Sitcom & screenplay writer/philanthropist. - no message
Posted By: Melissa on 2009-04-02
In Reply to: Describe your dream job in one sentence. (anything goes; it's a dream job.) - Octo-MT
:)
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Sitcom couples
Well, my husband and I are your Lucy and Ricky. I always "have a plan" and he always bails me out. He is a hot-blooded Scicilian, though, not Cuban - and I do have red hair. We have dressed up at Halloween as Lucy and Ricky and he even took me to the State Fair when they had the I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary set-up - I have pictures of us doing the "Candy conveyor belt scene" and he took my picture doing Vitametavegimen. Just played the I Love Lucy Trivia game the other day - it is fun, but very difficult. Like, what was the name of the man at the hotel desk - from the episode where Lucy refuses to stay in the same room with Ricky because she is mad that he didn't want to "remarry" her. LOL. (Bert Willoughby - I knew that it would drive some of you crazy not knowing).
Fun topic: How do you compare with TV sitcom marriages???
Are you and your spouse more like.....................
A) Tim and Jill (Home Improvement)
B) Roseanne and Dan (Roseanne)
C) Howard and Marion (Happy Days)
D) AL and Peg (Married with Children)
E) Raymond and Debra (Everybody loves Raymond)
F) Steven and Elyse (Family Ties)
G) Other ____________
We are probably most like Tim and Jill but a little bit of Raymond and Debra thrown in. LOL.
I think you'd be a great writer. (U already are.) - nm
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I'm a steno writer
I went to school to learn how to use a steno machine, like in court, to "type" my medical reports. I have been doing this since 2000. I trained at 225 words per minute back in the day, so now I have a reservoir of speed to draw from when dictation speeds up. I rarely need to lift my foot off the pedal with steno.
I think steno is the fastest way to produce a report, but now that MQ is forcing us to do ASR work, I am not using my machine as much. To me, this is unacceptable since they only pay 70% of our base line rate for ASR. I have hung in there so far, but I'm fast approaching the need to get out of MQ since I used to produce 2000 lines a day easily with steno, way less now on ASR reports.
They say ASR is 30% faster than non-ASR thus they justify knocking off 30% of our base rate. Not true. ASR has slowed me way down, can barely make the minimum each day. Last I heard, they will not take us off ASR if we request it. I'm getting madder by the week and losing tons of money in the process.
lanier voice writer
Does anyone know of any companies that still use these? I am a die hard Lanier fan! Thanks.
She is a great writer. I read
In the Meantime, by that author, she used to be on Oprah a long time ago. Thanks for the poem, enjoyed it, especially the last line.
lanier voice writer
 HELP! I'm going crazy. All of a sudden my foot pedal went down on this unit - I have opened it and replugged a million times to no avail. Any solutions or suggestions/ Thanks!
Writer and PT marketing consultant
z
Meant professional writer. Know what HIM is. Sorry. nm
X
Lanier Voice Writer 1000
Client uses phone in Lanier Voice Writer 1000 with MTs coming into the office to transcribe. What is necessary to hire at home transcriptionists with this system? Are there tapes involved, will a c-phone work or can you not hire at home transcriptionists with this system? Thank you for any help you may have.
What do you need a Master's Degree in to be a science writer?
?
For all the fans, very interesting insight from the writer of the show.
Shonda Rhimes long take on part two:
From Shonda: It's the end of the episode (as we know it)
Original Airdate: 2-12-06
So Dylan’s dead.
And I have to admit, I’m a teeny bit relieved.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Kyle Chandler. He was great as Dylan. Smart, funny, cute, and very much in charge. I was, in fact, a little bit in love with Dylan. Not as in love as I am with McDreamy or Burke but…you know, there were moments during the filming of the episodes when Dylan would be saying something bossy or helping Mer down the hall, pushing that gurney and being all bomb squad-y, moments that I was thinking, hey, maybe he doesn’t have to explode.
But still I am relieved. Why? Well, I’m glad you asked. Here’s why:
At the end of Act Five, there is a scene. Scene 52. I wrote this scene about fifteen minutes before I had to print out the script and hand it over to production. It reads as follows:
INT. OR CORRIDOR -- CONTINUOUS
Meredith leans her head out. Sees Dylan heading down the hall. She's just about to open her mouth...
...When the ammo explodes. When Dylan explodes. Fire, shattering glass. Meredith is thrown backwards.
