Skip the games - focus on the mom-to-be. I HATE going to those showers. nm
Posted By: Just me on 2005-08-25
In Reply to: Having a baby shower for my sister this weekend - AL MT
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Games like that are why I decline invitations to baby showers. nm
x
Skip the games but here's an idea sm
My friend had a baby shower. The invite asked everyone to bring a pack of diapers to be entered in a $40 gift certificate for Applebees. She left with a HUGE bag filled with diapers. That was the game if you want to call it a game.
I hate to admit this, but the one good thing I learned Focus Infomatics
was the Escription platform. Trust me, that is the only good to come of it. I think even if you get a few months under your belt, you'd be better off for it.
POLL: board games vs online games
Do you prefer online games or board games? What are some of your favorites? I just learned how to play Pokeno--it was fun. I love Scrabble, Boggle, Bingo and UNO too. Word games are usually fun online too. Netives has a marbles game that is sooooo addictive. Just mindless passing away of the time......a little downtime is good now and then though.
Love psych notes. HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE,
HATE ER notes.
showers
Every shower I have gone to, someone ends up in tears b/c there are always other pregnant women there and the hormones just fly. Just focus on the mommie, don't rub tummies and just have some grownup fun.....Games are for the babies.
baby showers - sm
After reading the post about what to spend on graduation gifts for acquaintances, I wondered about baby shower gifts.
Actually, I was wondering if baby showers are now given for expectant moms with child #3. And if so, what would an approrpiate gift be in that case?
I always thought showers were given for the first baby only. Has this changed? And I didn't know it?
I'm in favor of showers for all pregnancies/babies
Diapers and supplies are always needed regardless of which pregnancy it is. Also, babies are so wonderful; I love celebrating them (and their moms) with baby showers!
I love shoes, bras, and daily showers.
I must not be cut out to be an at-home MT!
;o}
games
I play a "speed" game. I type as much as I can for 10 minutes, then I will go back and proof for about one minute, speed type for another 10, etc. I stop at least every hour for and make a bed, pick up around the house etc. Sometimes I take a break out on the patio with a tall iced tea or sometimes I take an exercise break. I simply cannot sit for eight hours straight. It is all I can do to sit for one hour!
games..
in my friends baby shower, we have to guess how many jelly beans was in the baby bottle. then we have to guess also, using a roll of bathroom tissue, how big her tummy is.
games
Divide them in two teams. Give them each a straw and marshmellow. Have them blow the marshmellow across the floor using the straw and do it like a race. We laughed so hard when we did it in my son's class. We used holiday marshmellows to tie it in with the holiday
However.....it's not always fun and games....sm
on these boards - be watchful and careful....many trolls exist here.....*lol*
I hate DocQSribe, I hate DocQScribe, I hate DocQScrbe, I hate DocQScribe, I hate DocQSribe.
NM
you were able to skip
I have worked for MQ for 10 years. Started with them after 10 years of ESL experience. I got 3 cents more a line when I started with them than the local company here paid. I was never able to skip any report. Transcribed what I got, I did! I agree with previous poster about getting paid for experience. Experience is what counts in my book! I CAN transcribe the ESL dictators. I SHOULD be paid MORE for those reports. If I spent all day doing dictation that was perfect - clear, good speakers, no backing up, waiting, etc., I would make a killing in the money department. But, having to spend all day transcribing ESL, whose dictation gets worse by the day, I make nothing. I am making too little for way too much effort. I got the phone call the other day. They left a message on the answering machine. He was so bored as he read from his script! I could tell him as much as he told me in the message. What a waste of money for MQ to do this. Must have been a business expense.
Love cardiology, hate podiatry. Hate discharges, but
nm
Internet transcription games
I'm looking for the game sites on the internet for medical transcription. I work in a hospital setting and when we don't have work, we are allowed to do crosswords, etc. on the internet. I know of the medword site - are there any other fun sites that anyone knows about that could be considered "educational" in the transcription field?
