it a bit easier, at least with most of your letters in that they can be carved and stamped in any direction and not be backward, the exception as you mentioned being the R. It is quite the mind shift to think backwards, I know it took a few moments for me to figure out how to layout and carve backwards, and I had to start over twice in the end I had to image looking at my word through the body of the potato to get it right.

I too decided to stick with capital letters to avoid the difficulty of lowercase letters. It is interesting, I was not brave enough to try R, I was originally contemplating “PRINT” but shied away due the P and the R and instead chose to carve an O as I found it easier than the tight angles.

I really enjoyed Upside down, left to right: A letterpress film, and agree that it takes a long time to initially set up the block of text to be printed, but the speed at which copies can be made after the plate is properly set up is amazing. I imagine becoming experienced in setting up the plates it could be a relaxing process to layout the letters, allowing your focus to shift to the task at hand and blocking out other thoughts and stimuli, much like writing by hand can be.

I actually tried both options for this task and found that while the potato printing took less time, it was harder in the sense that it required more thought and attention for me to complete than the handwritten passage, I think because I am familiar with writing by hand and carving is not something I do, especially carving backwards letters. 

Task 6: An Emoji Story – Bingying (Iris) Wang-ETEC540 (ubc.ca)

I chose to include this task as I wanted to explore how other students decided to represent a story pictorially. I chose Iris’ post as it appeared that she, like my own emoji story, had used line breaks to separate the different plot elements and show a form of linear progression.

Iris had a similar experience to me and noted that she was a bit surprized at the limited number of emojis available for a task like this, and that many of the emojis that do exist have pre-existing meanings that may not be compatible with the story that we were hoping to write. This limited number of emojis and pre-set meanings meant that there was a need to be creative in how one uses emojis to convey complex ideas. In doing so we both used emojis individually and in combinations to convey both individual words and more complex ideas.

Iris made an interesting point, referencing Bolter (2001), about how different individuals and cultures, based on their backgrounds, interpreting images differently. That others may use a different combination of images to tell the same story. I think the inverse of this concept is also true, that images could be used to create a bridge across cultures and languages for those familiar with the same story or stories. In the case of The Little Mermaid that Iris was describing, the shared knowledge of the plot elements aided in deciphering the meaning of the emoji combinations and thus understanding her story. I know that when I viewed the stories of other students who were describing shows and movies that I was not familiar with, or that did not include a title, that I struggled to understand parts of the, if not the entire, story. In this was the shared knowledge of the plot elements allows the emojis to serve as a common language, even if we do not read or speak the same language.

It was interesting to read that she chose her story based on the ease of telling. I went the opposite route, choosing the most recent show that I had seen and only contemplating the difficulty of telling the story after I was into the process. Once I was into the process, however I did take a similar approach to Iris of identifying the basic plot elements needed to convey the story and keeping the concepts as simple as possible to aide conveying the story.

References:

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

My Comment on Iris’ Task:

Hi Iris,

It seems you had a similar experience to me when you noted that you were a bit surprized at the limited number of emojis available for a task like this, and that many of the emojis that do exist have pre-existing meanings that may not be compatible with the story that we were hoping to write. This limited number of emojis and pre-set meanings meant that we needed to be creative in how one uses emojis to convey complex ideas. In doing so we both used emojis individually and in combinations to convey both individual words and more complex ideas.

You make an interesting point, referencing Bolter (2001), about how different individuals and cultures, based on their backgrounds, interpreting images differently. That others may use a different combination of images to tell the same story. I think the inverse of this concept is also true, that images could be used to create a bridge across cultures and languages for those familiar with the same story or stories. In the case of The Little Mermaid that you are describing, the shared knowledge of the plot elements aided in deciphering the meaning of the emoji combinations and thus understanding her story. I know that when I viewed the stories of other students who were describing shows and movies that I was not familiar with, or that did not include a title, that I struggled to understand parts of the, if not the entire, story. In this was the shared knowledge of the plot elements allows the emojis to serve as a common language, even if we do not read or speak the same language.

It was interesting to read that you chose your story based on the ease of telling. I went the opposite route, choosing the most recent show that I had seen and only contemplating the difficulty of telling the story after I was into the process. Once I was into the process, however I did take a similar approach to Iris of identifying the basic plot elements needed to convey the story and keeping the concepts as simple as possible to aide conveying the story.

