Purgatory
Most of the time, I’m very happy with my transcription job. I get flexible hours, it’s close to home (sometimes I even get to work from home), and although I wish I was getting paid more, I’m not starving to death on my salary. There are the occasional inaudible meetings that get me frustrated, but then again, there are all sorts of interesting things I learn about when I’m transcribing meetings with doctors who are trying to cure cancer, meetings with bankers trying to make more money, interviews with crack and heroine addicts on the streets, and auto insurance claims. And between the oncologists and the crackheads, I have added a plethora of new words to my vocabulary.
But sometimes there are some seriously tedious jobs, and I happen to be taking a quick break from one of them right now. Sometimes we get medical or technical writers who have to interview an expert (doctor, computer guy, whatever) in order to write a white paper or a research grant, and they have to ask some pretty stupid questions if they want the whole story. I have a new respect for interviewers now, because it’s a tough job, and if you’re bad at making somebody open up, you’re screwed. This guy I’m doing right now is actually a pretty good interviewer, but the subject matter (which is confidential, of course), is about the most BORING thing ever. I’m literally falling asleep while typing. Do you know how embarrassing it is to wake up to find that you’ve misspelled almost an entire paragraph?
It doesn’t help that the sound quality is poor and they’ve got the window open, so I can hear the traffic and the wind and the occasional siren better than I can hear the interviewee. But I’m thinking that even if the sound quality were better, I still would fall asleep. It’s obvious he’s interested in this topic, but I can’t see why. Typing this job reminds me of the reason why I was never any good in chemistry in high school: it was right after lunch, the teacher had a very slow, quiet voice, and he’d always turn the lights off and show us slides.
The sad thing is, I think there are three more hours left to transcribe…wake me up when I’m done.
Filed under Blogging, Grammar, Transcription | Comment (0)Small Rant
Most of you probably know that when I’m not blogging or singing, I pay the bills by being a transcriptionist. That means that I type out transcriptions of audio recordings of meetings, or I transcribe one-on-one interviews or teleconferences.
Today, I feel like ranting about said interviews. I think there are very few people who understand how important it is to make a good audio recording of meetings one wants transcribed, and of those few people, only a very small percentage are actually in charge of setting up the audio equipment at those meetings.
I went to one of those meetings last week, as a participant. When I walked in the room, I saw the two microphones taped down to the middle of the table and knew EXACTLY what the recording would sound like: the folks close to the microphones would be heard very well (including their side conversations) and the people farthest away would sound like they were across the street.
Upon introducing ourselves, I was dismayed to see that the people with the hard-to-understand accents were sitting farthest from the microphones (go figure), and I had to say something. So I did, and I mentioned that I was a transcriptionist, so I had experience in these things. Did they listen to me? Did they move closer to the microphone or speak more clearly? Of course not.
Not that it’s really the fault of the people with accents. I’m usually pretty good at figuring out what someone with a thick accent is saying if I can hear them clearly. It’s really the fault of the person in charge of the sound equipment, who I’m sure is just a secretary who isn’t a sound engineer (and why should he/she be?) but was told to record the meeting.
So I’ve decided to educate the public. This weekend, while I was updating my web site (go check it out! I’m really proud of it), I put together a tip sheet for those poor clueless secretaries. No offense…I’ve been a clueless secretary, and I’ve learned a lot from just searching Google for tip sheets like these.
Now, I’m not a sound engineer either, but I’ve learned from listening to many, many recordings that in order to make a good recording YOU’VE GOT TO USE THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT IN THE PROPER MANNER. Too many times have I torn my hair out trying to understand a conversation recorded on a microcassette dictation device that was put on the table next to a speakerphone where the main portion of the meeting or interview was with the guy on the other end of the line who was on a cell phone. I have grown too many white hairs yelling in frustration at the idiot in the breakout meeting who forgot to turn his microphone off and proceeds to tell dirty jokes to the guy next to him while the next speaker, who forgot to turn his microphone on, tries to give a presentation.
Now I know most of you reading this aren’t really ever in charge of recording a meeting or an interview for transcription, but if you ever find yourselves in that position, remember my words, heed them, and do a Google search for my tips.
Okay, I’m done. Thanks for letting me rant for a bit. I needed that.
Filed under Cranky, Transcription | Comment (0)Pretty Things
So this morning I was waiting for a FedEx package that was supposed to arrive by 10. Apparently, the FedEx guy showed up at 10:51, but didn’t bother to ring the doorbell (he’s done that before, so I wasn’t surprised, just annoyed). However, I really needed to have that package so I could do some work today.
That was fine, I thought. I’ll just do some sewing…I’m making a duvet cover for a friend, and he’s giving me a few bucks for it, so the day won’t be completely lost, right?
Wrong.
My sewing machine has been on the fritz for the last month or so. Yesterday, I took it into the repair shop and the guy opened up the bottom, sprayed some WD-40 into it, and said, “That should make it better.” I took it home and it seized up again. Ray and I took it mostly apart and found a little plastic gear at the back of the bobbin that was causing the whole problem. I took the machine back today, and the repair guy started futzing with it and said he’d have to take it and look at it, but it wouldn’t be ready for a few days.
Great. So now, although I’ve got plenty of housework and chores and other stuff to do, but no income. I’m needing the income right about now. And my church still hasn’t sent me a check for the solo I sang back in July. To be fair, none of the soloists have gotten checks for their summer stuff, but that still doesn’t make it right.
Anyway, when everything in the world was going wrong and pissed me off, I looked out my window and saw the most amazing thing: one of my waterlilies was blooming. They only bloom during the day and close back up at night. So I raced out with my little camera phone and took some really nice pictures. Here’s one. Isn’t it pretty? Somehow, simple, pretty things make everything all right again.