Games companies play
I live in a suburban area. You would think there would be no problem getting any kind of Internet service. Other parts of my town have DSL, but not the part south of a main road where I live. The phone company is embroiled in a dispute with the state's commerce commission about how much they can charge. The law says they have to let competitors use their lines, but they claim that can't charge the competitors enough to make it worth their while; therefore, they just won't add anymore DSL until they can charge what they want. They advertise their DSL like crazy, though. When you try to actually order it, however, it's not available in your area. Lucky for me, the cable company put in high-speed Internet or I'd be out of a job. Dial-up just wouldn't work anymore for Medquist's platform.
If a part of your town has service like mine does (just not your part), city hall should have someone who handles the franchise. If so, try complaining to them.
4 yo Papillon - Mr. Skip
I call him a Dat - a dog-cat combo. He has a wide vocabulary of human words that he knows. He's particularly responsive to the words cheese burger and pizza.
Is this an every 3 second type skip? s/m
I get many files from different places and it seems from one client in particular, sometimes I will get a 3-second skip on files. Once the skip starts, I have to close the file, close Start/stop, delete the file from my system and then re-download the file. This seems to take care of the problem, but some days it doesn't. I have no idea the reason why, but this is just what I do.
Games MTs play to stay in that chair
Hi people :)
When MT gets very boring (which is most days for me), I have a few things I'll do to keep producing. Will you please share any games you play with yourself to crank out some extra lines (something more than "I need to meet the bills, and that keeps me in the chair").
Here's mine. I hope these will help. Please share yours!
- Try to get the % keystrokes saved in Shorthand higher than the last time I worked.
- Keep a timer with me - transcribe 20 minutes, clean home for 10, transcribe 20, clean for 10. Not a very productive way, but I use this when I am truly climbing the walls and nothing else works. Sometimes if I'm on a roll and the 20 minutes are up, I'll just hit the timer again and go for another 20 before the cleaning break. The break gets my house in order (amazing what can be done in 10 minutes - folded laundry and dishes running and so on), gives my wrists a break, gets the blood flowing.
- I find the times I have the worst trouble sitting there and working are the times when it's been a while since I've been out of the house. Getting out regularly helps working go much easier.
- Sometimes set a goal of a specific amount 300 lines or whatever is a slight stretch but can possibly be reached in an hour, and aim for that.
- A walk to the mailbox or other light exercise can help.
- I haven't tried a regular exercise break in the middle of the day (say a 1-hour break to reenergize and really get a good workout in), but if that helps you I hope you'll share.
- Try to get to half of my line count by noon.
- Get done for the day in time to watch Dr. Phil as a reward. :)
Games MTs play to stay in that chair
Hi people :)
When MT gets very boring (which is most days for me), I have a few things I'll do to keep producing. Will you please share any games you play with yourself to crank out some extra lines (something more than "I need to meet the bills, and that keeps me in the chair").
Here's mine. I hope these will help. Please share yours!
- Try to get the % keystrokes saved in Shorthand higher than the last time I worked.
- Keep a timer with me - transcribe 20 minutes, clean home for 10, transcribe 20, clean for 10. Not a very productive way, but I use this when I am truly climbing the walls and nothing else works. Sometimes if I'm on a roll and the 20 minutes are up, I'll just hit the timer again and go for another 20 before the cleaning break. The break gets my house in order (amazing what can be done in 10 minutes - folded laundry and dishes running and so on), gives my wrists a break, gets the blood flowing.
- I find the times I have the worst trouble sitting there and working are the times when it's been a while since I've been out of the house. Getting out regularly helps working go much easier.
- Sometimes set a goal of a specific amount 300 lines or whatever is a slight stretch but can possibly be reached in an hour, and aim for that.
- A walk to the mailbox or other light exercise can help.
- I haven't tried a regular exercise break in the middle of the day (say a 1-hour break to reenergize and really get a good workout in), but if that helps you I hope you'll share.
- Try to get to half of my line count by noon.
