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April 2008 Blog Posts (16)

Shoe Shine

The rain is gone, the sun is shining. It's a beautiful day here in Brooklyn. Walking up Henry Street from the parking lot, I stop at Cranberry's to get my coffee (Decaf, soy milk) and a muffin (apple walnut). As I'm getting my change from Annette (the owner) a quarter falls on the floor. As I reach for it, I look at my shoes. Whoa! They're a mess! My chocolate brown Johnston & Murphys are gross, I can't go to work like this.

So, I leave the store and walk over to my guy, the best… Continue

Added by Anthony D. Frisolone on April 30, 2008 at 11:30 — 2 Comments

My First Blog

Hmmm....blogging. Well, here it goes.

I enjoy writing. It started in freshman year of high school and my English teacher had us keep a journal every day. She told us to wrte about anything. That's when it started. I enjoyed expressing myself in words and I felt good about it. Good and bad, all my thoughts and feelings went in to my journal.

Then in sophmore year, my classmate, Kevin Ryan, asked me if I wanted to co-write a column in the school newspaper, The Tower. It was… Continue

Added by Anthony D. Frisolone on April 30, 2008 at 7:00 — 4 Comments

Court Reporter Nightmare

Horrible experience. I went on a job and took my spare machine, SmartWriter. Well, it wouldn't turn on. At all. I called the local machine repair guy, he advised me to throw some C batts in there. With 15 minutes before start time, I ran to my car, paid $3 to get out of the garage and zoom to a local store to pay $14 for C batteries. Ran back. put them in the machine. Still dead. Turned on the manual switch and prepared to pound out a depo the old fashioned way, no computer, no disk, no… Continue

Added by Sue Baker on April 28, 2008 at 16:09 — 7 Comments

Learning how to say no.

This is one of the most important things you will ever learn to do as a court reporter. It will save your sanity.

I want to state right now that you (the court reporter) absolutely have the right to say, no, I cannot take that job. And there is no reason on earth you should feel guilty. it doesn't matter if you don't have a job the next day and you just want to take time off. It doesn't matter if you need to stay home and catch up with depositions. What matters is that if you want to… Continue

Added by Kyung on April 26, 2008 at 17:54 — 2 Comments

Time to get your priorities straight.

Tuesday, April 29th is free scoop day at Ben & Jerry's.

http://www.benjerry.com/

So take a break from your desk and go get an ice cream.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. Yum!!!!

What is your favorite flavor?

Added by Kyung on April 26, 2008 at 6:30 — 7 Comments

My DD this past weekend

Took this at my son's this weekend. We walked around his little town he and his wife live in, in PA. Near Pittsburgh.
Rho

Added by Rhoda Collins on April 23, 2008 at 15:27 — 7 Comments

Precious clients

So I get a phone call at 9:33 this morning. I'm going out the door, so I figure I'll pick up the message or call them back on the road.

Message: The job you're taking is for a really good client of mine. He's a personal friend. You have to be there, in his lobby waiting at 10:45.

The job is scheduled for 11:00 a.m.

My first thought is this, are they having a lot of problems with late reporters? So I call the agency. Are you having a problem w/late… Continue

Added by Kyung on April 17, 2008 at 20:00 — 10 Comments

Ill Health and Court reporting

Well, I have a terrible cough and a sore throat. I've pretty much lost my voice, and yet I still accepted a job. Idiot!!

Why, why did I do it? Well, thus leads to some insights into the tortured mind of a court reporter. Here is the thought process.

Yay, an agency has called with a job. But I'm so sick. I shouldn't take the job. But what if I don't get another job ever? I should take the job. But I'm so sick. Ask the agency are you really busy? Yes. Okay. I'll take the… Continue

Added by Kyung on April 15, 2008 at 20:50 — 4 Comments

Parentheticals - Let me translate them for you.

(Exhibit __ marked.) I'll mark that exhibit that you're trying to hand me as you continue to describe what the exhibit is as soon as you stop talking.

(Plaintiff's Exhibit __ marked.) or (Defendant's Exhibit ___ marked.) For those depositions where the attorney wants to make sure you know whose toys belong to who.

(Exhibit ___ marked but not attached.) Inevitably, the attorney probably read this exhibit as fast as possible and it will have all the spellings that you need… Continue

Added by Kyung on April 13, 2008 at 20:30 — 10 Comments

Pitfalls of court reporting

One of the pitfalls of court reporting is that you tend to start proofing everything you read. I was looking at a theater program the other day, and they wrote your instead of you're.

When I read newspapers, especially, the local ones, I'm always ranting and raving to my husband that I don't know who's doing the proofing on this stuff, but they're bad!!!

You end up compulsively reading and re-reading anything you write for typos. When I read books, and they've made a… Continue

Added by Kyung on April 13, 2008 at 6:41 — 6 Comments

Pregnancy Crisis Center photo shoot

I worked with a center on Tues/Wed and did photos for them for their marketing, and the mothers get a package also. They had a video shoot going on too, so hair/makeup was also done! I had fun! Was a tiring time, but fun! Here are my… Continue

Added by Rhoda Collins on April 10, 2008 at 17:00 — 5 Comments

Massages

Well, I hurt my back somehow on Friday, and I have been in pain all week long. In depo today, I sat in the most uncomfortable chair and we were there for all day. Somebody just kill me now.

Anyway, I have signed up for a cheapie massage at a place called Massage Envy. They're having an introductory massage for $39 for 1 hour. You can also buy a membership which entitles you to one hour-long free massage a month, and then unlimited massages at the low, low price of $39. If this works… Continue

Added by Kyung on April 8, 2008 at 20:46 — 11 Comments

hello... 160s

I finally did it! Whew.. it was hard. I was stuck in my 140s forever. I am glad to be able to progress and work on new things!! Hopefully I can pass my 160s very soon!!! I am going to practice my booty off!

Added by Natalie Rodriguez on April 8, 2008 at 12:23 — 9 Comments

Expedites!! Expedites!! Expedites!!

I have never seen so many expedites. I am drowning in them.

I have taken 9 depositions in the last three weeks. 1 nonappearance, which I knew was going to be a nonappearance which was the only reason I took it.

Out of those 9 depositions 7 depositions expedited. That's a lot. And we're not talking oh, I need it in a week. We're talking I need it ASAP, I need it tomorrow. The depo was taken last Wed, but I need it asap. Blah!!!

My take. I think we were so slow… Continue

Added by Kyung on April 4, 2008 at 6:14 — 2 Comments

Man up, people!!

It's very annoying when you get this scattershot e-mails from agencies saying please don't do this or that, we've been getting a lot of compaints, etc.

Conversation had when calling in to confirm job

Agency: This is a really good client. Please don't be late. We've been getting a lot of complaints in general, so we're telling all of our reporters to be early.

Me: Have I ever been late for a depo?

Agency: I really don't know. We're just asking everyone to be… Continue

Added by Kyung on April 2, 2008 at 20:35 — 20 Comments

My Next Challenge: Realtime Scoping

Okay, finally one of my court reporters has decided to tackle realtime scoping with me. She took a seminar on it a few weeks ago, and I've had a couple of opportunities to see it in action this week. She's still trying to get everything set up properly for us. We have a big trial coming up in a few months that will require realtime scoping, so I hope we get our act together before then!

From what I've seen of it so far, it's pretty cool. I get superb audio streaming of what's going… Continue

Added by Linda C. on April 1, 2008 at 12:04 — 15 Comments