Well, so it's been over two months.
A lot's happened since end of June. July was a busy reporting month, with lots of travel.
August was convention month! Two conventions, NCRA in DC and NVRA in Nashville. Lots of excitement in both places.
I was awarded the Fellow of the Academy of Professional Reporters designation (wow! that was humbling, what an honor) in DC and was also a speaker in support of Melanie Humphrey-Sonntag, who was elected by the membership to be President Elect and who will become NCRA president in 2010 in Chicago (her adopted hometown).
NVRA saw me learning more and more - and becoming excited, more and more - about the Speech Recognition capabilities of Dragon Naturally Speaking and Eclipse VOX product. I've bought a new computer with a fast processor and big HD and a lot of RAM. My goal is to take the RVR certification in the near future (taking a break from the CRR... you can only beat your head on the wall so long before you take the hint and have to really buckle down, you know?)
Anyway. It's fall again, thankfully. Cooler weather, sleeping with the windows open. Getting out and walking in the woods.
And hopefully posting more on the blog.
Sorry for being silent so long!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
No-Court Week
Every few months there's something called a "no-court week" wherein the judges and other professionals have their conferences. It's productive downtime. Or supposed to be.
Last week was a no-court week. I took my furlough hours so that I'd be available during actual court weeks, so that was 10 of the 40 hours in the workweek. I got a lot of personal projects done, and I was thankful for the opportunity to do so.
So I had 30 hours left to do good stuff. I did some good stuff. Really. A couple of appellate transcripts were edited. Some admin stuff got done - like hitting staples for some badly needed supplies and mailing off shucks to various counties (my court is centralized, but I have to send my work out to the counties of venue) and also dropping the ones for my home county off at the local courthouse. Where, I learned, that the floor all that stuff is usually kept on has been closed for remodel. I was redirected - and in shock. Oops, you can tell how often I get there!
Then a rush call on a hearing. Seems my email address was mistyped and instead of having all week to transcribe a hearing, I had about 24 hours. And that was the last of it.
Did I get my accounting finished? My filing? Even some of my office cleanup? Um, no. Seems I'm more productive when I have my days full of work assignments.
I'm looking forward to the no-court week in October. Who know what excitement THAT WEEK will bring.
Last week was a no-court week. I took my furlough hours so that I'd be available during actual court weeks, so that was 10 of the 40 hours in the workweek. I got a lot of personal projects done, and I was thankful for the opportunity to do so.
So I had 30 hours left to do good stuff. I did some good stuff. Really. A couple of appellate transcripts were edited. Some admin stuff got done - like hitting staples for some badly needed supplies and mailing off shucks to various counties (my court is centralized, but I have to send my work out to the counties of venue) and also dropping the ones for my home county off at the local courthouse. Where, I learned, that the floor all that stuff is usually kept on has been closed for remodel. I was redirected - and in shock. Oops, you can tell how often I get there!
Then a rush call on a hearing. Seems my email address was mistyped and instead of having all week to transcribe a hearing, I had about 24 hours. And that was the last of it.
Did I get my accounting finished? My filing? Even some of my office cleanup? Um, no. Seems I'm more productive when I have my days full of work assignments.
I'm looking forward to the no-court week in October. Who know what excitement THAT WEEK will bring.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
New Adventure... CART in court
CART in the court setting. How interesting! How completely unprepared was I on Tuesday to get the assignment from my boss saying, You'll be doing a District Court trial on Thursday for a hearing impaired defendant - providing the CART.
To say I didn't want to do it would be an understatement. I have a lot of stuff on my plate - hey, I was assigned to work my usual assignment, even - and CART is a very challenging assignment.
Off I went - called the attorney. Got three pieces of information - case caption and the traffic ticket. That's it. Oh, and since we don't know when the trial will be, show up around 10 a.m. and wait. Hoo-kay.
But here's the tricky part: I don't have a computer that I can use to display for CART all ready to go. Now, I have LOTS of notebooks... but in various states of, um, updating. I can't output to Bridge from my netbook, so that brings me to my recent notebook - which means updating all my CAT software and my writer; but then I also need a computer for the client to read from - because they can't look at a netbook either. That's my OLD notebook, from about four years ago.
