da tomāto

5 audio minutes done in 50 minutes {clear audio, unedited}. that may be my standard speed to date. i rarely transcribe now; more important things on my plate. but when i heard this, i grabbed it. the recording was clean, clear and nearly {not quite} perfect. it took only an hour of my time {editing included}. why is it when you're busy, you inadvertently do something else? oh you don't? right.

Looked over my posts about transcribing and saw that I was all over the place when I talked about setting my preferences for express scribe hotkeys (function keys). Thought that I'd break them down clearly now 'cause the current settings work best for me, so far. My current Express Scribe (free from NCH Software ) is v 4.23. To customize the function keys, go to settings-->pedal and hot keys. My most-used (or more appropriately, only-used) keys are: F4 Stop F5 Copy Time (Made adding timestamps a non-issue - just press F5 and then, Ctrl-V [paste on MS Word] without leaving the document window. Easy, breezy.) F6 Step Back 5s (five seconds, my most-used hotkey) F9 Play Functions of express scribe hotkeys F4 and F9 are, I think, default. I changed what F5 and F6 do, and I mentioned why here and here . There are no set functions for F7 and F8 (or maybe I intentionally removed them) so pressing either will just stop the playback. All these are on the top-center of the keyboar

It's been a little over a year now since I added "freelance transcriber" to the list of my "work from home" jobs. I did say here that I aim to type 60 WPM (words/minute) soon. So, I went back to TypingTest just to see if I've improved. And YES, I have and I'm happy to say that I've reached my goal -- 60 WPM. I am transcribing faster -- Hooray! Though my transcription work has been sporadic, I do not have any complaints. If I were to describe it now, it'd be that - once in a while my affiliate will contact me if they have any extra audio that they need to be done. For some reason, I could not have asked for a better set-up because this is exactly what I would have preferred. It's all working out well, thank goodness. Also, this is sort of a first-year anniversary post for "Dada's Blog". I am tempted to reflect on how the past year has been but I am not going to go there. LOL I am tempted but I wouldn't give in because it'

I bought a better headset last month from a friend because our old A4Tech one was LOUSY (to say the least!). The old one costs a little over 300 pesos which goes to show how much I got out of it which wasn't a lot! After a few months, the fit gave way and I was already pressing the earphones to my ears just so I would hear better with it. That made some of my transcription work harder than they should be, for sure. It would also slide off my head when I would accidentally tug its cable. It was stressing me out so when my friend asked if I wanted to buy a used, good-quality headset... it was kismet! I immediately decided that I was going to go for the offer even if I haven't seen it yet... Well, not totally because I wanted to make sure that the fit was perfect and everything worked well, of course. When my friend brought it over so I can test it out, I did everything to see if it was all right. So, the fit was good. It was a bit tight at first but now, it feels better on my ear

Ate dinner in my room because I wanted to work at the same time. Opted for a sandwich too since I did not want to clear the desk. This ham, cheese, lettuce (with a thin layer of mayo... haha!) sandwich was very good. I would have preferred whole-wheat bread in stead of this "just" wheat bread. Yeah... and I don't have anything else to talk about! HAHA! Well, I guess I can talk about an interesting transcription that I did today. Well, it was a 30-second audio that I had to submit in 10 minutes -- pretty easy, eh? Yup, that's what I thought too until I played it. Talk about a speed-talker! The lady packed in a ton of words within 30 seconds... wow! Well, that's it. I submitted it in the nick of time too. Honestly, I could have done that sooner but there was this one word that I just couldn't figure out and given the main message - I'm just going to say that word choices were more than a few. Hey, I just talked about transcribing -- haven't done that in

If you're looking to know more about my transcribing/transcription affiliate, this will be interesting... I emailed them this week about, you know... Anyway, when I mentioned that people have been asking about them (via this blog, of course) they said that I can mention that they're looking for part time transcribers - but only those with experience . So, those who are interested can check them out at abctranscriptions [*see update below]. So, that's about it... later! * 8th Feb 2011 Update - Sadly, I haven't seen any activity from them in over a year. I also checked their website and it's no longer active.

Not having much typing to do during this hiatus, I figure that I should keep my fingers "keyboard-ready" for when I go back home and start doing general transcription again (just hope that the job's still there!). I've been playing typer shark online to do just that. I must admit, it's okay and keeps me from getting bored too. Still far off from that 60 WPM goal of mine, playing typing games online can sure keep these fingers warm and toned! lol! "Toned fingers"... that's funny! lol! I wonder what other typing games there are online... Now, I keep away from the typing tutorials because they can be pretty boring. So keyboard games are always a good alternative, yeah. Hope I get a digicam soon so I can write more interesting posts...! When that happens, I'm going to have to think about writing about transcribing with pictures than just talking about food. lol!

