These are all great ideas. (sm)

• If you could share one thing that made you more productive - what would it be?
  • See message - Lynn
  • (more than 1)Quiet, not coming here, timer, expander, deadlines - nm - Laura E.
  • Word expanders, word expanders, word expanders - cheater
  • production - nn
  • STAY IN YOUR CHAIR! :-) - oldMT
  • Set goals for line counts - OP Queen
  • These are all great ideas. (sm) - Not the OP
  • Limiting MTStars visits! LOL. - DJ
  • some sort of stop watch or alarm clock - nm
  • Non-distractive office. - nm

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Thanks for all the great ideas - I have been looking around for groups to join, but most meet when I am working in this area, so makes it difficult to get involved when most people in these groups are retired.  I probably sound like I am making excuses, but I am really not - just difficult to explain that there are not a lot of choices around here to get involved unless you create something that works for you and then who knows what response that would get!  Yes, there are cafes, but again it is retired people who frequent these places.  Yes, there is a garden club and book club, sewing and quilting club (no sewing machine to get involved), garden and book club meets in the day time when I am working, I do knit and have thought of starting a prayer shawl ministry, but would have to ask around of others who do this and get together.  I will check out googling groups in my area for chat or such - never thought of that.  I am somewhat shy, when I feel comfortable around people then I am more comfortable with socializing, but stepping out cold turkey and getting involved is not my thing.  My closest neighbor is a mile or more away, I live in the country - so makes the getting acquainted a little more challenging and again there are many older people who live around here.  Don't know of anyone interested in a Bible study, but would enjoy doing that if I knew of anyone interested.  Being single in a couples or elderly world is a tough thing!!   I have tried things before, but feel there are not a lot of opportunities around here, so that is why I thought of seeing if there was an interest in my area with people who work out of their homes - maybe they have enough friends and don't need somethign like that, but was just an idea of mine.  I will take your ideas to heart and see what I can come up with - thanks for your responses - they are appreciated!!

lorlyn

You can e-mail me your responses.  All ideas and requests are welcome. Maybe I cannot deliver on all but you never know if you don't ask. Wouldn't it be great if at least we could get the top 3 or 5 requests? Keep writing your thoughts, I'm listening.

I picked up an exercise bike at a yard sale for $1 and a mini trampoline for $5.  Whenever I need a break to recharge, I get on the bike or trampoline for 5-10 minutes.  They say that little spurts of exercise throughout the day are as effective as exercising all at once.  Plus, it'll help clear your lungs out.  Another thing to try is to just step outside for a moment and take some really deep breaths of fresh air in.  You used to inhale deeply with smoking, so now you inhale deeply without the carcinogens.  You can also try yoga or tai chi.  Very calming on the nerves.  I also switched to herbal tea, so I'll take a break and fill up my little teapot for one.  Replace your bad habit with a good habit.  Just don't replace smoking with eating.  If you need the hand to mouth thing, try air popped popcorn, cut up fruit or vegetables, a small amount of nuts or seeds, or hot peppers.  I keep a jar of Bit o' Honey and fireball candies on my desk, so I'll have one of those a day.

It's important to reward yourself, so take the money you would ordinarily have spent on cigarettes and get something for yourself.  I like to buy books, bubble bath, stinky candles, mocha lattes, restaurant gift certificates.  You can also put the money you're saving into a big jar to watch it add up for a BIG reward.  I saved enough to buy a dishwasher, which is kind of silly for a reward, but I really wanted one.

Number one was psychology, but that will take too long, going part time, and knowing in the next five years MT'ing might not exist.  You need a bachelor's to get foot in the door.  I wish they had schooling completely on line for this degree, but they do not. 

Second is something with cooking.  Would like to work with people on diet and weight loss, since it is the way i've lived my own life for years and I believe strongly in it.  The chef/cook field is predominantly male, so it will be hard to get a foot in the door there.  I can be a certified dietician all on line within a year, but the pay isn't all that good.

Ultimate goal would be a personal chef or working for myself doing SOMETHING.  I think thats everyones dream.

My daughter LOVES trains, and you can find scenic train trips all over.  We did one in Romney, WV that was just wonderful.  The train was called Potomoc Eagle, and we did see bald eagles on our trip. 

Not sure where you are in WV, but what about Hershey, PA?  Probably not the cheapest vacation, but lots to do.  Besides HersheyPark itself (very kid friendly) there is a zoo, a garden and more.  I'm sure there are packages available.  

