Tumbleweeds, weight loss and more

Hello neighbors. I hope that you're doing well and that everything's going great in your lives. It's been a fantastic week for myself. And so, I really hope that it's been a fantastic week for each one of you as well. You can see, that we have a little bit different setup here for the vlog. Let me know if you like this a little bit better or if you want kind of more of a front-end view like we were doing before, any adjustments of that nature. I know I did get one mentioned from Alex. Um, I do hear you, Alex. You did say that we needed a better setup here. So, we're going to give this a shot. Let me know what you think and anybody else for that matter. But thank you all so much once again, for supporting me and for stopping by this blog, the blog, if you're reading it and the podcast, if you're listening to the audio version of this, it really does mean a lot to me, to know that there are individuals out there that want to listen to kind of like my life, my journey through voiceover and the things that I find important, which so far has mostly been video games and about not being negative so far, but we're going to continue on that trend today. So, I know last week's video was a little bit longer, um, I'm going to try to make sure that we keep things a little bit more condensed this week. All right, let's go ahead and let's jump straight into it.

As far as my week recap goes, um, it was a pretty uneventful week actually. We did a couple of auditions and got shortlisted for a few. So that's exciting, really loved to see that, but on a more important note, last year was really rough for me and voiceover, like I mentioned before, I didn't get a single gig at all. And so, it was very important to me to make sure that this year I really buckled down and figure out what I needed to change or figure out what I needed to do in order to kind of push this to the next level. So, I joined a. Hey, online community called skills hub. And what skills hub is great for is it allows you to book, uh, rate, uh, some coaching with coaches for kind of a lower rate than you would normally. So I was able to meet with two wonderful coaches. One, I did voiceover coaching. We went over the kind of like actual, you know, voiceover technique, different stuff like that. So that was very exciting, I learned that I need to really listen to myself and like when I'm doing, things end in “T”. I tend to over pronunciate that. And so, it makes it sound a lot less conversational saw. I'm trying really hard, to do that, like right there, instead of saying that I'm saying that right, then it sounds more conversational. It's the same way with like of’s, right? If you think of, I mean, I just said it right there, but they think of TV shows, right? You're not going to say of your gonna say game of Thrones, wheel of fortune. Um, uh, I can't think of any others off the top of my head, but anything with, of, um, really, you know, making it sound very, what's the, what's the word? Is it colloquial? Is that the term? I don't know if that's the term I could be using that incorrectly. I'm sure. Alex will let me know. Or anybody else in the comments will let me know for sure. Making sure I have that colloquialism making sure it sounds friendly and approachable that way. You know, people don't have to really worry about it sounding too announcery or like anything of that nature.

So, then the other coach, it was very cool. Most of the time when I have had voiceover coaching, I'll go into a session just like I did with the first person. Not that they weren't good or anything, but I'll get into the session and they'll be like, yeah, you've got a great voice to do voiceover. Your kind of early on, but you'll start seeing more and more, uh, jobs coming your way, the more you get into it. So just kind of like keep going at what you're doing, which is fine. Right. That, helps me know that I'm not like wasting my time or wasting other people's time, but it was really good to talk to this other person because they really guided me on how I can get to that next level, rather than just tell me to keep doing what I'm doing.