- Get done for the day in time to watch Dr. Phil as a reward. :)
No, I don't worry about stuff like that, as I said "mind games" - sm
They pull "your parents don't want you to see us" crap, trying to play the kids off of us and guilt us into caving in, and they put the kids down saying they can't do something because they are too tall, too short, too thin, etc. A person can do just about anything they put their mind to if they have determination. My one daughter, who used to love ballet, no longer wants to do it because grandpa told her she was too tall to be a ballerina (she is in 95th percentile for her age in height and weight, very tall and thin for a 7-y/o), which is a load of crap. So its little things like this that affect how they feel about themselves which I will not tolerate. They are the master of putdowns, I can see correcting a child if they are doing something incorrectly/wrong, but its how you do it...you don't tell the kid they are stupid or an idiot because they made a mistake or have a dream. My husband grew up with this pounded into him and does not want the same thing inflicted on his kids, hence the moderation in exposure to his parents...they know this but still they do it and still they nag to have the kids. He's has, in the past, told them pointblank that they will never get the kids, but its like talking to a wall. So I am not a neurotic worrying about too much playtime or staying up an hour late, etc. Just don't want any more emotional harm done.
I love baby shower games.
You can make a diaper out of a paper napkin. Whoever gets the "dirty" diaper (with peanut butter in it) wins a prize. Taste the baby food contest where everyone gets a dollop of several kinds of baby food on a paper plate, and you have to guess what's what. Pick the baby safety pins out of a bowl of rice blindfolded. Scoop the cotton balls off the floor into a bowl blindfolded with a spatula. The memory game where you look at a tray full of baby items for one minute, then write down as many as you can remember. All of the baby items go to the Mom-to-be at the end of the game. You can find cute little prizes at the dollar store.
The other poster is right. There are tons of baby shower websites out there to snag ideas from Have fun with it!
Pogo.com for me for games major addiction nm
:-)
Unfortunately, CS seems to be the easiest debt to skip out on
You'll get into more trouble if you bounce a $25 check. I have used one of those private agencies because my ex had moved out of state and once that happens, if the ex doesn't want to pay and moves around in jobs, you can pretty much forget about getting anything.
The private agency works a lot faster, but the contracts are very complicated and you are pretty much signing up for the life of the CS obligation; otherwise there has be nonpayment of CS for a year before you can end the contract. And yes they take a big chunk of money but at the time I thought it was better than getting nothing at all.
But in the end, once payments have been established, the private agency ends up filtering the payment through your local CSEA anyway.
I think your best bet is to use some kind of locator service and if you can get a good address provide that to your local CSEA.
I wish they had an "America's Most Wanted" for deadbeat dads/moms. It's amazing to me that it is seemingly so easy to stop paying, change jobs, and just not be found.
Not worth the trouble - skip it
Create a new tradition with your kids.
If they're vegetarians, skip the dip.
My neices are both vegetarians. Check out Vegweb.com for tons of vegetarian recipes.
SCIP or SKIP protocol
Has anyone ever heard of SCIP or SKIP protocol? This is a surgeon talking about prophylactic antibiotics. I have found on the internet SCIP protocol for skin care intervention program but am not sure if this is reliable info. Does anyone know which way to spell this/what this is and have a source to back it up?
I agree. I'd skip the school SM
altogether. It might take a while to find a training position doing MT, but not nearly as long as the school, and nothing matches actually doing the work to learn. As suggested, I would take--and nail!--a terminology course at the very least. I started with on-the-job training, but I took anatomy and physiology courses in night school. True, the labs spent hacking up various parts of a cadaver with nursing and premed students and studying tissues under the microscope were overkill for what we do, but I definitely recommend skipping the expensive trade school and taking courses at a local college, or on line perhaps?
I hate those but I hate trauma notes on children even more sm
I used to work for a large hospital that saw a lot of children for various horrible things.
The very last one I did was a 12yo boy who had hung himself while his mother was at work. She thought he was in school. The doctor cried, I cried (as I usually did) and I just couldn't handle that anymore. That was the longest report I swear. Short in lines but the length was almost an hour. The doc didn't pause the machine, she cried, horrible gut wrenching sobs, and I did too, right along with her.