So far it's taken about six hours to get ready, and nothing works yet. But, I have over 12 hours to go, so I'm hopeful. Right about now, the only thing I'm NOT worried about is writing. It is what it is.
Take a page from the Boy/Girl Scout handbook: BE PREPARED! That way you don't run around scrambling at the last minute. (Or, in parental terms: Don't do as I do, do as I say!!!)
Happy CARTing.
To say I didn't want to do it would be an understatement. I have a lot of stuff on my plate - hey, I was assigned to work my usual assignment, even - and CART is a very challenging assignment.
Off I went - called the attorney. Got three pieces of information - case caption and the traffic ticket. That's it. Oh, and since we don't know when the trial will be, show up around 10 a.m. and wait. Hoo-kay.
But here's the tricky part: I don't have a computer that I can use to display for CART all ready to go. Now, I have LOTS of notebooks... but in various states of, um, updating. I can't output to Bridge from my netbook, so that brings me to my recent notebook - which means updating all my CAT software and my writer; but then I also need a computer for the client to read from - because they can't look at a netbook either. That's my OLD notebook, from about four years ago.
So far it's taken about six hours to get ready, and nothing works yet. But, I have over 12 hours to go, so I'm hopeful. Right about now, the only thing I'm NOT worried about is writing. It is what it is.
Take a page from the Boy/Girl Scout handbook: BE PREPARED! That way you don't run around scrambling at the last minute. (Or, in parental terms: Don't do as I do, do as I say!!!)
Happy CARTing.
Friday, May 1, 2009
What day is it?
Do you ever wonder what day it is? Seriously. As a roving reporter, I'm not always in court - I'm what's called 'on the board' or what most people consider on call. Which means that today didn't feel like Friday. And weekends don't always feel like weekends. Of course, reporters who are in freelance and in court often do work weekends too. It just feels like sometimes I have to look at the calendar to remember what day it is.
Speaking of calendars... I love having a duplicate resident on my computer. When I get ready to do the month-end paperwork or if someone contacts me for a transcript, I go to my online calendar and can figure out where I was, when, and then move ahead.
I like sharing my calendar, too. I have my practice (*ahem, when I practice*) on there, my exercise (*ditto*), my personal stuff, my husband's work schedule and his athletic calendar all available to me. It's cool for planning purposes. Makes me accountable. And the best part?
It highlights what day it is.
Speaking of calendars... I love having a duplicate resident on my computer. When I get ready to do the month-end paperwork or if someone contacts me for a transcript, I go to my online calendar and can figure out where I was, when, and then move ahead.
I like sharing my calendar, too. I have my practice (*ahem, when I practice*) on there, my exercise (*ditto*), my personal stuff, my husband's work schedule and his athletic calendar all available to me. It's cool for planning purposes. Makes me accountable. And the best part?
It highlights what day it is.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Service... it isn't easy
Tonight I have a telephonic board meeting for our state association. Technically I'm not even REALLY on the board anymore (I stepped down as president after three years - my term had been extended) this past fall. But here I am, volunteering as a de facto officer (immediate past president) and developing our fall meeting.
The stuff you have to do... develop speakers, find a location, see if you can find outside events to excite family members who may want to get away with their court reporter family member, develop menus and, of course, all for a cheap as humanly possible because court reporters, let's face it, are pretty much tightwads. :)
So about once a month or so we talk on the phone, see where we are - not just with the meeting planning - but updating the website (it's about 2 months behind... I can only do so much!!), adding a paypal account for taking dues money and registration funds... talk about licensure, joinder of our three state associations, the fact that the last school in our state is going to be a victim of the budget crisis makes for a pretty intense phone call. Add that in with the already busy reporter's schedule of working, taking care of family, eating, exercising, etc, you really can see how much we LOVE our profession - because we make the time to give back.
It's important to give back. Your profession/career has given you so much. A steady income. A job with great flexibility. A transferable skill (captioning and CART). Friends that you never otherwise would have met. The ability to travel. And on and on. Surely something that gave you so much needs you in return. Even if it's one committee. Stuffing envelopes. Making phone calls on a membership or fund-raising drive. Or maybe it's board service, reaching out to other court reporters in leadership.