Task 8: Golden Record Curation | ETEC 540 Leighton Chiverton (ubc.ca)

In conducting Task 9: Network Assignment Using Golden Record Curation Quiz Data, I noticed that I had six curated songs in common with Leighton and I was curious to see how our selection criteria compared based on our correlation.

It was interesting to note that we chose six songs in common when our criteria for selection was seemingly so different. I wonder if this speaks to the universality of music and the representational nature of the original Voyager Golden Record or is simply coincidence that we had sixty percent of our selections in common.

It speaks to the ability for music to speak to each of us in diverse ways that Leighton made his selections based on the broad range of emotions that were generated by the ten pieces that he chose, while one of my primary criteria for selection was music that communicated positive emotion. What can invoke joy and hope for some can invoke quite different emotions in others hearing the same pieces based on their individual lived experiences.

I did not use the range of complexity in the composition of the pieces, like Leighton, but rather focused on a range of musical styles, though I suppose one could consider complexity a form of musical style.

One of my primary criteria for the selection of the ten pieces was to ensure geographic representation of the different regions of Earth, it is interesting to see that even though he did not state it as a criteria Leighton’s selections do represent a degree of geographic representation.

We had similar reasoning for the inclusion of “Johnny B. Goode” as a representation of modern musical tastes and expression.

I agree with Leighton that it would be interesting to see what a modern version of the Voyager Golden Record would be. I posed that question to Chat GPT while reflecting on my own curation, inputting the prompt of “Could you choose ten songs that represent all of humanity, and why?” The list it generated did not include any of the classical pieces from the Golden Record as Leighton contemplated, and at the time GPT did not include Taylor Swift as Leighton suggests as a possibility, but would that still be the case today?

Leighton poses an interesting question about how the selection of a modern Golden Record should be conducted. Should we entrust the representation of all of humanity to a small group of academics and cultural scientists like NASA did for the original? Or should we crowd-source the curation using the internet in the form of a Twitter or other social media poll? Would such a crowdsourcing produce a true representation of humanity, or would it be overly influenced by the privileged internet elite of the global north? Would minorities and indigenous voices be heard by distant listeners, or as Leighton suggests would meme music voyage ever outwards as a representation of Earth?

References:

Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (n.d.). Voyager – Music on the Golden Record. https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/music/

My Comment to Leighton through Mattermost:

Hi Leighton,

It was interesting to note that we chose six songs in common when our criteria for selection was seemingly so different. I wonder if this speaks to the universality of music and the representational nature of the original Voyager Golden Record or is simply coincidence that we had sixty percent of our selections in common.

It speaks to the ability for music to speak to each of us in diverse ways that you made your selections based on the broad range of emotions that were generated by the ten pieces that he chose, while one of my primary criteria for selection was music that communicated positive emotion. What can invoke joy and hope for some can invoke quite different emotions in others hearing the same pieces based on their individual lived experiences.

I did not use the range of complexity in the composition of the pieces, like you, but rather focused on a range of musical styles, though I suppose one could consider complexity a form of musical style.

One of my primary criteria for the selection of the ten pieces was to ensure geographic representation of the different regions of Earth, it is interesting to see that even though you did not state it as a criterion your selections do represent a degree of geographic representation.

We had similar reasoning for the inclusion of “Johnny B. Goode” as a representation of modern musical tastes and expression.

I agree that it would be interesting to see what a modern version of the Voyager Golden Record would be. I posed that question to Chat GPT while reflecting on my own curation, inputting the prompt of “Could you choose ten songs that represent all of humanity, and why?” The list it generated did not include any of the classical pieces from the Golden Record, and at the time GPT did not include Taylor Swift as you suggest as a possibility, but would that still be the case today?

You pose an interesting question about how the selection of a modern Golden Record should be conducted. Should we entrust the representation of all of humanity to a small group of academics and cultural scientists like NASA did for the original? Or should we crowd-source the curation using the internet in the form of a Twitter or other social media poll? Would such a crowdsourcing produce a true representation of humanity, or would it be overly influenced by the privileged internet elite of the global north? Would minorities and indigenous voices be heard by distant listeners, or as Leighton suggests would meme music voyage ever outwards as a representation of Earth?