Pentium is good for games/ Celron for data. NM
z
I found one site that had a picture but it's not his car. There are a couple of other games sm
there, though. It's www.gordononline.com/kids/kids.html. There's one picture to color but it's a sprint car. I hope this helps a little. I'm a Jeff Gordon fan, too.
Easy enough to just skip over subjects that don't interest you? NM
z
Also, at times I'll skip a job due to length, not
If I know I've only got 30 more minutes to work and have to leave, I'll skip over a 25-minute long file, regardless of the ease/difficulty factor, so I like that we have the option. I can finish a few more shorter reports for the client that way whereas I might have otherwise logged off altogether. BUT, I also do my fair share of the hard ESLs and long files at the beginning of shift. I used to be 100% against skipping any files, but OTOH, if someone knows they can't do that ESL's work, maybe it's best for someone who CAN to take them on so the reports are more accurate. I would at least hope that the MTs have given it a good effort first though. I agree this might not be abused as much if MTSOs would pay for difficulty factor, though.
And supposedly they are to be fired for that on DQS. I bet they are. They break the report and skip
to the next one on DQS. I get it all the time and I report it and guess what, nothing happens to them but I figure they will hang themselves eventually. They inevitably drop off the account because they really cant do it anyway.
Just skip over it.. A little lively debate spices things up.
c
Actually, it is quite easy to skip jobs, and I work for a national. sm
Depending upon the account, just press the appropriate number on the C-phone, and *poof* you're at the next job. In my case, I have no "proof" per se, but when jobs skip from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. then to 1 p.m., etc., and then it gets back to "normal" when you get to the non-ESL docs where I guess they stopped working. it's not too hard to figure out that someone took what they wanted and left the rest. It doesn't matter to me. As has been stated, the MT who cherrypicks cheats himself/herself out of the chance to master everything and assure himself/herself of a larger pool of work. That goes also for those who limit themselves to only certain work types. Sure, we all have our preferences (I prefer admit notes and consults), but if you can do everything, then you're more likely not to be one of the ones coming here complaining of no work.
Just my opinion, and you know we all have one. Happy Friday the 13th! I have the weekend off for once, and it is actually beautiful weather here. Yippee! 
In Word I can't see my field boxes anymore that I use F11 to skip around to. Does anyone know ho
x
It means to skip the jobs in your work queue that - sm
are by difficult dictators, or have no line-count-bolstering templates, or require too much backing up, re-listening, sentence restructuring, or nose-in-reference time to get in your minimum lines. That's especially true if the employer doesn't weight the job's pay by difficulty. Most MTs voice disapproval of the practice, but sometimes an gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do, in order to survive and make that next car payment, rent check, or grocery bill.
My kids play in a church basketball league and I am going to watch their games today.
I am going to whip up a fabulous dinner (have no idea what though) and watch a movie later tonight with the family. Church tomorrow!
Would love to make time for an eyebrow wax and pedicure in there somewhere just to spoil myself a little bit - probably not going to happen though!
I find you do tend to skip maybe a word sometimes when you dont reread. I guess
your brain doesnt keep up or something. I dont know what causes that.
We see that you only focus
On the negatives! What about the children who were born into this poverty through no choice of their own?
You take the negatives only in this tragedy, what a very closed mind you have
Anything to help you focus?
I am very distracted by everything while I work. I don't think I have ADD. I hope not anyway. I just cannot focus for more than 20-30 minutes at a time. Is there an herb or over-the-counter medication to help you focus? I have tried Ginko and it seems to help a little. I just want to be more productive during the day rather than going back and forth to the Internet and taking breaks constantly. Thanks.
Focus
I have worked at Focus for just over a year now as an IC and I really like it there. Everyone is very pleasant and helpful. Any problems or concerns that I may have are addressed right away. I have plenty of work to keep me busy. They offer benefits if you are employee status, but you can also choose to be an IC. They also have direct deposit. I do transcription only, but they also have VR if you want to do that (you don't have to if you don't want to). I work on the Dictaphone ExText platform but I know they have other platforms as well.
