More About Daniel

I know I've mentioned Daniel The Voice before. He's J's computer voice that reads us stories J wants to hear or things she types --her books and all.

I never thought too much about it--he just sounds better than the other ones she sometimes uses. There's Glen who's on there before she pushes the buttons that wake Daniel up. Glen's okay. He sounds a little like Daniel only slow-witted and kind of fake. Like a machine voice.

Daniel doesn't sound like a machine. That's really all I ever cared about. He doesn't offend my sensitive doggy ears. He wins my favorite voice contest.

Yesterday, J asked the kid to listen to some instructions she was typing, to see if they were easy enough to follow.

The kid cracked up. I thought J was going to get all offended. Finally, the kid told her that Daniel sounded like a smooth-talker--like someone who might try to romance her or something and convince her of things.

I've got to say, I don't hear it. I mean, it's just Daniel. Sure, he sounds educated, but he's just a voice.

Well, it gets better.

J had to fix up these directions for the guy she's teaching and Bob, the OT guy, thought a digital voice recorder was the way to go. So J kept trying to record the directions and play them back to see if she could follow them. The thing was, she couldn't stand her own voice.

I can't believe I sound that whiny, she whined. Since she doesn't speak dog, I just stared at her, thinking she should let Daniel do it. It's not like he didn't have to read it first so she could hear it, right?

I know she can't see, but I figured if I stared long enough and hard enough, the idea would sink in. And guess what? It did.

So, she recorded Daniel while he read the instructions to her. She had to go back and put in commas and changed spellings so he'd say exactly what she wanted in exactly the right way. See, Daniel is kind of literal. It's his job.

Anyhow, she took the recorder to work and played it for the guy. He's a lot like me. Daniel spoke clearly and said what he needed to say, so everything was fine. We ended up taking it home, because...I don't know. We just did.

So, in the course of other work she was doing, she let some ladies hear the instructions, spoken by Daniel.

Yep. They liked it. They went on and on about how sexy he sounded.

Smooth. Elegant. Refined...

A voice. He's just a voice.

Whatever.

He entertains me. He doesn't eat my food.

I can live with it.

Cosmo