We haven’t talked for a few days*, and it feels like the new normal: distance.

And then in only-in-my-head cinema conversations a person asks,

I’m going to visit my ex.

I don’t know.

And some part of me really doesn’t know.

Call it a mixture of hope, stupidity, stubbornness and kindness.

ℹ

It was 2.19 a.m. CET, here in Berlin’s former Russian sector when I started writing to you.

On Dec 12th, 2022 with -2 degrees Celsius (+5 degrees warmer compared to last week)

hi, i’m building my dream Voiceover YouTube channel as a milestone to my dream storytelling company, Susé Patrola. when done, i’ll move to singapore.

🥥 making money with voiceover is the only 1 thing i care about right now uga uga 🐒

ℹ

The 101st startup week went well.

I showed up every day, posting a new YouTube video ad:

Dec 11

🇺🇸 Ad 34: Woman Life Freedom | Jin Jiyan Azadi 3/5

🇩🇪 Ad 34: Frau Leben Freiheit | Jin Jiyan Azadi 3/5

Dec 10

🇺🇸 Ad 33: Woman Life Freedom | Jin Jiyan Azadi 2/5

🇩🇪 Ad 33: Frau Leben Freiheit | Jin Jiyan Azadi 2/5

Dec 9

🇺🇸 Ad 32: Woman Life Freedom | Jin Jiyan Azadi 1/5

🇩🇪 Ad 32: Frau Leben Freiheit | Jin Jiyan Azadi 1/5

Dec 8

🇺🇸 Ad 31: speak English all the time

🇩🇪 Ad 31: sprich Englisch die ganze Zeit

Dec 7

🇺🇸 Ad 30: …because virtual meetings are just not real

🇩🇪 Ad 30: …weil virtuelle Meetings eben nicht echt sind

Dec 6

🇺🇸 Ad 29: don’t like seeing people’s faces (thank you Covid)

🇩🇪 Ad 29: mag nicht Gesichter sehen (danke Covid)

Dec 5

🇺🇸 Ad 28: to frogs 🐸 say “Hello” in the morning (Living on Rivers)

🇩🇪 Ad 28: zu Fröschen 🐸 sag „Hallo” am Morgen (Living on Rivers)

It’s not easy to show up every day.

But crying and whining is only an option for small children. So I refrain from crying although there are dry tears all the time, see {Sunday Truth 100}.

Next week, starting on Thursday/Friday, I’ll try to keep the ads shorter (15 seconds to 60 seconds max.) because I want to transition to doing more tailored marketing work (approaching companies directly) and doing more online auditions.

=.=

I also did a dubbing test job on Tuesday: English to German. It was fun and challenging. I lip-synced the English words, and it was very OTT (over the top) acting because it’s made for kids. I probably spent too much time doing it, but I’m happy with the result. No feedback yet from the company, La La Life.

=.=

In my personal life, I caught up with Egypt and Mexico, which was nice.

Besides that I haven’t left the studio, which means I’ve been living there, just like last week. I only left my studio to do some housework and take a bath or grab some food.

These are some nice 12 square meters I have - my Voiceover Kingdom™.

=.=

A few more things before I wrap up:

1️⃣ i tried out an A.I. clone of my voice and it sounds not that bad, via Descript’s Overdub feature.

2️⃣ the word of the week: mettle - noun - MET-ul - is spot on. Mettle refers to the ability to continue in spite of difficulties. That’s all I’ve been doing in the past weeks: being donkey.

3️⃣ This Song Plants Trees relaunched, and we planted 14,000 trees. It’s been a bigger success than anyone could’ve imagined.

1.4 million streams and 14,000 trees planted. Matt has now added background ambient noise tracks you can stream while working, sleeping or relaxing.

Streaming for around 2 hours will plant 1 tree! Or, sleep 8 hours, that’s 4 trees planted. A great excuse for a lie-in!

Please check it out (a comment would also be appreciated):

Your support would really help. This project depends on visibility and publicity. We have no marketing or advertising budget.

The more people see it the more streams we get and the more trees planted. So please take 2 minutes to check out the post and Upvote on Product Hunt if you like it.

Lots of pre-Christmas-tree-hugging 🙂🎄 love to you,

Bye bye,

- Alex (you can hire me)

*actually just now before I started writing to you, we had a quick video call after a bit of texting back and forth, and it was good, actually nice. Okay, I’m not going to interpret too much into it and keep my cool.