I've traveled and worked many times

To try to answer your questions.. Whether your foot pedal will work in your laptop depends on the laptop that you buy. When you're looking to buy one, try to find one with the correct kind of port for your pedal.  The one I recently bought doesn't have a serial port, so I bought an adapter at Circuit City that plugs into my USB port, and then I can plug my ergo keyboard and mouse into that.  In any case, your laptop will definitely come with at least a couple USB ports, so you could always buy a USB pedal to use with it if you have to.   As far as the headphones, every laptop I've ever used has had a place to plug in a pair of headphones so that should be no problem. The thing is...if you're going to buy a laptop specifically for this, then look at the ports on the laptops and make sure it has what you need.  I would say if you don't mind buying a USB foot pedal, though, you're not going to have problems because every new laptop will have USB ports, and I'm sure a place for your headphones.

If you're staying in hotels, try to stay in places that have free high speed internet which so many of them have now.  You can plug right into that and work.  If not, I know Verizon has a wireless broadband service now for around $60 a month you could check into.

I hope this helps some.

• I hope I dont sound naive, can you tell me how you travel with a laptop and transcribe? I have neve - Kat
  • YOU CAN EVEN CRUISE/TAKE ROAD TRIP - JanieJane
  • I've traveled and worked many times - wimt
  • Tried to e-mail and said addy was not valid. - me
    • wonder why my email didnt work?? - Kat
    • Thanks for the help! - Kat
      • laptops are no different than desktops. - me
        • Backup data? - Polish girl
  • Try a search as this has been discussed here before.. - nm

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Up until my present job I have never worked on a company computer, so that was not an issue.

Be prepared (as one divorced single mom to another) there is almost no such thing as "extras" when you are a single parent.  Dad's usually fight tooth and nail to keep the kids from getting enough child support.  If you live in a state that counts your income (some like California and Colorado do) then the more you work, the less child support you will receive.  Besides which, if he carries them on his insurance that will also diminish the amount of child support you receive.

I didn't get support after about the first 9 months I was divorced and that was 13 yrs ago now.  It was pure and utter hades financially.  I am only just now getting on my feet and the children have been grown and gone for nearly 4 yrs.  I worked 2 jobs most of last year to pay my income tax AND be able to afford to eat and have a place to live.  I am an employee now, have full benefits for the first time since I divorced and according to the IRS calculator, I have satisfied my tax debt for 2008 at this point, provided I don't make more than $40K this year.  Since I don't have to break my back for the kids, I will work and begin to start having a life outside of my job. 

Also, if you are an IC and your ex gets to put the kids' deductions on his income tax and you don't, you are going to really hurt at the end of the year, unless you are eligible for earned income credit.

I would seriously wait and discuss this with both your divorce attorney and your tax accountant.  I should have talked to my tax accountant when the kids starting leaving and I didn't.  I have finally paid off being totally screwed by my taxes.  Tread carefully and remember that the "extra" your kids really want is going to be time with you, away from your desk, doing things with them and helping them make this adjustment.

My hubby used to travel around the country a lot for his employer and we used to stay in places from anywhere from a few weeks to as long as a year.  We used to just make sure that we stayed at one of the business-friendly hotels, i.e. the ones with high speed internet and a separate work area.  If it's going to be long term, try to get one of the suites if you can, because you'll be surprised at how quickly cabin fever can start to creep in when you're working out of a hotel room.

As far as the C-phone, other than being a pain to lug around with you, just plug it into the hotel's line, but do NOT call out directly.  Most hotels will charge their guests an arm and a leg to make anything but local phone calls.

What I did was to get an account set up with onesuite dot com (very reasonable low cost prepaid minutes), and I would use that to call out with.  Just make sure that your hotel doesn't charge for making 800 number calls, because an 800 number is what onesuite uses.

Many hotels do not charge for outgoing calls to 800 numbers, but be aware that some of them do.  In which case, neither onesuite dot com or a prepaid calling card will work.

All in all, the only real inconvenience of it all was having to dial all of the numbers, PIN numbers, etc., that were associated with using onesuite or a calling card each time I called out to connect up.

If you have any other questions, you can email me if you'd like.