My vacation has officially started today. And here's something to kick it off - Red velvet... yum. My cousins actually bought the cake for my mom's birthday. I just snuck in a piece. lol! Is it a "hiatus" when you stop doing something for a long time? It is, right? OK, I'll be on hiatus (that sounds strange! lol!). My transcription affiliate sent me audios today. It was weird reminding them of my plans again like that. But everything's fine now - they said sorry. I said sorry too - I was sorry that I couldn't do it and that they had to redo the list (it was a long list too). I hope my transcription skills don't get rusty... Well, I'll just have to make sure that they don't now, do I? Yup! Oh, I'll be looking for a foot pedal as well. Well, I'll borrow one first and see how that goes and then I'll get one. OK, I'm getting a cold now - how's that for starting a hiatus??? Hiatus... sounds strange after a while.

Transcription In the spirit of being a reliable WAH worker [grins], I've finished and submitted my last transcript ("last" meaning, before going on vacation) a few hours ago - again, before the deadline. [grins more] I am so relieved... That's one down and two to go -- Oh, not quite pala! I guess I'm still waiting for a re-affirmation of what we've talked about a while ago (like four weeks ago) about still having a spot on the transcription team when I get back. Well, she's on holiday right now so I guess that's why there's no feedback on the recent email that I sent. It was a simple schedule notice... sort of a "just in case you've forgotten" thing. I hope she didn't forget - I hope, I hope. Bookkeeping I've said that I wanted to finish my friend's first quarter books before I go. But from the look of things, it's not likely to happen. I'm just getting as many things done in that department as possible. I needn

Now, why in the world would I post pictures of my hand? It just so happens that I noticed something unusual tonight... I've got callous thumbs! Well, both thumbs have callouses on the joints. I reserved the right to zoom in on the thing since it looks nasty when you don't know that it's a thumb... yeah, yeah. lol! So, are they from bending too much while I transcribe? Oh well, that's a worker's hand right there. But to be honest, I feel that my right hand's pinky is the finger that's being working its butt off (not that it has a bum...) when timestamps should be in the transcript. See, it's got the Enter key, backspace, arrows, etc. to span out for. Oh, I've noticed something really cool... I found out how to type in the pipe symbol "|". It's by pressing shift-backslash. That's the key below Enter and after Shift for qwerty boards. Cool. OK, enough with the segue... back to transcription.

I had a merienda/dinner meeting last night and we had roast chicken (lechon manok) for dinner (merienda was spaghetti and toasted whole-grain bread slices, yum!). Turns out, they also bought like 2 kilos of lechon manok here at home. Obviously, there's a lot of leftovers. Looks like this is going to be a chicken week... cluck! cluck! I have a couple of presumptions why my friend still hasn't dropped off the accounting docs luggage here yet. One, that she's trying out to see if she can do the tax report herself and have me look at it later to make sure it's right. Or two, that they're still sorting it out - ergo - I'm going to have to cram again this weekend since it's due next week. The latter is probable while the former's just possible. Hmmm... Anyway, my gracious transcription affiliate declared a busy quarter starting this month. So true. Too bad that I couldn't cash in on any work that'd be given out next month (and very likely, two m

Earlier this week, there were a couple of afternoon and morning drizzles. The news reported that there was a storm in the area. Nada, nil, zip... zero storm. But it was cool for a while then... but it was brief. I only wished that it would rain. I don't want a storm, of course, for the simple reason that the power might go out. And you know how that could affect my online WAHJ's -- very badly. But now, we're back to warm and humid weather again. And my hair clamp broke too so my long hair's covering the back of my neck now and the heat's giving me a headache. And I don't have anything to tie my hair back too... Oh, the misery. Right, I'd better stop complaining about that. lol! Yesterday - yes, I was able to submit my transcript in time (two minutes before the deadline!) - as I was going over my work, I discovered funny typos that would've been really embarrassing had I not corrected them before the editors got to them. Now, I forget... OK, I'm going

It's 2:34 am as of now. I can't believe how tired I was when I woke up... yesterday. I went to bed around 3:00 am - and I'm doing the same thing now, lol! - and I got up around noon. I sat down to eat and as I was blinking, I was starting to doze off. Yikes! My lids were heavy - I guess that's how most of us would describe it. And later, I got to get up early (earlier than noon, anyway) to edit a transcript. Yup, I got assigned to transcribe a 90-minute audio in two days -- and I accepted! Right now, I'm wished that I typed 70 WPM. See, I've read somewhere that if a transcriber typed 70 WPM, they'd get an hour-long audio done in... four hours!!! WHATDAFUDGE?!? I assume that it also meant that the person's got ten years of experience and all the amazing gadgets that definitely help speed up their work. But that was an interesting read... the publisher's got that down to a maths thing with formulas and all that. Oh well, in fairness to me, I've com

All right, so they didn't forget me after all. My transcription client just sent me new audios earlier. [sigh] Anyway, after I submitted the first finished transcript a few hours ago, I realized that I forgot to justify the page format. Nyee... So, I guess I was a little rusty with my editing there (careless is more like it). Anyway, there were no complaints. Meaning, they didn't return it to be changed. lol! Here's to another late night! Truth is it's better to work nights because it's much cooler and there's less distractions. During the day, it'd be so hot that you'd want to stay in the bath much longer than normal. And my kind of normal is already longer than what most people would consider normal too. I couldn't hog the bathroom all day, of course. lol! But the heat is still bad and I'm starting to feel sticky (because of the humidity) again. I said that I was going to turn the a/c on but... oh well. I guess the lamp's also giving off he