This is a profession that needs its practitioners to be heard. Maybe not in a court of law or in the schoolroom or the captioning studio, but WE are our own best advocates. Step up. Volunteer. Make a difference!
The stuff you have to do... develop speakers, find a location, see if you can find outside events to excite family members who may want to get away with their court reporter family member, develop menus and, of course, all for a cheap as humanly possible because court reporters, let's face it, are pretty much tightwads. :)
So about once a month or so we talk on the phone, see where we are - not just with the meeting planning - but updating the website (it's about 2 months behind... I can only do so much!!), adding a paypal account for taking dues money and registration funds... talk about licensure, joinder of our three state associations, the fact that the last school in our state is going to be a victim of the budget crisis makes for a pretty intense phone call. Add that in with the already busy reporter's schedule of working, taking care of family, eating, exercising, etc, you really can see how much we LOVE our profession - because we make the time to give back.
It's important to give back. Your profession/career has given you so much. A steady income. A job with great flexibility. A transferable skill (captioning and CART). Friends that you never otherwise would have met. The ability to travel. And on and on. Surely something that gave you so much needs you in return. Even if it's one committee. Stuffing envelopes. Making phone calls on a membership or fund-raising drive. Or maybe it's board service, reaching out to other court reporters in leadership.
This is a profession that needs its practitioners to be heard. Maybe not in a court of law or in the schoolroom or the captioning studio, but WE are our own best advocates. Step up. Volunteer. Make a difference!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Time flies...
You can tell when you get busy in this profession - you stop posting to your favorite places. There are transcripts to produce, forms to fill out, and all of a sudden, a month has passed.
It's amazing that we get so much accomplished in our time away from the office. Cleaning, cooking, spending time with friends - I mean, after all, we still have to produce transcripts. This job isn't JUST working the daylight hours when you're writing; oh, no, you still have to edit, proofread, and finalize. And let's not forget, sleep.
One of the greatest skills a court reporter can have is the ability to manage their time well. Sometimes I feel right on the ball - and then others (more, it seems) I feel like time is managing me.
Here's hoping that I get a better handle on it - and that you all already have a great handle on your time management and to-do lists. :)
It's amazing that we get so much accomplished in our time away from the office. Cleaning, cooking, spending time with friends - I mean, after all, we still have to produce transcripts. This job isn't JUST working the daylight hours when you're writing; oh, no, you still have to edit, proofread, and finalize. And let's not forget, sleep.
One of the greatest skills a court reporter can have is the ability to manage their time well. Sometimes I feel right on the ball - and then others (more, it seems) I feel like time is managing me.
Here's hoping that I get a better handle on it - and that you all already have a great handle on your time management and to-do lists. :)
Friday, February 27, 2009
The Big Letdown
Sigh. One of the downfalls of working with the Business Court (and there are VERY FEW) is that we rarely reach the trial stage. In one year of working with the NCBC, I've taken two trials within the BC (and one really wasn't mine, but the reporter who should've had it has gone federal and her replacement hasn't started working yet!). We had one scheduled for next week. Sounded like a good one. A nice three-week, medical malpractice case. Think pages, expert witnesses, interesting terminology... rough drafts?
Alas, it's not to be. So even though I built a very nice job dictionary - thanks to the lovely pleadings available to me - and got my scopist and proofreaders lined up, it went away.
Which, in the long run, is probably okay. I have stuff I can do. I can practice for the Realtime exam (yes, you need to practice even if you write every day). I can work on my volunteer stuff. Oh, and I can do my taxes. But still, a three-week civil trial would've been nice.
Remember... don't count your pages until you write them!
Alas, it's not to be. So even though I built a very nice job dictionary - thanks to the lovely pleadings available to me - and got my scopist and proofreaders lined up, it went away.
Which, in the long run, is probably okay. I have stuff I can do. I can practice for the Realtime exam (yes, you need to practice even if you write every day). I can work on my volunteer stuff. Oh, and I can do my taxes. But still, a three-week civil trial would've been nice.
Remember... don't count your pages until you write them!
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