I'm anxious to see what others come up with too.  We are in PA and looking for some close trips as well.  Which beach do you go to?  We found a beautiful not-so-commercial beach at Lewes, DE last year and can't wait to go back!

Good luck with your planning!   

First, sorry about the funny way my answer is formatted below, I'm no good in this little box.

Are you dialing into a Lanier system?  LX-219 and other Lanier equipment only works with Lanier. 

 Ranzy Luster in Texas fixed my LX-219 with large display for a flat rate of $100, gave a 90-day warrantee with the repair.  He sometimes advertises on the MT Daily site.  He has been around a long time.  His phone number is 254-235-3241 and his e-mail is rluster@transcribe solutions.com.  I felt he treated me very well and he was fast.  I should say if the large display is not working, I don't believe he works on that, but if you can see anything in the large display, I believe he will work on it.  Ask him.

Look in your User Guide for the LX-219 and try performing the call-echo-cancel sequence.  If you are calling into a Lanier system, then it is not recognizing your machine.  Lanier machines send a proprietary tone in to connect with the host modem. 

Sometimes the phone is set for dictate instead of transcribe.  You can try this: Press  *99 (that's star-99) then the 1 key

If set for transcription it will say 20 through 39. 

My old Lanier service tech said he always used 20 as his default when setting machines for transcription mode. 

When you dial into Lanier, the LX-219 must be programmed with YOUR ID number.  So, program one key with the number you are dialing, then another key with your ID. 

You can test how this works by dialing the phone manually, touching all the buttons just like the regular phone, then input your ID number, the system should recognize you. 

I haven't used my LX-219 machines in a long time, I use a Lanier TXC card to download large amounts of dictation to a sound card in my computer, but the above were some hints I wrote for myself in the handbook for the LX-219 a couple of years ago. 

Is your C-phone located near any other equipment?  That can cause static.  Move it away by itself. 

I hope something here helps.  Give Ranzy a try.  He might have some suggestions for you. 

Sorry, this is kind of long, but I would appreciate any advice/comments.

Back in May I was contacted by someone to whom I had sent my resume several months prior.  She asked if I would be interested in some part-time work, and I said that I was.  She had no idea how much or what time of day, etc. 

Well, it turned out to be quite a bit of work, and I wound up calling her and letting her know that it was too much, as she would ride me about turnaround time when I had let her know that I already had almost full-time work prior to accepting her part-time deal.  She did have another girl working on the account, but her work needed to be edited (fully to voice), and she asked that I hang in there while she found someone else, which I did, and she went through about three other girls.  During this time she would hit me with sometimes 2+ hours of dictation out of the blue, and there would be many days with nothing at all.  I had actually been hoping to still get daily work, but just a reduced amount from what it had been, and was still hoping that is how it would go once she was able to find someone else to share the load. 

Anyway, about a week ago I received an e-mail from her that she no longer had the account, and here is where my question comes in . . . I really liked doing this dictation, and am interested in trying to obtain the account for myself, but they are in a different state from me.  Since she has lost the account, I do not feel that it would be stealing, but obviously they must have had a replacement transcriptionist/service prior to telling her they would no longer need her services, so I am wondering how long I should wait and what approach I should take . . . should I call them, or perhaps mail something, or even call and try to get an e-mail address???  I was not told what the reason is that they no longer use her services either, by the way, and as far as having said what I did about it being too much work, I would give up something else to have this account if I could get it, but at the time I told her it was too much I had not decided that.  I had been considering proposing just that to her, for a negotiated higher wage, but then she lost the account. 

What would you guys do?

TIA for opinions/ideas!

Hi,

I assume you are using Windows 2000 or XP.

I would disable "system sounds" in using the control panel. It is possible system sounds are interfering with your program or causing problems.

If that does not work then...

Next time the problem happens, right click "My Computer", and select "Manage".

Double click "Device Manager".

Find your sound card driver under "Sounds and Video Game Controllers"...there will be several items there, but you are looking for a "controller" of some kind...It should match the name of you audio device. When you have found it, right click and "disable". Then "enable". If the problem goes away, it is probably a driver issue...if not then it might be something as simple as the volume control turned all the way down.

If it is a driver issue (that is if disable and enable make it work) then you should try to find an updated driver.

Good luck...