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Going on Sabbati-cation! (Patreon)

Published:
2020-02-21 15:01:01
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

(reading time: 3 min)

(Pre-Script: Welcome new patrons from Hacker News! The Explorables site exists for years, hasn't been updated for months, then suddenly bam half-a-million views. I don't understand how the HN frontpage works. Anyway, back to the update...)

Thank you so so so much for your feedback on my last post! It's meaningful to know I can be vulnerable with y'all, and get support back. My heart grew three sizes that day 💖

🗣Re: Voice Feedback

A surprising number of you have done voice acting, singing, and/or trans voice training? Small world.

So! I tried your advice – removing nasality + my exaggerated "femme" inflection – and here's another voice test! This one also includes my "default guymode voice", for comparison:

Feb 21 – Three More Femme Voices (2 min listen)

Again, let me know how "naturally femme" each voice sounds to you, on a scale of 0%–100%!

🏖Re: Take A Sabbatical / Vacation

After 1½ years of not doing so, as per your advice, yes–

I WILL FINALLY TAKE A SABBATI-CATION.

Specifically, during March & April. I'll leave the Patreon running for March, but pause it for April. Many of you wanted me to have a paid vacation, and I super appreciate that! 😭 But a 2 month paid vacation seemed too much – I don't want to take advantage of your generosity – so I'll pause my Patreon for 1 month.

(Don't worry, I'm in a good enough financial situation to afford this, thanks to you!)

In the spirit of transparency, here's what I'll do on sabbati-cation:

  • Travel & one conference.
    Visit friends in the US, check out other Canadian cities (I might move in the summer), and go to an "un-conference" for folks who make internet edu-stuff. (Might get ideas for collaborations?)
  • Spend time with friends! [++ Social needs]
    Since I might move in the summer, part of me wants to not get too attached to local friends, so it hurts less. Then I realized that's a horrible idea, and I should (and wantto) strengthen those relationships so they survive the move.
  • Learn & explore stuff off-screen. [++ Growth needs]
    I can't promise anything specific – it's exploration! – but I want to try making zines & comics, keep deliberately practicing my voice & drawing, and learn how to sew cosplay/plushies. And get around to doing the exercises in Salt Fat Acid Heat. (Any other how-to books you recommend, in any topic?)

・・・・・

Thank you again for your understanding, advice, and kind words! I hope this sabbati-cation will help me better fulfil my growth & social needs – as opposed to my default "code alone every day" routine – and when I'm back, I'll be fully charged with a brand new femme-voice! ⚡️

(I'll write one or two Patreon posts during my sabbati-cation, to let you know what's up)

Let me know:

  1. What you think about the 3 voices, 
  2. Any how-to books you recommend? (in any topic)

See you in May!

💖,
~ Nicky

Files

Previews only

Comments

Vivien Bakke

Enjoy your well-deserved sabbati-cation! ❤

RPGgrenade

First off. Have fun: As for the voices: thank you for the initial comparison, that REALLY helped. 1st: Personally this one was pretty good, it felt natural and I sensed little to no effort to maintain it. 95%. There's still a little bit to be done with the occasional bits of tightness that seem to seep through. It doesn't sound particularly feminine yet, but it does sound androgynous. 2nd: Also very good and natural, with only a little bit more tightness than the previous one. It still maintains your default tones while keeping a good pitch. I think, however, I sense the tightness because you're less breathy here. 90%. Much closer to a feminine pitch. 3rd: This one has the most problems in my opinion, the nasal comes back in slightly and the tightness is real to see (absolutely no breathiness that's often found in your default) which sounds like you're wearing a somewhat tight choker. The pitch is closer to an average female pitch, but I still sense that tightness which will need to be worked on a bit. 70% Overall quite the improvement. See if you can keep the tightness from affecting your breathiness, or towards keeping your throat open despite the pitch shift. Partial yawning (the thing I use to pop my ears without using my hands) seems to help in opening up the trachea despite higher pitches (if you pay attention to singers when belting high notes, you'll often see that as the back of their tongues creates a U shape giving full access to their throats, it's a similar principle). Keep up the good work! I don't really have many recommendations for how-to books, except maybe things like "The Like Switch" for certain things relating to how to be more approachable because of the way social cues work. Most books I read are of the informative non-fiction variety, books by Steven Pinker, Daniel Dennett, among many others.

Aeryn Light

I've actually sewn a plushie before! http://www.aerobushentertainment.com/index.php?cat=photos&id=1 The process was very simple: 1. Create/choose a picture you want to use for the main shape 2. Print it as large as possible, and use it as a reference when drawing a bigger version on a piece of large cardstock (you could probably use an overhead light and cut a hole around the printed picture to make a more accurate silhouette on the cardstock, but I did it freehand) 3. Use tailor's chalk to trace the cardstock on the backside of the two pieces of fabric you will be using, leaving about an inch or two extra room for where the seam will be, then cut with sewing scissors 4. Make any sewed-on accessories, such as eyes, before sewing the two big halves together, and sew the smaller accessories on first (I did it the hard way, haha) 5. Sew most of the two big halves together, and stuff 6. Sew up the final seam, and hug your new plushie! Also, your natural voice actually sounds very androgynous! The only times it dipped into masculine were when you did low intonations at the end of a few words. It might be helpful to start with finding a good "resting point" for your voice to fall to when doing low intonations that's a bit higher than masc before working on the rest of pitch, because there are a lot of cis women that naturally have lower voices. Femme voices are more about the timbre than the frequency.

Michael Huff

Yaaaaaay! Sabatications are the best. Enjoy! Re voices: the first two felt somewhere in 40% to 50% range. The 3rd one fell somewhere in the 70% range. I noticed for my ear that the overall pitch really mattered to what my brain perceived as "natural sounding".