Okay, that’s…what? An eighth of a page? A sixteenth of a page? A tiny fraction of the script, right?
The ammo explodes.
Dylan explodes.
I wrote those words and was actually ignorant enough of the horrors to come that I gave it to the production team and then slept the sleep of babies and angels for several nights in a row.
The ammo explodes.
Dylan explodes.
Seriously? SERIOUSLY?
All of the sudden, you find yourself in meetings with real live bomb squad guys and special effects guys and a very tense director and everyone is asking you things like “When you say, bloody rain…you actually want bloody rain or just like, some blood spatter?” And things like “When Dylan explodes, you wanna see chunks of Dylan or do you want like, a Dylan vapor?”
These are thing I don’t want to think about. These are things that make my head hurt. The ammo explodes. Dylan explodes. It’s in the script. I wrote it. I know that. But I don’t want to think about Dylan chunks or bloody rain. I don’t want to think about it at all. I like to write things and have them happen. I like to keep myself in a kind of stalker-ish fog in which I believe my characters aren’t characters but actual people. It’s how I can write them. So when you ask me about Dylan chunks, my brain gets all twisty and shuts down. Because Dylan’s a person, a very real person to me and I love him and it’s not my fault he has to die and besides…yuck.
But I’ve got Rob Corn on my ass.
Rob Corn doesn’t care if I try to kick everyone out of my office when they bring up bloody rain or he doesn’t care if I try to pretend I can’t speak English when someone asks me about bloody chunks. Rob Corn is the producer on our show and it’s his job to make things happen and, if I am stupid enough to write Dylan explodes on a piece of paper, Rob Corn is damn well going to make sure that Dylan explodes. Behind his back, I like to call Rob Corn Bossy McBossy. It doesn’t sound affectionate here but in real life, it’s really sweet and kind. Trust me. Anyway, Bossy McBossy told me that we had to do tests so we could figure out how exactly Dylan explodes.
Tests? Dylan explodes. What’s there to test? HA! I’m clearly an idiot.
They built this model of Dylan’s body and one day I am herded out onto the back lot of the studio at the request of Bossy McBossy Rob Corn. Then I have to stand and watch as 20 or 30 really happy guys (testosterone is a powerful thing) position the model of Dylan just right and explode it into tiny little pieces. Twice. It is very loud. Wow. Dylan explodes. I’m all, “great, thanks, way to go, very manly.” And I turn to flee, prepared to head back to my office, happy that the Dylan explodes part of this is over so I can pay attention to the other stuff, the estrogen stuff, the fun stuff like Bailey and George giving birth and Derek describing that kiss to Meredith…
…But Rob Corn raises an eyebrow and very gently says, “Uh, Shonda?” and I go really still with horror. Because I suddenly start to realize that a) that little test was only the beginning and b) that, for the rest of my life, I was going to regret ever typing the words Dylan explodes into my computer.
They blew up test dummies. Tall dummies, dusty dummies, dummies with helmets, dummies without helmets. They blew up test dummies filled with fake blood. They blew up pieces of our set. They set off an explosion on the set of our operating rooms. They used stunt girls and stunt guys. Ellen let them pull her through the air. I think there were blue screens and green screens and animated pieces of debris and glass. The genius special effects guys added fire and smoke and things I can’t imagine but things that made it amazing. The sound guys added over 100 layers of sound elements so that, if you have HD and you watch with surround sound speakers, the explosion flies at you and passes you and swirls around you.
Dylan explodes.
The explosion was beautiful. Amazing work and truly impressive. I told everyone so. I can’t believe the amount of talent and energy that come together to make this show happen. But next time I get a Super Bowl and post-Super Bowl time slot, I’m gonna write something different. Something a bit easier. Something less time-consuming and expensive. And without so many bloody chunks.
Dylan puts the ammo down and goes to have a sandwich.
Enough about Dylan, may he rest in peace. I want to tell you about the difference between the first episode titled “It’s the End of the World” and the second episode “(As We Know It)”.
