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Rule of thumb - THERE'S NO FREE LUNCH

Posted By: sm on 2006-01-02
In Reply to: get rich quick - is everything a scam?

If you don't want to do much, don't expect to make much. That's just the way it is.


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My rule of thumb is a $100 minimum
Of course, closer relatives and friends receive more, but always at least $100 for graduations, wedding gifts, etc. when someone is an acquaintance.
Rule of thumb in the NE is October & April when

the time changes. Daylight Savings starts in April and Standard Time in October. It always works for me. Change all the clocks and change all the batteries.


For those who haven't done so yet, though, better get changing.


Rule of thumb on dictation. A dictated
minute on average takes 3 to 5 minutes to transcribe. So, at the top, 60 minutes of dictation can take up to 5 hours to transcribe. Would not do it for less than $20 personally, and then based on what I do now I would be losing money.
I use Verizon mobile and the rule of thumb with mobile broadband is...
Basically, it will work whereever your cell phone will work.  If your too remote, it may not work, but I do know a lot of campgrounds like KOA offer Wifi, which means you should be able to pick up that signal too. You can always call ahead to the campground etc. I use mine going down the road for the most part but every great while going through the mountains I lose reception.  
Most in-house hospital jobs allow only 30 minutes for lunch! So I wouldn't call an hour lunch
"rigid."  If you are an employee, there are rules, set schedules, etc. that you have to expect. 
One for the thumb!!! nm
tt
MTs out to lunch
Congratulations! I am sure you worked very hard and deserved it.
No--she is lunch!!!!

I know what you mean about the thumb.

I also stretch my wrists, hands, fingers often and it helps a lot!


lunch
FOr me i just took a lunch without never punching in or out.
I agree, my right thumb too, cause it's the
My right thumb aches constantly, sometimes to the point of almost a burning feeling. I know it's because I use this thumb only for the spacebar!
thumb w/ mind of its own
I just recently noticed that my left thumb likes to extend when I use that hand to type.  It is not to the point of being sore or achy, but it is feeling kind of stressed.  I don't know of any other way to describe it.  Does anybody have or has had the same issue?  How do I make it stay down?  Help!
thumb issue
I was thinking that might be it. I do not have an ergonomic keyboard as of yet. I might want to get one pretty quick. I did try buddy taping it to my index finger and hand earlier. That seemed to help too, but took a little getting used to.


my thumb issue was due to
De'Quervans? (I'm not going to look it up right now) tendonitis.  It's located on the side of your wrist by your thumb.  Mine got pretty nasty, had to go the route of cortisone injections then finally surgery but 7 yrs out and no more issues or pain. 
thumb problems
It could possibly be DeQuervain's tenosynovitis.  I had it.  I was in a lot of pain for a long time.  Finally had surgery after several cortisone injections and physical therapy.  All better now, though.  Good luck.
thumb issue
it is DE Quervain's, I know because I do PT reports. Whether or not this is my problem, we'll find out. I have an ergonomic keyboard coming, as I am not going to mess around with this. I did put a hand towel under my wrist pad. It is helping for now. At least, I don't have to buddy tape. That's a pain. lol. Pun intended!
breaks and lunch

I think the way it goes is that you must be allowed to take breaks and lunch.  I was an employee for a company that did not care when you worked, as long as you met turnaround time. 


Could you have lunch delivered for
the staff one day? I'm not suggesting anything too pricey, but something they all enjoy. A donation in their name to an animal rescue in your area might be appreciated as well. Congratulations on your puppies!
Actually the ones I have do not have fingers, just a thumb.

I really love them, There is a strap around the wrist to adjust the tightness, but the neoprene is a great fabric that seems to work really well for me.  I hate to recommend anything because sometimes what is good for one is not so good for another.  I would recommend going to a surgical supply store and they should let you try them on, that is what I did. 


 


Thumb soreness
Anybody have any remedies to help with sore thumb.  My thumb is constantly sore from hitting the space bar. The longer I type, the more my thumb is tender.  Any suggestions to soften the blow to the space bar
So, instead of dinner, whats for LUNCH?
YUM  
I don't know, but my appetite for lunch just left me.
x
You 2 should find each other and do lunch sometime! I'm too far away to join ya...nm
s
A good of thumb is 30%, that should cover everything.
x
If you are FT employee, must take two 15 min breaks and 30 min lunch
But, I am sure, many MTs do not do this and say they do.
Whats for lunch/dinner??