The bottom line is that they are a great fit for me. I have had a really great experience with them. No complaints at all.
FOCUS-sm
Thanks very much for the info.
LOL!! Focus, focus, focus!! nm
focus, focus, focus--sm
and a strong work ethic that does not have you hopping up from your chair every other minute to do laundry, dishes, take out the garbage, or answer the phone. I have caller ID and use it constantly to screen any calls. If I do not recognize the number, I do not answer it. This saves a lot of time, as far as I am concerned. I know a lot of the work at home moms have kids and that has to be really hard, and I empathize with that. I don't have anyone at home, except my two kitties, to distract me from my work. I have no tv on and no music, nothing. I have had a lot of medical terminology classes and pretty know most of my doctors most used words, so I do not have to spend a lot of time researching. This also takes a lot of time, time we are not paid for. Then, of course, there are the two things you mentioned, staying in your chair constantly and shortcuts. I have pretty much the same doctors every day and know them pretty well. this makes a big difference too. I only use autocorrect as an expander, as I never could get used to IT or some others, where I spent more time looking at the bottom part with all the different entry options than I did typing. I also had many years of typing classes, as well, and I rarely need to look at my keys to know what I am typing. I watch the copy I am typing and can see any errors I make right away and correct them right away. I rarely go back and look through it again after I am done. I also rarely hear from QA about anything either. If I do, it is usually an address change or something. But I do have a habit of putting two periods .., at the end of a sentence. but I pretty much catch those too.
My last suggestion is that you have to WANT it, more than ANYTHING else in the world. Not having a spouse, or anyone else to help provide income is a HUGE motivator, as far as I am concerned. It all depends on how badly you want to pay your bills, eat, and have some extra for emergencies. It is all priority, as far as I am concerned, but that is just me. Everybody elses situations are different. but this works for me. JMO.
Focus
I also work for Focus, and I have to agree that they are the best company that I've worked for (or interviewed with) so far. So far, I've worked for 3 other online companies and one local hospital. Plus, I've interviewed with (and ended up turning down positions at) at least 10 companies since January of this year. Add to this number those who won't give me a chance because I only have 2 years of experience (it apparently does not matter that I've had between 99% and 100% QA ratings in every MT job that I've had so far) or don't live in the required state or don't own a C-phone, don't have access to unlimited long-distance phone service, or some other such thing.
The flexibility at Focus can't be beat. I don't have to get permission to change my schedule to fit my needs. Whenever I have a question, someone is available via IM, email, or telephone. The pay on my favorite shift (third) is better than I've been offered anywhere else. I also have 5 accounts, so if one doesn't have any work, I can generally find work on another. I am an IC, but they do offer the employee option, last time I heard, and the premium for health insurance for a family was less than $400/month.
My only fear is that they are sharing the work with so many other companies that I'm afraid of what is going to happen to the individual MTs like myself.
These are my experiences and my opinions, and are not open to debate. But, I am happy to share the good, the bad, and the really UGLY about any experience that I have had with any MT company in the past 2 years. Overall, it has been a true temporary nightmare, but I am very happy now at Focus, and have decided to stop searching for greener (USA-based) pastures; I'm not so sure there ARE any.
Focus
I've worked for Focus for 19 months now. I get 8 cpl for transcription and 4 cpl for editing. I much prefer the VR editing jobs because your hands don't hurt! You can also increase the speed of the voice file without it warping and there's this little red box that follows along with you and outlines the words as they are dictated. As far as average lph? I don't mark it that way because I have multiple accounts, etc., etc. For me, I work 8 hours a day and there will always be a little bit of transcribing because of new doctors etc. As an example, a good day I had last week, I did 140 typed and 2640 edited in 8 hours.
Focus
I just wanted to send you and anyone else a warning about Focus. I know they are advertising for MTs and QAs out the yingyang these days. I went to work for them a couple of weeks ago, and I have had very little to no work to transcribe at all. I don't know what is going on there, but I would not advise going with them at this time.
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