ETEC 540 Task 12 Speculative Futures | Simon Worley Blog Site ETEC 540 (ubc.ca)

I chose to link to Simon’s post for several reasons, he had linked to my Task 3: Voice to Text earlier in the course and I felt it appropriate to return the link before the course came to an end; and I wanted to see what he had created as I know that Simon enjoys creative writing, making this task right up his ally.

I started my reflection and response as I listened to Simon’s podcast and before reading his reflection on the story and the process. It may be because I know and have worked with him both academically and professionally, but I found a great deal of similarity in his reflections and comments on the task and process and what I had already recorded in my own observations on his task.

Simon’s choice of a podcast as the medium for his story was very fitting as it allowed him to use tone of voice and pacing to help elicit the sense of dread indicated by his prompt, even beyond that created by the narrative development within the story itself. As Simon mentions in his reflection on the task, narrative podcasts are truly effective, largely as a result of their ability to engage listeners on many levels. Audio and video narratives have the ability to create deeper engagement in these ways as they reduce the cognitive load on the audience’s brain, listeners are not required to decode the text from the page or screen, like readers. This reduced effort allows for the deeper engagement and is also a major component in increasing the accessibility of the story.

I shied away from creating a podcast over a personal aversion to hearing the sound of my own voice, the result of which is that I was required to create a similar sense of dread strictly through my writing which is a more challenging and intentionally planned task.

Simon makes his story is even more dread inspiring by developing the setting of a future that is seemingly quite plausible in its scope given current political and economic trends, evoking a feeling that this is not just one of many possible futures, but rather one that we need to be cautious of not allowing to occur.

I thought it was very creative the way that he also invoked a sense of hope in a prompt that was intended to elicit dread; there are hints of this hope sprinkled throughout the second half of the story hinting at the possibility of change/rebellion even before the character 8234292-T rose up literally and figuratively at the end. This element of hope adds the sense of the piece being a parable, a warning against potential futures and of giving corporations too much control of our society, much as Simon mentions in his reflection on the story.

My Comment on Simon’s Task:

Hi Simon,

I really enjoyed listening to your speculative future.

I wanted to see what you created as I know that you enjoy creative writing, making this task right up your ally. Your efforts at rerecording the podcast were well worth it! Would you have done anything differently were to you approach this task again?

I started my reflection and response as I listened to the podcast and before reading your reflection on the story and the process. It may be because I know and have worked with you both academically and professionally, but I found a great deal of similarity in your reflections and comments on the task and process and what I had already recorded in my own observations on the task.

Your choice of a podcast as the medium for this story was very fitting as it allowed the use tone of voice and pacing to help elicit the sense of dread indicated by the prompt, even beyond that created by the narrative development within the story itself. As you mention in your reflection on the task, narrative podcasts are truly effective, largely as a result of their ability to engage listeners on many levels. Audio and video narratives have the ability to create deeper engagement in these ways as they reduce the cognitive load on the audience’s brain, listeners are not required to decode the text from the page or screen, like readers. This reduced effort allows for the deeper engagement and is also a major component in increasing the accessibility of the story.

I shied away from creating a podcast over a personal aversion to hearing the sound of my own voice, the result of which is that I was required to create a similar sense of dread strictly through my writing which is a more challenging and intentionally planned task.

You make the story even more dread inspiring by developing the setting of a future that is seemingly quite plausible in its scope given current political and economic trends, evoking a feeling that this is not just one of many possible futures, but rather one that we need to be cautious of not allowing to occur.

I thought it was very creative the way that you also invoked a sense of hope in a prompt that was intended to elicit dread; there are hints of this hope sprinkled throughout the second half of the story hinting at the possibility of change/rebellion even before the character 8234292-T rose up literally and figuratively at the end. This element of hope adds the sense of the piece being a parable, a warning against potential futures and of giving corporations too much control of our society, much as you mention in your reflection on the story.

Simon’s Response to My Comment on His Task:

Thanks a lot, Mike. It was an interesting task and I had fun shaping the story based on the prompt. I really leaned into the deep voice to add to the dread. I must disagree with you though. You have an excellent baritone voice and I’d love to hear you narrate a story such as mine. As for the sense of hope, I originally went for a much darker conclusion, but I couldn’t do it! I guess I’m an optimist at heart. The act of making podcasts intrigues me. The voice is a powerful tool and one we don’t use as much as we could.