The Power of Voices

I grew up listening to his voice. I used to wonder what kind of man was he. With a voice like his, was he tall? Dark? Handsome perhaps? Was he the kind of man that we women would swoon at and unfortunately could only be found in romance novels?

Sadly, we would not be able to hear his voice again after this. Not unless they do re-runs of previous movie trailers.

Don LaFontaine passed away on September 1st, 2008 at the age of 68. For the past three decades, he has been the Voiceover Master in Hollywood, The King of Trailers, The Voice of God, the man who made the phrase "In a world...." famous. His work ranged from movie trailers, commercials and radio spots. With almost 5000 movies credited to his voice, he could be, "... perhaps the single busiest actor in the history of SAG (Screen Actors Guild)"-- http://www.donlafontaine.com/.

In my line of work, I deal with a lot of individuals and mostly through the phone. They say, you can tell a lot about a person just from hearing their voice and of the way they speak. Is he bold or timid? Strong or weak? Outgoing or shy? Mature or childish? Although this will enable us to see the personality of a person without being shadowed by their appearances, but is it possible to know of a person's physical looks just by the mere voice? The saying goes that if the person on the other line has an 'attractive' voice, chances are they lack the same attributes in the physical form. I honestly believe it takes more then physical looks to describe beauty. Beauty, as they say, is in the eyes of the beholder.

Once I took a call on behalf of my colleague - 'S',who was not in the office. The caller was an old school friend. He was looking for 'S' through his office number as he had lost his mobile number. I don't remember how it happened, but the next thing you know we were having a wonderful conversation as if we were long lost friends ourselves. He told me of his days with 'S' from school up to university , where he is now and what he was doing. In return, when asked, I told him a little bit of myself although I was still being careful with whatever information I passed to him just in case he is not who he said he is. The conversation lasted about 20 minutes but he left a great impression on me. They way he spoke - in such an articulate manner, proper and the way he expressed his opinions - it was very impressive indeed.

In my opinion, voices and speech communication plays a vital role when you speak. I have always believed in good manners, and marvel at the ability of a person to relay a message accurately and without profanities. I believe in the saying, "If you have nothing nice to say then don't say it at all". It is not that I reject the naked truth, but I feel that perhaps it can be told with a little sensitivy in mind. After all, what is wrong with wanting good manners? It makes the world a better place to live in, does it not?

I found this clip by NBC about the famous voices of Hollywood. We may not know how they look like but we do know how they sound like. They are indeed the "voices in our head".

A couple of months back, my company decided to upgrade our telephone system. It came with a pre-recorded function so that when callers call in they can choose from the menu available and connect them directly to the person whom they wish to speak to. As I was the only lady present on the day during the installation (others were away on assignment), naturally I became the 'victim'. According to the contractor, it is nicer to hear a woman's voice on the phone rather then a man. Plus, it is more soothing and does not make waiting a 'tedious' task. After the installation, for a brief moment, I became the 'talk' of the office. They were excited with my "professionalism" and kept calling the office again and again just to hear my pre-recorded voice. One even professed to calling the office at night just to hear my 'squeaky' voice. However, my aunt was the best of all. She used to call me in the office and had to go through the receptionist to get to me. After the new system was installed, she told me " Eh, got new receptionist is it? She sounds just like you la!! ".

*Sigh, pensioners - they can be so adorable sometimes.

Come to think of it, should all effort fails, and if I don't end up in the legal career after all, perhaps I could look into working as a Voiceover actor in Malaysia?? Who knows, maybe I could just be the next Don LaFontaine??

What do you think? ;)

Bagaimana Untuk Menggembirakan Seorang Wanita

Another forwarded email.