I am just curious what everyone is having for lunch or dinner.  Need some ideas on what to cook.


Have a good Sunday afternoon.


take my lunch break and take a dip in the pool

I had one who decided lunch time ....sm
would be a good time to dictate.  Opening wrappers, eating, drinking, etc.  I was so repulsed by the eating sounds, I was ready to give them up.  I called my contact person about 3 x and asked her  to ask him to stop.  Finally, I called the manager.  When she approached him about it, HE DENIED IT!!!  Said he didn't eat while dictating.  Of course, she believed him and was dumbfounded at what I could be hearing!  I told her I knew what I was hearing and  it had to stop.  Anyone who has ever heard that sound while transcribing KNOWS they are eating.  What a jerk.  Interestingly, the eating stopped, and I still have the account.
Lunch- -most important meal of the day!
I work 35 hours a week. I have a scheduled 8-hour shift and take a 1-hour lunch break, leaving me with 7 hours of production a day. My advice is to do the 35-hour schedule. You'll probably be more productive (lph) at 35 hours than 40, and you'll always be able to add extra hours later if you want to. Don't skip lunch or eat at your desk. You'll feel so much better if you take a real lunch break everyday.
ExText-sore thumb

Does anybody have trouble with a sore left thumb from doing speech recognition in ExText? I have been doing it now for 5 months and have constant pain in my thumb. Just wondered if there was a better way of doing it.


I make lunch ahead of time and

my child has never complained about the bread being hard.  Maybe because we use 100% whole wheat and it is already kind of dry?  I have just never heard that complaint from anyone


I make lunch right after clearing up dinner and that way if we all oversleep by accident, at least its one less thing to have to worry about.  We have enough stress in the morning.


 


Left thumb backspace keyboard
I can backspace with my left thumb and space forward with my right thumb. No reaching up with my pinkie to the backspace key at top right. It's called an "Erase Ease" I think. Let's me fly.
But it isn't a "rule of thumb" anymore...Carla is right...sm

Bella, it's not a "rule of thumb" anymore. That was before the advent of word processing software. Word and WordPerfect do automatically adjust the spacing at the end of a sentence to make it more readable and pleasing to the eye. The only reason so many companies still ask that it be done is because that USED to be the norm in the time of typewriters and that's what we learned from Gregg. Companies I work for who are newer generations and know about the ins and outs of Word and WordPerfect know that they adjust automatically in order to put a clear, able to see, nice looking space at the end of a sentence.


However, with this being said, the original poster should still ask her contractor/client/company what they prefer. It is never left up to us unless we're the owner of the contract and developed the template or format ourselves. Especially if it's an MT account that pays based on character lines. Some would say that extra space is no big deal, but just how many Keystrokes do you think that is in a day hitting that extra space after a period? Maybe enough to make up about 10 extra lines or so? Probably. I'd rather get paid than not if they don't want you doing it and you are anyway.


Soooooo, after my ramble....always ask your supervisor, etc.


DG


Is it at the thumb base? I had mine x-rayed, and it
NSAIDs and wearing typing gloves seems to help. Also, after the initial 1-2 yrs. of constant pain, it did settle down considerably, now only hurts if I use my hands for twisting, such as opening jars, wringing out wet washcloths or laundry, or using screwdrives instead of a power drill bit to assemble, dissasemble things. I also have a lot of pain riding a bike. I padded the handlebars as much as possible, and try to ride with the the sorer of the 2 thumbs resting on top of the handle bar with my other fingers, not gripping it.

Anyway, good luck, and hopefully it'll settle down in a few months!
Eating their lunch/dinner while dictating
I have a doctor from Croatia who is hard enough to understand with his "ah" and 'um" but when he's crunching carrots in the middle of it?  Forget it. 
Someone paddles my kids, they will find my fist for lunch!!!
c
I'm having a homemade roast beef sub and chips for lunch.

DH can probably BBQ hot dogs and burgers for dinner because I don't feel like cooking.