We kind of went through his steps, um, of how-to, you know, get in touch with some local, um, advertising agencies here in Utah and some of the surrounding states and maybe kind of get a regional presence going. Um, unfortunately, because I'm a straight white male. Agencies aren't really looking for straight white males right now, because they've been around for so long. Let's be real. Like diversity is such a big thing nowadays, and it is important, I’m not trying to say that it's not important. It is very important, but they're looking for people that are people of color and part of the LGBTQ community and I don’t identify or fall into either of those groups. So, it's going to be a little bit harder for me to get an agent and get into an agency. And so, it's very much about kind of maybe going a little bit away from like the new school way of thinking and going into the old school, like contacting people directly and really reaching out that way. So, I'm going to expand. On top of that also suggested that I take acting classes, something I actually didn't think of. I've never taken acting classes. I was throwing through a band kid in high school. Right. I played all sorts of instruments. I played my main instrument was the Euphonium. Look it up, but loved playing that. I played trombone in jazz band, played baritones in marching band, and did some tuba work, um, all sorts of stuff. So, I loved band. That's how I met my wife. Love it, but again never was a theater kid that was always on my brother, my brother was a big, big theater guy and so, I reached out to him and asked him where some good acting classes were here in Utah. And so, I've reached out to a couple of them. They've got some stuff starting, uh, later on in the year. And so, I'm looking forward to seeing if that's something that will, uh, happen for me, I'm definitely going to push for it. And maybe you'll be able to see me in, some classes acting classes. We'll be able to report about it.

But going forward, getting off of the voiceover side of things, as far as weekly life updates for me, it was crazy windy this past week. It was so windy in fact, that where I live currently, so I live, um, in Eagle Mountain, Utah is where I live and. It is still very rural. It is developing like we're getting some stores and we're getting stuff like that, but it's been rural for a long time. So a lot of farmers, a lot of ranchers, different stuff like that. And we had such tremendous winds this week that it actually blew in. Like a crap ton of tumbleweeds, right? You, you think, you think only in like Western movies and you see the tumbleweeds are on, around for aesthetic or whatever, like it was actually happening there, but this was like in droves, it wasn't just like one or two, there were like hundreds of these tumbleweeds just rolling down streets. Luckily where I live there, a lot of houses along the way, so we didn't get a ton of them. But I remember sitting in my, in my workplace for my day job. And my window. Well, all of a sudden, just filled up with all these tumbleweeds! There are these big, huge tumbleweeds everywhere. It even made, some spots on the local news of just what looked like a migration of some kind of animal, of these tumbleweeds, just rolling across these planes in these fields and like getting up into houses and like just pressing all up against the side of the houses. It was actually wild.

It was super crazy to see have had a lot of rain recently, which is great. Love to see the rain, especially in Utah, we're in a drought right now. Uh, you hate to see it. So, if you're listening and you are in Utah, make sure you're conserving water. We don't need to water our lawns yet. just remember that. Do our part to make sure that we are going to have enough water going around. Then the last thing that I want to bring upon the weekly update of Mason is I'm going to start, um, giving you kind of like a weekly update on one of my goals this year, which was to lose a little bit of weight.

I currently, um, so let me, let me back up actually, not currently. So at the beginning of the year, I weighed probably, you know, ranging between my weights tend to fluctuate pretty heavily across the week. But I was sitting at somewhere around 170 to like 178, maybe 180, definitely above where I want to be.

Um, and so my wife and I, Melissa, decided that we were going to, um, buy a VR headset right in the Oculus. And we're going to go through one of the most recommended, uh, workout apps in the Oculus, which is called supernatural. Um, I was a little skeptical at first. We had like a 14-day free trial, I think.

So we went ahead and we did it and let me. I have tried a lot of different workouts in my life and have gone to gyms. I've run on treadmills at home. I've done at-home workouts, all sorts of different stuff. I've never done something for a short amount of time. And when I say short, I mean like, you know, 15 to 30 minutes where my heart rate was getting up to where it needed to be without having to run super, super fast on the train.

Um, this workout app has done wonders. And right now I'm currently fluctuating right now between like 162 and one 60, like 6, 1 67. So we've lost some weight, um, mostly focusing on not eating as much, you know, and kind of portion control, uh, eliminating sugars and a lot of carbs and really working out and trying to work out as much as I can eat.

For at least 30 minutes burning 200 calories with it and has done wonders. I can't express enough how much it is, but I'm going to keep this as kind of like another place to stay accountable to, uh, with you guys, the viewers, the listeners, whoever you may be, the readers, um, that way I have kind of a little bit more incentive and you guys can kind of see my journey, um, in that.