How To Make A Woman Happy
----------------------------------

It's not difficult to make a woman happy. A man ONLY needs to be:

1. a friend
2. a companion
3. a lover
4. a brother
5. a father
6. a master
7. a chef
8. an electrician
9. a carpenter
10. a plumber
11. a mechanic
12. a decorator
13. a stylist
14. a sexologist
15. a gynaecologist
16. a psychologist
17. a pest exterminator
18. a psychiatrist
19. a healer
20. a good listener
21. an organizer
22. a good father
23. very clean
24. sympathetic
25. athletic
26. warm
27. attentive
28. gallant
29. intelligent
30. funny
31. creative
32. tender
33. strong
34. understanding
35. tolerant
36. prudent
37. ambitious
38. capable
39. courageous
40. determined
41. true
42. dependable
43. passionate
44. compassionate

WITHOUT FORGETTING TO:

45. give her compliments regularly
46. love shopping
47. be honest
48. be very rich
49. not stress her out
50. not look at other girls

AND AT THE SAME TIME, YOU MUST ALSO:

51. give her lots of attention, but expect little yourself
52. give her lots of time, especially time for herself
53. give her lots of space, never worrying about where she goes

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT:

54. Never to forget:

* birthdays
* anniversaries
* arrangements she makes








HOW TO MAKE A MAN HAPPY

1. Show up naked
2. Bring food


*LOL. I wonder, should the two requirements above be executed independently or concurrently... ;)

Facebook-ing

"Based on a popular social networking site, the term "facebooking" has emerged as a verb to describe the activity of logging in to Facebook in order to create a profile, share personal information, and meet other members...." -- netlingo (www.netling.com)

I would simply call it as an 'addiction'.

It began during last semester break, after the exams were over. Naturally, a couple of my friends and I had made plans to celebrate our so called 'freedom' and would reward ourselves by going for a mini-break to Kuala Selangor to see the "kelip-kelip". Unfortunately, due to some 'oversight' on the finances department, our planned trip to the homestay did not materialize. We all ended up 'staying at home' instead, confining ourselves to our own rooftops, forcing ourselves to discover our creative sides and fulfilling our time with activities which preferably, does not include much spending.

I took this opportunity to check on my long, and much neglected personal email account. You know what they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder. In my case, my heart skipped a beat when I saw the number of unread emails that I had only to realise after that most of them were only spam mails (and there I was thinking that it could be mails from my fan club, sigh...). As I did some maintenance work cleaning up the account, I found a few invitations from friends to join Facebook (hereafter known as "FB"), all dating back as late as October 2007. I have heard of this new phenomenon, from other friends and advertisements on the television, but I have yet to try it out for myself. Looking at that moment, as I had some time on my hands, feet and brain capacity to use, I told myself then, "Sure, why not?".

And I have been hooked eversince.

I find myself going crazy over the many applications that FB offers. There are quizzes to take (most of them are more ridiculous then another, but still fun to take though), games to play and you can even listen to music online. There is even a application called Flog Blog that links FB to your existing blog so that everyone in your list is notified whenever your blog is updated. Also, one could send pets, plants, beautiful roses, teddy bears, starbucks coffee, donuts, chocolates and ice-creams, birthday cakes, versace goods, coach handbags, even sexy 'dudes' as gifts to their friends and it is all for FREE!! WooHHooo!! I like, definitely!!!

Look, you can call me a cheapskate if you want, but hey, it is the thought that matters, right? ;)

However my most favourite activity is re-discovering "old" friends. Former work colleagues, my housemates during my overseas days, friends from uni, college, high school, tuition, the "mafia square" pasar malam gangs and even the "play-badminton-at-gina's-house-to-see- abang-uitm" gangs. And through the "6 degrees of separation" theory, I even found my old primary school girlfriends whom I last saw them 17 years ago. To my pleasure, they all remembered me still. Well, actually most of them remembered me as "Siti" the girl who liked to draw a lot, but who cares? All that matters is that they remember and that they did not mistaken me for a crazy nutcase who wants to add every tom, dick and harry as their friends in FB!!!

Seeing all of them here, makes me proud to know that I have had the pleasure of being in their company once upon a time. To see all of us grown up and have been successful in many ways in our life made me realize just how far I have come from whenst I came. The journeys I made. The people I have met. The good times. The bad times. The memories.

I say, Kudos FB!!! Without it, I may never have found all of them again.

The girls from both primary and secondary school are planning for a re-union. I do think that I may have to re-look at my diet plan again. Thank god Ramadhan is coming. Need some 'trimming' here and there, if you know what I mean ;).