I went on holiday for four days and I'm already on the back burner? That is, of the transcription team, already! Let me just go back and feel dispensable again here... Oh well, I guess that's more writing time for me then. Truth be told, I get paid more for less time that's put in when I write articles. It's true. I noticed that I haven't been so toxic in content writing than I was in transcribing. That's a thought. Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to give up on my client just yet -- they have paid me for the work that I've done and I'm not about to discount that fact. And I do enjoy transcribing for them. This is just new - being on the back burner and all. What's good about this is that I've managed to go over my target number of submitted articles today. When it seemed that I couldn't write anything more about this one topic, I get inspired and I've been writing with gusto. Now, wouldn't it be great if this actually happe

Yup! Transcription does pay. I guess this is already answered. Yay! Today, my first transcription bill was paid and deposited to my account. I should've sent my bill sooner but I had to open an account with their bank first. I'm glad that this is working out well. I had fried chicken for lunch today. I eat my fried chix with soy sauce and vinegar (toyo at suka) in stead of gravy or ketchup. It just tastes good that way. Speaking of dipping sauces, I've never heard - much less, seen - anyone eat sausages (longanisa) with shrimp paste (bagoong) before. That is, until a few days ago. That was so weird to see! Anyway, I should've taken a bite of that weird combination in stead of talking about how weird it was. (I'm going to stop with the 'weird' now.) I just might be surprised that I'd like it -- or not! lol! OK, next time we have longanisa, I WILL eat it with bagoong just to shut myself up about how weird (aaarrgghh!) it is. lol! Hmm... this is getting me

Alas! I couldn't climb my Mt. Everest podcast. I tried... I did try, so hard but I know my limits. If I didn't let go, I'd be so toxic in trying to work that out. I could see it already, a transcript full of 'inaudible' in brackets -- if I did go with it. So sad. Anyway, they were quick to give it to someone else. Wow, I feel so... dispensable. C'mon! I'm supposed to be a beginner remember?!? Hardly four hours of transcribed audio under my belt and they give me a difficult audio? Wow, they sorely overestimated my ability. lol! Of course, being the good, reliable WAH worker that I am, I asked to be replaced after spending two hours tonight trying to transcribe it. I've gotten as far as two minutes with a number (try 'a myriad'!) of 'inaudibles' until I called it quits. Truth be told, some people would've waited until the last minute to concede defeat or worse, hand over an unfinished transcript! And if I haven't emphasized it to be

While I was proofreading the transcript (the one that I was talking about in my previous post), I was asked if I was willing to take on a new podcast that's due on Tuesday. I asked how long it was and they said it was 20 minutes long. "Sure," I said "that's great." They said that they were going to send the email asap. Okeydokey. So, I got the transcript done and I submitted it WAY before the deadline. Yay! That's when I saw the new email assignment. I thought, "Wow, there's less people working on this batch." I started to download this new podcast that I thought was going to be fairly easy since I've had really clear audio to work with so far. That is, until this one! OMG! Yeah, it was just 20 minutes but speakers (there's more than three of them too!) with Scottish accents?!? WOW! This is my Mt. Everest, to date. Plus, it's not that clear either because it sounds like it's from inside an auditorium. Oh well... I got to do

I'm eyeing the home stretch for the podcast transcript that I have to turn in tomorrow. I'm at 00:58:49 into the 60 minute audio. I intend to finish the transcript tonight so tomorrow, all I have to do is proofread and edit it. Sigh. This is so satisfying. What's more, I can send my transcription bill after I submit this project. Call it counting eggs (before they're hatched and all that) but I'm very excited to see my first transcription pay. I really am. My bookkeeping work's piling up though. A lot of the documents are laying on my desk waiting to be organized and recorded. But I'm not too worried about that. I've been doing that for almost five years now and I know exactly where everything goes and what I need to do. Also, I've already sent in their annual financial statements (annual income taxes are due next month, you know) so that's settled. As for my content-writing, that is not looking too good either. I've only managed to submit on

I'm going to talk about the weather, all right? And more on Express Scribe (I'll call that 'ES') too. I didn't think it was possible but my glasses are fogging up from the humidity. I've decided to keep the a/c off since I figured it'd be worst if it was cold in here and when I'd step outside, it'd be too hot. That's how most people get sick in the Philippines -- they'd be working in a centralized air conditioned office or space then they'd go outside, the heat would hit them hard. They'd catch something inside (from a coughing or sneezing colleague) and then they'd feel worse from the heat outside. It's not like I'm going to catch a virus from anyone since I work alone. But I can't afford to get sick, just like everyone else. Sick 'of' the heat is more appropriate, I guess. I've mentioned before that I changed my f6 hotkey control on ES. It did help me transcribe a little faster. But after that, the f5 bug