I tried really hard to make the first episode very male and the second episode very female. I wanted them to fit together, like puzzle pieces. So that I could have two episodes about the same thing but that felt very different from one another. The first episode is all amped up energy, all naked girls and screaming and bombs and running down hallways and men saying things like “Get out of my OR.” The second episode is all long pauses. Long pauses and sitting and pushing out babies and kissing in linen closets and lots of discussion about how the hell this is all going to end. The first episode is what happens when danger strikes. The second episode is how we deal with danger when it strikes. The epicenter of this episode is the hallway/gurney scene. It’s the first scene I envisioned at all when thinking of these two episodes. I kept saying, “there needs to be this scene where Meredith and Cristina move down the hall really slowly with the ammo and Dylan and talk about boys.” And everyone kept nodding very politely with tight smiles the way they do when they are sure you have gone off the deep end. But Elizabeth Klaviter (she’s our super smart medical researcher) got on the phone with the bomb squad guys and the doctors and she got them to tell her how this would be possible. How I could get that gurney rolling so Meredith and Cristina could discuss the state of Cristina’s relationship. I needed that discussion which, for me, is really just a big old metaphor for how we deal with the tragedies in life. You’ve got your hand on a bomb but you don’t want to talk about it over and over, you don’t want to face it – so you talk about something else. Most of life is talking about something else. Plus, I found this really cool song by The Greenskeepers that I was dying to use.
George is a big key to this episode. If you pay attention, he’s the one who serves as our witness. Through most of the episode, he wanders around, a bit bewildered. He’s the one who feels the most helpless. And then he has that moment with Hannah where she talks about the nature of cowardice, where she says that to do nothing is to be a coward. And he acts. He helps Bailey through giving birth. In the first episode, he’s fantasizing about what it would be like to see three women in the shower. In the second episode, he sees what three women in a shower is like in reality. Because, guys, women don’t just climb in a shower and start soaping each other up for no reason. Hello!? Life isn’t porn. Life is Meredith, bloody and battered, being gently cleaned off (chunks of Dylan) by her best friends. And so he leaves. Because what he is seeing is too intimate.
The last thing I want to say about this episode has to do with Meredith. Because all she really wants is some kind of reason to live. I’ve heard a lot of talk about Meredith being whiny but the truth is, she’s got a mom with Alzheimer’s, no other family to speak of, and the man she loves is married. She’s pretty freaking lonely, people. She’s got a right to get her whine on. So, when she falters, when she doesn’t want to pull her hand out of Mr. Carlson, it’s partly because she’s got nothing to hang on to. As she says in the first episode, she needs a reason to go on, she needs some hope. Which is why she has to picture Derek to get through it. And at the end, when he shows up at her house (and he shows up just to see for himself that she is alive), she has to ask. She has to ask him about their last kiss because if she’s ever going to get out of that bed again and keep going, she needs a reason. She needs to know there’s someone out there for her. She needs some hope. And Derek (can Patrick Dempsey be any more amazing?) describes that last kiss, the last kiss they had as a happy couple, in such perfect detail that Meredith knows she’ll be okay. Because he wouldn’t remember that kiss so well if he didn’t love her. He couldnt. Its her sign.
He loves her. Even if he can’t be with her. Even if he has a wife.
He loves her, people.
I told you, there’s hope.
I can’t promise you anything because, like I said earlier, the characters are alive for me and thus, I can’t make them do anything against their will. But my fingers and toes are crossed for the Mer/Der love…
Once again, thanks for watching the show.
Anything by Elie Wiesel...he is an amazing person/writer..nm
nm
Too bad the writer didn't address the true reasons why this is not
an attractive field to enter.
Who in their right mind would spend time and money training in a dying profession? Can you say EMR, ASR?
Who in their right mind would spend time and money to train for a job which conceiveably could end up paying minimum wages, few benefits, little reward?
How many have spent time and money training only to find there are few companies who will hire newbies, few companies who offer flexible work schedules, few companies who work with you to make a living wage rather than to throw you into a pool of accounts guaranteed to keep your wages low?
How many expert MTs have left the profession due to reasons above?
CEOs need to wake up and take care of the excellent MTs they can manage to retain; quit messing with our paychecks with creative line counting, quit throwing multiple accounts at us and then expect 1000s of lines a day, quit basing our health insurance on production rather than hours worked; quit expecting us to be happy to work outside our scheduled hours because you provided no work within our scheduled hours with your too tight TATs, and on and on.
How often do I recommend this profession to young people? Never.