So, uh, but I do want to talk a little bit about supernatural. This is not a sponsored ad, nothing like that, but let me tell you that is fantastic. They've got two, uh, they've got three types of work. They've got four types of workouts. I'm just thinking about it now, the first one's boxing, right? So they give you like some targets that fly at you.

Remember you've got a big headset on, so it's like happening right in front of you stand in your living room. You, your box, the, you box the different targets as they come. And that one, that one worked a little bit for me. It wasn't necessarily my style. They also have some yoga ones that I use every now and then, um, You know, it's yoga and stretching, uh, you know, kind of like, uh, uh, lower, lower burn, different stuff like that.

But if I really want a good cardio workout, what I normally do is what they call their flow. If you've ever seen a video game called beat saber, it's very similar, right? It's a rhythm type of game. So they use, uh, various. I'm not going to say mainstream, but, they use a lot of very popular music. So anything from rock to hard rock to rap, hip hop, um, electronic music, different stuff like that.

A lot of, uh, a lot of that kind of stuff. They have country too, but that's not really my style. And they put it to the. These workouts where you're hitting these targets, but your whole body is in motion. And you're trying to keep your abs tight at the same time. And you're doing all these high cardio high intensity workouts, and it has done wonders and it's so much fun.

Like I actually look forward to working out. It's not something that I dread or I'm like, I really don't want to do that today. So it's been fantastic. I'd recommend it to everybody. If you do want to buy an Oculus and you want to use that, um, maybe we can get something going on. I know that there are some referral codes and we can use those.

Um, so just let me know and we can, you know, if there's a big enough interest, we'll definitely get you those codes. But I think that's all on the weekly life update of Mason. So we're going to go into our second segment, um, that we talk about quite a lot, and that is video game news and in particular Overwatch news, because that's what we, so we like to look at.

One thing I will note before we get into Overwatch stuff is valor at masters is going on valor. It's another game that I love to play. It's a tactical shooter. Um, not as fun as Overwatch, in my opinion, a lot of people really think that it's better. Um, it's a lot slower, um, more methodical, but it's really a matter of preference.

NA North America does have a team representing it in the finals today. I know that they were up one map against the other finalist from Japan right now. Um, so best of luck to optic gaming. They're my boys, the guard they got, they got eliminated. Um, but you know, really got to cheer on your, your. Your NAA teams can keep, keep the, keep the hope alive.

That will win a major. Right? So, but getting into Overwatch, we have a lot, um, there, there was a lot that happened and I could honestly do a whole nother podcast just about the stuff that happened. It would be hours and hours long, but I'm going to keep it really condensed for you. Um, they announced reworks of two major heroes.

That are coming in Overwatch too. And the big news was that for like the entirety, the alpha that's been going on currently for Overwatch too, there hasn't been a whole lot of information and content creators, you know, weren't given access or at least we thought, and then all of a sudden out of the blue boom, apparently everybody's NDA, their nondisclosure agreement ended.

And when that ends, they can talk about it. As much as they want, they can share videos as much as they want. And let me. Let me tell you my YouTube feed absolutely blew up. It was crazy. There was so much information going on, people talking about the game. But the biggest thing that I have to bring up is that people were saying that it felt like Overwatch in 2018.

Again. It felt better five V five actually works and it feels good as what people are reporting and what they're saying, every position feels like you're able to have an impact. And that you're, even though teamwork is a little bit essential. As a player can have more impact with each individual role, including tank DPS and support on the outcome of the game than you can.

In the current live version of Overwatch. I played some live version of Overwatch with my friends last night. And let me tell you, there were, we went nine. Nine in one. So we did win a lot, but there were a lot of times where we had, uh, four people and it, right now it's currently six V six. And there were a lot of times where those two randoms were just doing stuff.

