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To make a long story short, I've had this account for 4 years, and am on a salary.  At first I didn't think I would make any money since it was a salaried accout, but as it turns out, some days there is much to do and other days there is not as much, so it rather evens itself out, but then there are days when I'm working from daylight until dawn, but those days are rare.  Four years ago this was great money.  However, the COST OF LIVING has gone up exponentially!    I love this account, but it's my sole income; I have no other accounts.  Thus far I've been able to make it on this account and prefer to not take on anymore work because, as I previously mentioned, some days there is more work than I want, but it has to be done.  It would just make life much more difficult to take on more work for the days that they slam me, which outweigh the light days.  My problem is this:  I really want to ask for a raise, but afraid to rock the boat.  I realize all they can do is say no, but then, once I've mentioned wanting a raise it might plant the seed that I might be moving on if they don't give me a raise, which I have no intention of doing, but how do I tell them that?   I can't just say when asking for a raise: "Can I have a raise?"  (them) No, you cannot.  Me:  Okay, just thought I'd ask.  I am at a loss as to what to do about this situation.  Any advice would be so much appreciated from anyone with experience in such a predicament as this.  Thank you very much.

I don't know circumstances but that is so sad.  Her daughter was just born a few days ago.  Then to have her son die just days after that.  I can't imagine what a roller coaster of emotions that would be.  I know that Anna Nicole is over the top, but she seemed to love her son very much.  Very sad. 

Fellow MTs and American Idol watchers,

I made it to the top 20 in the local Zanesville, OH competition similar to American Idol. PLEASE HELP A FELLOW MT!!! You can go online and vote tomorrow for me. PLEASE!! go to www.whiznews.com or www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com and cast your vote. You should be able to hear me sing for about 90 seconds. The public vote is only a portion of the scoring. I will be judged on vocal quality and performance as well. The first night of actual competition is July 15th and then again on July 29th if I made it to the top 8. I appreciate each and every vote.  There is some stiff competition ahead of me. Lots of talent in OHIO!!! This is gonna be fun!

users.  Can you create a glossary for different doctors, or does this make sense?  I have one doc I transcribe for and then about 5 others if I run out of work so there would be a lot of crossover, e.g. physical exam phrases. 

I'm on the verge of purchasing it and guess just need that one more recommendation to push me over; the one that says I'll produce 2000 percent more, make a bajillion dollars and be able to retire in six months!   

I have noticed on most job requirements they say no dial up or satellite internet.  High speed isn't available in my area and my only option is satellite for high speed.  Anyone know why lots of companies don't want satellite?  I thought it was a good thing?

Thought I'd share this with y'all. Tried this and it works for sure. Nice resource to help MTs.

How many changes do I have to learn now? Does it ever end? I guess buying #2 and the CD was flushing money down the drain. I know - whatever the client wants - but they didn't agree with #2, so we shall see how #3 goes.

I scheduled the exam date first and then started studying.  I allowed six weeks for this and felt comfortable with it since I was an experienced MT.  I normally would have studied first and then scheduled the exam but I wanted to make sure I followed through with it.  I was going along pretty well with my studying schedule although life was really getting in the way and it was hard to stay on track.  Then my husband's brother and his wife called to ask if they could come visit for the weekend.  (They never do this!) I was proud of hubby who said, uh, ok, but my wife has a big exam coming up and is studying.  At this point, this left me one more crucial weekend to study.  I did not need company!  They came anyway and stayed the entire weekend.  The stress put me over the edge and I ended up with back spasms for which I had to take some really strong muscle relaxants for.  Now I'm stressed, doped up and panicked.  They left the day before the exam.  I was coming off the medication and praying hard.  I took the test and felt okay about it.  They give you the results almost immediately following the exam.  The lady said she was sorry but I failed the exam by one point.  I thought she was kidding - she wasn't.  I find it hard to believe that if I had that last weekend to study that I would not have passed.  I can't get it out of my mind.  At this point, I don't plan on re-taking the exam.  I feel like that ship has sailed.

Do you think hubby's relatives were rude? I do!  I know I struggle with boundaries and this is a very good example.  I thought I would share this in case someone else could learn from it too.

Thanks for listening!

my son to have his wisdom teeth removed.  Charged us $75.00 for the consult.  I didn't like the oral surgeon and his office staff were very standoffish can I did not make an appointment with him for surgery, but with another oral surgeon.   I had to pay the $75.00 up front - no problem, but they filed the insurance with the money coming to them.  It has been 5 weeks now since they received payment and I have called twice asking for a refund.  They told me the insurance company had 90 days to come back and ask for the money, but I PAID upfront so what difference does that make, they aren't out anything and they have $52.00 of MY money on top of the $75.00.   They said they would issue a check next week, but is what they told me 2 weeks ago.  It isn't a lot of money, it is the principle of the thing.

Went to another oral surgeon and they didn't charge me anything for the consult and the amount I have to pay upfront is $300.00 less than what the other office quoted me.  

I use a small space heater here in my office, but mine is old and doesn't work half the time.  My office is only 8 x 10.  Our power bills are going up 40% (yikes!) this winter, so I want to be prepared to turn down the temperature in the rest of the house and still keep warm in my office.  What are some preferences among my fellow MTs?  Ceramic?  Oil-filled?  Forced heat?  Which brand names are the best?

I am trying to find out what are the advantages/disadvantages of Lanier versus other platforms? 

Harder/easier?

Outdated/up-to-date?

I am getting numness and tingling in hands, pain in wrists up forearm to elbow...thinking about buying an ergonomic keyboard or changing careers....

ouch

My kids and their friends threaten to video me on their phones and post it on YouTube or something because.... honestly, sometimes I get really rockin when I'm working.  Heee heee

Then I came across this video the other day and I thought.... Oh My!  That could be ME caught in a "moment" one of these days.

Will try to link to the video.  Hopefully it works.

Does anyone have any information on health insurance for ICs? I am a new MT and have only been working for three months, and unfortunately the company that I work for does not offer benefits.  If anyone has any information I would really appreciate it.

Oh! By the way I know about Blue Cross Blue Shield, and will not consider going through them. They are way too expensive and they do not cover any pre-existing conditions.

Here is another poll. I would like to hear from anybody with MT experience, but I am especially interested to hear from MTs with 10+ years experience.

If you had to do it over again, would you still have gotten into the field of MT?

I am totally new to the at home transcription profession.  I found someone to type for but when she sent me the file, .dss, it didn't play on Express Scribe.  Now, I have been on their forums and tried ALL of the suggestions and nothing worked.  Apparently it has something to do with the way the new version of ES interacts with XP or something.  So I found a DSS Player Lite at Olympus and it played the file, but ofcourse there wasn't any foot controls or speed, et cetera.  I was just wondering if there are possibly other, preferablly free or cheap, software programs that I can use to play these DSS files.  I have another person I will be transcribing for as well but I guess she uses a different file format so I am hoping that it will play with ES. I am just so frustrated and don't know what to do to get started making some money.  Can anybody help me??       

Thanks!!

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i thought i remembered seeing on these boards that to hook up a peripheral keyboard to a laptop, you have to disable the laptop one? i cannot find info when i try to search...if so, how do you do it?  

many thanks.

Paula