I'll write it..I am a professional freelance writer as well as an MT
Let the ideas roll!
digital phoneline with Lanier voice writer
I recently had my unlimited long distance suspended because of the time I was putting in on the lanier voice writer. I as going to switch to digital through the cable company with a data line added for access to dial tone. Does anyone have any suggestions good or bad on the digital phone line used with the LAnier voicewriter. Please let me know.
Thank, Lisa
I just sent it to 60 Minutes staff writer - You guys help me- please read
Who ever mentioned sending it to Lou Dobbs, Dateline, or anybody else, please send this along yourself and name who you sent it to here on this site, so it is not duplicated to the same person too much. Girls, I don't want any credit for this - I just want someone to look into this who has access to any credible sources and figures. What ever it takes to get this out there - please help me do it. We are talking about 30 MILLION jobs and counting. I have already sent it on whitehouse.gov and to 2 newspapers. Copy the thing. Spread it around as much as you can and encourage others to do the same.
Venting-why do people keep putting nm and THEN writing a message?? nm means no message - sm
Please put sm if you have a message and NM if there is no message other than your subject line. It makes it easier when reading these messages. thanks so much and have a nice day everyone.
small message. nm means no message
see?
Flame=200 views, sm=see message, nm=no message
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sm, see (or short) message, nm is no message.
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sm-see message, nm-no message, ks-I think it's someone's initials.
nm
or no message, small message - whatever SM
any indication there is no need to waste time opening the post.
it is irritating also when people type through the subject line as well as the name line and then do not indicate if it is worth pursuing.
sm is see message not small message. I almost always
put NM or nt if there is no message, but quite a lot of people still open the posts as evidenced by the number of views.
your message
You NAILED it on the head. The rest of these women just don't get it. Good post.
see message
You messed it up yourself. Why are you blaming the recruiter? Your test was not good. You prematurely sent in a resignation. Do you actually think it was someone else's fault?
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Boy!!!! I'm glad I woke everyone up today; bet you feel more energized, don't you??? I am not making light of this horrible tragedy. I would have been devastated if it had been my son. There is a saying out there, "chance prefers the prepared mind"; in other words, at least think ahead and try to prepare; of course no one can be right about everything all the time. I have just seen and read about so many instances where the parents or "caretakers" of a child were negligent that resulted in irreparable harm to the child or children. I still cannot blame that driver without further info as to exactly how that happened. If I were driving that car and did not see that 2 year old and ran over him, I would actually be a victim as well because that is something I could never, ever forget!!
see message
See where the X to close out the Word window is? Right next to the ruler bar for the margin there should be an up arrow (for scrolling). Right above that is a little line. Put your cursor on the line and move it up to the top.
So.....see message please
You asked. I'm answering.
It's not worth it. Run away as fast as you can and find another profession.
Please see message
My 15yo got this. Tried all OTC products. Nothing worked. She has very, very thick hair! Enough for 3-4 people. It is also below her mid back. We used Crisco oil and Joy dishwashing liquids. She slept with the Crisco oil on her head overnight (roughly 10 hours) and then we washed it out with Joy (OMG at the amount of nasty lil bugs in the tub!). Waited 10 days and did it again (mainly just for her to feel better). She has never had them again.
See Message?
Did you notice this link on the partner site?
see message
Many, many dance studios offer adult classes in levels from beginner to professional. I've taken tons of them. I will be signing up again as soon as we can afford it! Where are you located?
Hope this helps!
Please see message.
I know that years ago Dictaphone had a hand-controlled pedal which I had used. You might want to contact the Dictaphone Company and find out if this option is still available.
As far as I know, you cannot hook a C-phone pedal to your computer. However, I may be wrong about that; although I would think if it could be done it would be quite complicated.
Another option you might want to think about is to re-record your dictations to your computer and play them back as .wav files. This can be done through the sound recorder with a connection that you can buy at Radio Shack for about $20. I have done this in the past and though the sound quality was not the best, I could still hear and understand the dictations.
See the message.
http://forum.mtstars.com/word/v/1/840.html
see message
So, are there 15 openings because MTs have left? If so, that seems like a lot for just one hospital.
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The spellchecker is Dorlands. It came with the hardback Dorland's Dictionary. The spellchecker came on a CD which you have to load into your computer. You also a password to get access to Dorlands.com for research, etc. I bought mine from Amazon, but I think 49.95 is the going price about anywhere.
message
my, but you are a vindictive person aren't you. Like I said, if you don't mind a background check, go for it.