Seanny123

I really like the book "The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy" by Marianna Mazzucato, because it gives a really nice introduction to the historical precedent to economics. In that way, in kind of reminded me of Bret Viktor's approach to computing, where the emphasis on historical context enlightens current practices.

yves.

Your natural voice in the beginning... I thought that was going to be Femme Voice #1 ;___;! It's so cute and breathy. It's really not particularly low at all; listening to it longer I might consider it androgynous but I like it the most for sure. Otherwise I think the lower pitches are better in general? Hm... maybe I'm just looking for it; it sounds like you're reaching for high pitches rather than naturally being there. In terms of how-to books, I'm as curious as you! I don't think I've read any really interesting ones myself. Finally: good luck on your sabbatication!!!! I'm so glad to see you taking care of yourself. That's much more important than any content. ^__^

Brendan Nelligan

You are awesome Nicky, have a great vacation!! I really enjoy reading your regular email updates because they are so honest and wholesome.

Emelin Ringuette

Woohoo, I'm glad you decided to take a break and keep the Patreon running <3 Your "normal" voice is pretty androgynous already, and I liked femme voice #1 the best. It sounded the most natural of the three to me. The second was still kind of nasal and tight, and three was right out.

Chris K

Nice. Please make good memories. Book? My favorite hard science fiction is Anathem by Neal Stephenson. It starts with a junior science-monk in a garden and then takes him for a ride! Not sure if that helps tho :3

Brittany B.

Yay, great news!! Have an awesome vacation! :)

ncase
>>32747367

Thank you again so so much for the specific & detailed feedback! > if you pay attention to singers when belting high notes, you'll often see that as the back of their tongues creates a U shape giving full access to their throats, it's a similar principle I have never noticed that before, but now that I'm looking at videos of it, it's pretty clear! I can even see the U shape in Z's "feminizing the back of the throat" video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcetsAEBSrc Thank you for helping me finally notice this, I'll give it a shot :)

ncase
>>32757506

Thank you for the feedback, Aimee! (And, again, thanks for your support over all these years 😭)

ncase
>>32750129

Thanks for the feedback Michael! I will enjoy my vacaticcal. :) (P.S: Thanks again so so much for your support after all this time 😭)

ncase
>>32747862

Ooh, plushies! ^_^ > It might be helpful to start with finding a good "resting point" for your voice Good point! I heard somewhere (Zheanna's videos, I think?) that it's not how high your voice goes, but how low it DOESN'T go that matters most to voice perception

dobysimson

Thank you Nicky for being such an inspiration! Do you mind sharing which conference? Have a great vacation!

Scott Price

Oh, goodness, I'm so happy for you! I am going through a very similar process, and two weeks ago came to the same conclusion: a sabbatication. Hearing about your experience and your reasoning has strengthened my resolve. Like Dobysimson, I'm curious about the conference if you're willing to share - I'm also in edu/ent/digital/offline. For my sabbatication, I'm getting myself offline by taking a month to live out in rural NYS with some friends, helping at their brewery and country school. I'm also going to 1-2 conferences. And I'm going to do some offline game design along with restarting The Artists' Way. I asked friends who've taken formal sabbaticals, and they all agreed on some advice: • get out of your usual space for a significant time (for me, that means NYC). • schedule your trips & time early on to make them happen (seems like you're already on that) • that coworking idea you mentioned is brilliant, for the reasons you mentioned. (I'm actually doing it now!) • plan to make a thing or things (you're already on top of that) ... again, hearing your similar experience was really powerful for me, Nicky. I hope your sabbatical goes well and thank you for sharing your journey, as always!

Ento

Hope you have a wonderful Vacation, Nicky. You deserve it. Pausing the Patreon for half of it seems like a good compromise too. As far as voices, Femme voice 1 sounded the most natural to me, I'd call it ~80%? Close to your already Androgynous voice, but with a clear and mostly natural feminine touch that didn't sound like you were straining. I'd recommend training this voice to sound more natural Femme Voice 3 I'd call 50% because the pitch seemed off, and that threw everything out of wack, so if you end up on this one, I'd practice make the pitch more consistent and less grating, as it did sound feminine otherwise. I seem to be the odd out out, but Femme Voice 2 was a 0% for me, I think it was because it was in-between two far better voices and had the strengths of neither. Don't really have any How-to books to recommend, sadly, but if I do have a personal recommendation, it's to get through your steam backlog. (We know you have one; Everyone does) Just take a lazy day or two out of the two months with not a lot planned, and at least start a couple games you've been meaning to start, and it'll be a lot easier to find time to finish them, even after the Vacation. Currently doing that with Bug Fables and Road Redemption.

ncase
>>32791909

Thank you! Sadly I can't share the conference *just* yet – it's in semi-public venues, and last time they had a few security incidents. Nothing dangerous, more like... a few Extremely Famous™ YouTubers whose fans busted in & asked them to autograph their bodies We are allowed to share going-ons *after* the con, tho!

ncase
>>32859617

Thank you for the sabbati-cation tips! In March I will be mostly around my usual town, but I do plan to get out of my usual space a lot more approaching April Re: the conference –– Sadly I can't share the conference *just* yet. It's in semi-public venues, and last time they had a few security incidents. Nothing dangerous, more like... a few Extremely Famous™ YouTubers whose fans busted in & asked them to autograph their bodies. (We are allowed to share going-ons *after* the con, tho!) Good luck on your sabbatication, too! 🎉

ncase
>>33021301

Thank you for the voice feedback! That's good to know that Voice 2 hit that worst-of-both-worlds uncanny valley. And *oh yes*, I do have a Steam Backlog