And we didn't really understand why, even though we were communicating with them, And it made it very difficult book and people are saying, going down to that five V five, um, and changing the way that the game is working, especially with tanks. Um, and there's not as many abilities, different things like that.

It just feels like a better game. So I'm really crossing my fingers. I'm really hoping that we can get into the beta, this coming Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed. Blizzard, if anybody from blizzard is watching, get me in the game. I will love to do it. I'd love to stream it. On Tuesday have already taken work off.

Um, so yeah, do with that as you will. But the other thing I want to bring up on the side of video games, I actually found another fun video game that I like to play, uh, in-between times when I don't really want to play Overwatch. I don't have friends on or playing anything else. Maybe Melissa streaming, different things like that.

And it's a fantastic little indie game and it's called vampire survival. Now, this will be very interesting for a lot of you that may be of an older generation kind of when video games were first coming out, you have that very, very deep, heavy pixel thing. Uh, this game is very much in that style, that original kind of Lego, eight-bit style, um, very nostalgic feeling.

The music is very nostalgic feeling definitely feels like a retro game, but it is brand new. It's $3 on steam, which is a steal in my mind, an absolute steal of a game it's fantastic. Uh, the premise of the game is that you are one of these vampire hunters. Uh, each one kind of has a different weapon and it is a horde game.

So there are hoards and hoards of these enemies coming at you. And you need to upgrade your character in this little eight-bit, uh, world from a top-down kind of perspective, uh, to eliminate them as you go. It's a fantastic game. I'll make sure to put a link, um, and maybe, uh, a Little picture here in the video as well, uh, to get you guys to that, because it is a fantastic game. I would love everybody to play and to support these small indie developers. I think they did a fantastic job with it. All right. We're getting kind of towards the end of this vlog here, I'm trying to keep them 20 minutes or under that way. It's a little bit, digestible, I know last week was a little bit longer, definitely something I'm trying to tweak and work with as we get into doing this on a more regular basis, but I'm going to get to kind of go into our last section is things to remember for this.

So the first one is pretty simple. Don't let go of your dream. Um, when I was talking with that second coach that I worked with, where we're working through, how I can kind of push my voiceover business to the next level, um, she was very clear on the fact that she does not want me to give up. And she was like, I was like, I was telling her that I was feeling, you know, very, very lost.

And I was, she said, you're doing all the right things. Don't give up. She mentioned some eighties song that I, unfortunately, can't remember. Um, But essentially it was making sure you love, right. You're showing love to somebody, but don't let go. You don't want to hold on to things happening for so long.

Right? I was, I was holding onto the idea that people had told me I was good and that I needed to go on. Pay to plays to do all these auditions, and I was holding onto that. And it was like, I'm not getting anywhere with this, but this is what, what worked in the past. Um, and I wasn't letting go. I really need to let go step out of my comfort zone, take some classes, do some improv, different things like that, to be able to do the things that I want to do.

So, uh, most importantly, don't give up on your dreams. And my second point is going to kind of lead into this, but I want to tell each and every one of you, because I think this is super important. Um, I've mentioned it before. I'm a pretty big introvert in general, I don't leave the house a whole lot unless I'm going to get groceries, or get a haircut.

Anything like that. But, the interesting thing about humanity and humans, in general, is that we need support from other humans. Like it, it's essential to our emotional and our mental wellbeing ads, just how it is. And so, because of that, I want to let each and every one of, you know, That, whatever it is that you're hoping to accomplish in life, whether it's business, personal, spiritual, um, relationships, anything, whatever it is that you're going through, keeps going.

Because I believe in you, a lot of times people may not have. Individuals close to their life that can tell them that. Or maybe they just need an extra encouragement for today, but I want to let each and every one of you know, that I believe in each and every single one of you and you can accomplish whatever you put your mind to, but I will leave you with that.

And I hope that you guys have a fantastic week and I will see you again next week, neighbors.