Monday Meanderings - 9.18.2017

Significant changes under way for our volunteer activities. After logging about 9,000 miles  delivering for Meals on Wheels, Barb has turned in her insulated bags and retired from her route. She passed the 10-year mark earlier this year and decided that she had fulfilled her commitment. When asked what she was going to do now, she said, "Sign up to receive meals." Since she's still tutoring her Burmese families on English and Citizenship requirements, I'm not sure she's going to notice any slow-down in her schedule.

And on my side of the house, no more twice-weekly trips to the studio for recording sessions. Learning Ally is closing all of their studios.  No, they are not going out of business - they are transforming into a completely virtual organization. Everybody is going to work from home.

Learning Ally has been preparing this transition for a couple of years. There are 7 physical studio locations around the country, in addition to the headquarters in New Jersey. These studios, in the past, have been fairly autonomous; each responsible for all aspects of the assigned recorded book production.

Recently, a lot of the common infrastructure, like the log-in and log-out and time keeping has been consolidated into the "cloud" and some specialties have moved into "virtual communities." For example, those highly-skilled folks known as "math readers" have already been transformed into a collaborative network of readers, checkers and support personnel that exists globally, rather than scattered among the physical locations.

Now, all of the volunteers and almost all of the staff is becoming part of this virtual community, and almost everything we do can be done from home; selecting and signing up for reading and checking assignments, recording the audio, quality control (checking) and finalization.

I have, for some time, been checking audio files for accuracy here at home. Now I'll record them, as well. All I need is a microphone. And a wind screen, or pop filter. And a boom stand to position it properly. And some quality over-the-ears headphones. And a powered USB port because my computer is old and under-powered.

Oh, and a quiet room. A very quite room. No, quieter than that - I can still hear the neighbors air conditioner. So foam squares. And blankets. And maybe more foam. Wait! This chair squeaks! Is there a hum? I hear a hum.

However, probably the biggest impact these changes will have is about 8 more hours weekly of "together" time for Barb and me. Just remember, Barb used to call my boss and say, "Isn't there some place you can send Bob? He's really getting on my nerves."

So, to keep the peace, if you need me, I'll probably be shut up in my "recording studio." Looking for the source of that hum.