If you hire a painter/plumber/handyman and do a background check, you will have to do the work yourself.
I'm out of here.
Been there. See message.
My son, now 15, had major problems with reflux when he was baby that wasn't "corrected" until he got really sick. He would vomit what appeared to be every ounce of formula he took in. The doctors told me to put rice cereal in his formula and then put him on his stomach on a bed pillow so that the formula would stay down.
Yeah, right. Just ended up washing more blankets and bed pillows. It wasn't until he was 5 months old that someone finally did something. Poor guy had pneumonia. We took him to the ER and he spent 4 days in the hospital. The diagnosis was pneumonia from aspiration. He was vomiting so hard that he was sucking the formula down into his lungs.
While at the hospital, he had a barium swallow ultrasound that showed that the opening into his stomach (sorry brain cramp for the med term) did not close after eating. They put him on Reglan (metoclopramide). I was told that this medication relaxes the spasms in the stomach opening so that it will close properly. I was told that most children will grow out of it before they are 3 and that some will have it longer or may require surgery. My son was on this medication until he was 5 or 6.
My son still gets occasional heartburn at 15, but it's very rare. It's usually when he eats something like a whole pepperoni pizza, which is to be expected.
Sorry I took so long, but my advice to you, if you haven't already done so, is to talk to your pediatrician about a gastro consult or ask your pediatrician to order a barium swallow, etc., etc. The medication your child is on only quiets the symptoms and obviously isn't curing the real problem.
As sick as your child is, there is something wrong with this picture.
Good luck!
right (no message)
x
See Message.
Send your Username and Password to Webmaster@MTStars.com for deletion of resume bank account.
Thanks.
Thanks See Message
I was more worried about the damage to my self rather than the computer. I live in the Ozarks (Missouri). I woke up yesterday with no power. Thankfully everything is still up and running, but living in MO, a surge protector is a great idea. Thanks everyone!!!
Thanks See Message
I was more worried about the damage to my self rather than the computer. I live in the Ozarks (Missouri). I woke up yesterday with no power. Thankfully everything is still up and running, but living in MO, a surge protector is a great idea. Thanks everyone!!!
Please see message
http://continuinged.uml.edu/online/default.htm
Check 'em out! I'm working on mine too for the same reasons you are.
There are better careers out there than one that:
1. Keeps you so isolated from the world that your only friends are cyber ones.
2. You have no way of budgeting because your pay is never the same twice, and not enough to live on in the first place.
3. You get no respect from employers or anyone else for that matter. "Oh, do you still have that little typing job of yours?"
I'm with you, sistah! This job is crap and I'm so outta here.
Best of luck!
Thanks (no message)
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Thanks (no message)
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that should be more to it...so sorry! (no message)
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See message.
1. They are transferring people on the account over to another system and you are not on that system yet, or, for that matter, the hospital accounts are being put on another system and it takes time to accomplish this.
2. The account you are on is in NY or some place and you live in LA or Chicago or Seattle. They do not wish to use long distance anymore. They are going over to another system.
This is just speculation on my part, but have been in your shoes with another company. They do not care about you. They may bitch and moan about not having any "qualified" MTs, but they could give a poop.
I am truly sorry for what you are going through.
Sorry, will do (no message)
Your message
I did some searches on what you told me to check --RTKING, JAY VANCE, STOP STOP TRANSCRIPTION and could not find anything except for Vance to set up security, any additional info so I could find these sites. Also do you ise one of the Internet based call in systems where you pay by the minute of dictation -- do you p ass that onto the docs? Just curious how that works.
Thanks
see message please
It is
The patient's last clinical breast examination
I type tplc and the sentence comes into advisory to top line. I hit [ which should expand it but after only three words, "the patient's last," it fizzles. Sometimes it throws out mumbo jumbo, sometimes two words, never the full sentence.
THIS IS DRIVING ME CRAZY. What is it I am doing or not doing!!!!
ahem...thank you
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If you aren't making your lines, yes, they are going to determine why and see how they can help you get them where they are supposed to be. They've got work coming out of their ears. If it is because of something out of your control, I'd call your supervisor and/or Karen, and discuss it with them. If not finding satisfaction there, as a last resort I'd possibly contact either Cindy or Jane and discuss it with them. Certainly discuss it with your supervisor and/or Karen first. I've found them to be very understanding in dire situations.
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