I know after 3 days if the job will not work out.  Let's face it hon...we need to make MONEY and if I see the platform is ridiculous, NOT MT friendly and is a waste of my time, poor training, training done by someone who is NOT a MT and has NEVER worked as a MT....HUGE RED FLAG!!!...That means that the company probably just wants "fingers" to type and type and type.....One company who is always hiring on the boards....I gave it a while, and today I was offered a nice position with someone I used to work for!!!!! it is awesome!!! and I quit that other hot mess today.  Good luck!!! Don't feel bad if you quit...hey, we gots to make a living here. with the economy and everything being so bad...you have to look out for number 1 and your family.

Do you think anyone would ever be on their death bed, surrounded by loved ones and say, "I wish I had spent more time working."  Doubt it.  My kids are grown now, and the good memories for them are the ones I didn't think were so great.  Like the time we lived in an apartment building in the Northeast, had all our Christmas decorations in the storage room in the basement, and someone stole them.  We made all our own that year with aluminum foil covered cardboard and strung popcorn.  Not even any lights, couldn't afford them.  They to this day call that tree their Charlie Brown tree.  That's just one of many "little memories" that may not seem like much when they are happening, but it's the things they remember.   

always went back to it. The longest I've quit was 3 weeks. My mom died from COPD and she had smoked from age 16. She really enjoyed smoking and although we kept trying, couldn't get her to quit until she was on 24 hour oxygen.  She told me if she couldn't enjoy anything in life (smoking), why live. She died 3 months later.

I started smoking at 13...you know, the "try it, you'll like it" phase. We both tried to quit when I was 19 but we only lasted a day. There was only cold turkey then.

I've tried the patch (3 weeks off cigarettes), cold turkey, herbal meds, hynosis (only lasted 5 hours), you name it. I've used all the suggestions possible to no avail.

With a cigarette dangling from my mouth, I told my boys never to start smoking because they'd never be able to quit easily. Two took my advice, one didn't. He also tried to quit smoking but failed. He was on Wellbutrin for it.

My husband started smoking at 8 while working in a coal mine. He quit cold turkey 19 years ago. He was smoking almost 4 packs a day and one day he got so disgusted with it, he  just threw them out the window of the car. Never touched one since and smoke from other people doesn't bother him.

He told me you really have to have the willpower and just get disgusted enough to quit. There's no other way. I guess I just don't have that willpower.

I never can make the transition.  One consideration is your wardrobe.  You have to start dressing in office attire which is something I don't miss and found irritating when I went back into the office.  I also found that after working at home for as long as I have done it, it's kind of stressful to get out there and try to be social and friendly.  Office politics is another negative.  Offices are very much like high school, very cliquey and filled with gossip.  There is more to working in an office than just doing your job.  At home, it's just me and my PC.  I do the work and I get paid.  In the office, there's you, your PC, the person who shares the desk with you, the person who sits across from you, the person who sits next to you, your supervisor right across the hall, the doctors knowing you by name and seeking you out to complain about their dictation, the constant ringing of phones, chattering of voices.  The people you share office space with, one will always be hot, one will always be cold, one thinks it's too bright and there's a glare on her screen, and one thinks it's too dark.  You can't wear perfume because the girl next to you is allergic...

I could go on... 

I think there are two big differences.  (1) Benefits should be much better than the national, and (2) in working for the hospital, you will only be working on one account (which makes a BIG difference in my opinion).  I averaged about 225 lines per hour working for national on a main account plus a couple backups.  I am averaging 300+ with the hospital.

The only advantage with going with the national might be better job security.  If you lost the account, at least they could move you to another one.  But personally, I would take the hospital job in a second.   Good Luck! 

and why?  What do you like about it?  Also, what is the worst?

I really like EditScript 8 & although it isn't perfect, I like the fact that I can access other reports on the same patient/same dictator if I need to verify something (although I never trust it 100% lol)  One thing I don't like is that I can't use my Expanders (or maybe I can, but don't know how to go about it?)

I don't like ChartScript, as I don't think its very user friendly and those old DOS-based antiquated systems were for the birds!

booze - really knocks you for a loop. 

I do respect those that have serious religious holidays though and only hope that the company that they work for understand.

At first I kicked myself for picking Mondays as one of my scheduled work days, as most of our holidays fall on a Monday. But  the kids sleep in because they have no school, so it always works, as I only have a 3 hour shift and I'm done before they get up.