My left thumb is the only "finger" I don't use, carpal tunnel is bad enough already.nm
x
Abacus is not free. It is $20 but worth it. You can download a trial version free which does not h
I have used this for years and have compared to Sylvan, Word, and MP Count, etc. When you have it set to count every character, bold, shift, tab, etc. It is great and always higher than the others. Now if you are wanting gross lines like in Word then no it won't be as high because Word counts blanks lines and Abacus counts a line only if there is a character on it. There is also two places to check for it to count the Headers/Footers. If you have the FREE version then it must be the trial or a very old version so you don't have all the features and functions.
Free? As in, free trial? Otherwise, I don't think you'll find a spellcheck software that's
y
Check out the free demo of MTStars FlashType. It's free for 7 days.
Then, if you like it, you can purchase it for $59.95.  See link below.
My employer took all MTs out to lunch today in recognition of National MT Week and we got a new
Drake & Drake Pharmaceutical Word Book!  First time I have worked anywhere that actually recognized MTs for this week.
I just noticed my right thumb twitching. I tell ya I'm falling apart! Last week my rear end and

left leg were going numb and now my thumb is twitching.  Ya know how you have your thumb poised above the space bar, well whenever I pause my typing my thumb twitches slightly and softly taps the space bar.  I keep rubbing my hand hoping it will stop.  Anybody else have this problem?


Maybe I'm getting to old to be an MT anymore.  Been doing this for almost 14 years and never so much as had a headache.  Now within the last year, I have head, neck and shoulder problems with muscle spasms and tightness, my rear end problems, and now this!  Frustrating to say the least! 


Had a Sony hand control years ago, then my thumb killed me! nm
..
I worked in a hospital and I could make differrent arrgmts for lunch if I needed to.
Don't let the OP scare you off from investigating.

Do what is right for you.

moms? lunch cunundrum - am I a less-loving mother if I make his PB&J tonight and refrigerator it?
x
You RULE!
What a win-win situation!

I wish the animal shelters took better care of our pets (since they are a part of the government and all). I don't know why those shelters smell so bad; the shelter in my county stinks so bad that you are constantly aware of it. Taking care of displaced or hurt animals should be a big part of their job, and they could take measures to ensure the animals don't get sick. I understand all about their being overworked, but then someone should report to the higher ups what is needed, and then there should be no problem meeting those needs.

In a neighboring county where I live, the public went toe-to-toe with the director over the animal division; demanding answers about the operations and procedures. (That director said he needed a new building, but the public thought the changes should be made in their operations and procedures.

When I want a dog, I always adopt (so far over the years I've adopted 2 beagles).

Nice post!
First rule of being an MT

That's what I was taught.  Everyone is in the same boat and has to take the bad with the good.  Refusing to do the hard stuff makes it worse for the other MTs on that account, and they will not appreciate it.  Until the problem doctors go poof and disappear, nobody has the right to say they can shove all the bad jobs onto the next MT because THEY are here to make money (everyone is, and someone has to type it).  And there is such a thing as Karma - one day you might log on to find ALL the work is the dictator you dread, because all the MTs that came on before you felt entitled to leave the crap work for YOU.  You really won't make any money on that shift, as opposed to doing a few bad jobs each shift.  So type them as you get them, like the rest of us. 


If everyone got together and went to management about the problem guy, that's one thing (and yes, we all feel this way about at least one doctor).  Deciding you don't have to do it because you don't want to is quite another, and often grounds for disciplinary action.  Work is often just that, hard work, and with time and practice it becomes easier.  Nobody promised you a rose garden, challenges are what this job entails.


MY first rule, before being MT. is I have to
x
Forget dinner! Just prepared a huge lunch. Skillet chicken: Skinless boneness breasts cooked in skil
golden brown, add can of cream of mushroom soup, 1 cup of frozen mixed veggies, 1/2 c water - cover and cook about 15 minutes.
Then I made homemade mashed potatoes - extra thick - with plenty of pepper :0

Then, boiled my water for my sweet tea....with lemon.

After the chicken is done, pour a cup and a half or so of mozerella cheese on top and let it sit for about a minute or so.

The mixture from the potatoes is a creamy blend with mixed veggies poured over either rice or potatoes. I just make stuff up all the time like this. You could even add crackers to the mixture to give it a crunchy feel. My 2 boys were in heaven today. Of course, I may have to work the night shift when my lunch is finished - when I eat like this during the afternoon I usually skip dinner altogether because of the carb content.

Remember with this dish: You can do it low fat by substituting above ingredients. Also remember to have plenty of color to your diet! Voila!
yes it is free....mine was free....why the exclamation?
nm