Kyung's Blog (158)

Pandora has started charging

I am absolutely bummed. I wrote a long while back about Pandora, which is an online music service where you can listen to music while you're proofing. It used to be all free. And I discovered a lot of new music.



Well, they've started charging. You get 40 hours free, and then they charge. You can pay $36 for the year, which is not much. But it's like paying for radio, I rebel.



Today I listened to Yahoo… Continue

Added by Kyung on July 27, 2009 at 17:04 — No Comments

Parking aggravation

We started at 9:30 and went to 6:55, which is a very long day for me. Bec. I have to leave my house at 7 a.m. to make it to downtown L.A.



Then I parked in the Los Angeles Mall, which closes at 6 p.m. This is before I found out the attorney was planning on going past 6 p.m. So I had to pre-pay my parking and tape the parking receipt to the inside windshield of my car so they wouldn't tow it. Then after we were done for the day, which if we ended at 6:55, I didn't get packed up for… Continue

Added by Kyung on July 1, 2009 at 6:12 — 10 Comments

Fourth of July



Jumping the gun as usual. It sounds it's going to be slow for work this Friday. Also heard that a lot of cities around the nation are not going to be able to afford a Fourth of July celebration, which is a shame.



I don't know about the rest of the nation, I think in most of California fireworks are illegal. So what are you going to be doing for the Fourth of July? Barbeque? Parades? Staying at home? Concerts?



We're going to… Continue

Added by Kyung on June 29, 2009 at 19:51 — 4 Comments

Proper Costco Etiquette

Proper etiquette for snatching food from the sample people.

Make one long queue.

Do not cut in front of others.

Do not collect for your whole family.

Do not stand behind the sample person and reach over them to snatch from the table.



Please say thank you.

Take a napkin.

Throw you sample wrapper/napkin away in the trash bin. Do not leave for the next family that will be using your cart.



Observe the right of way. Very often difficult to tell.… Continue

Added by Kyung on June 20, 2009 at 15:00 — 3 Comments

More pet peeves - spellouts

Yes. Yes. I know I'm ranting lately, and this hasn't happened recently but when it does, I feel very dismissed.



So you're asking for spellouts and the attorney tells you just to spell it phonetically or they tell you we'll do it later and you know they're just going to run out the door at the end of the depo or you're asking the witness spellings and the attorney tells the witness, let's go. Or they ask you in that tone (you know the tone) are you done yet?



Excuse me, but… Continue

Added by Kyung on June 16, 2009 at 8:19 — 2 Comments

Another pet peeve - business cards

You know you're getting old when you can't read the business cards that the attorney's are handing out.

I have a particularly difficul time with 8 and 6 and 0. Last night, I had to whip out my huge Sherlock Holmesian magnifying glass to look at the attorney's phone number.

I guess with all the added information on these attorney's card, the font is getting smaller and smaller. Well, at least that's what I tell myself.

Added by Kyung on June 14, 2009 at 9:32 — 5 Comments

copies

So I see a lot of discussions about the page rate and getting paid. But what about the copies? Yeah, the copies.



Are you guys getting a lot of copy orders or are most of your jobs O&1? Here in Southern California, they do the heinous Southern Cal stip where they relieve us of our duty to maintain the transcript and send the original to the other side, so they don't order a copy. Not so prevalent in Northern Cal.



How old is your oldest outstanding copy order? How old… Continue

Added by Kyung on May 28, 2009 at 7:25 — 9 Comments

Bike riding

Well, today I bought a bike. We moved to Irvine a couple of years ago, and there's lots of trails and things. My daughter is five now. It will be nice for the whole family to be able to go bike riding together.



I got a nice purple beach cruiser.



I have to tell you, I haven't been on a bike in over 25 years, maybe 30. I was terrified. I was pretty sure I would be able to ride it once I got it going on. The hard part for me is getting on and getting off without falling over.… Continue

Added by Kyung on May 23, 2009 at 18:30 — No Comments

Maintenance

So I'm down to my last three packs of paper. So I go to Steno Doctor to buy another case.



I've been thinking about going paperless for a while now. But my ink ribbon is still good. I want to time it so that I run out of paper and ink at the same time, but that's never going to happen. While I'm there, they tell me Stenograph is going out of the paper business, which I vaguely remember getting an e-mail about them selling off that part of the business to Pengad or some other business… Continue

Added by Kyung on May 22, 2009 at 14:25 — 4 Comments

David Alan Grier

So we went to the Improv last night to see David Alan Grier. The man has gotten older, but he is still very funny.

At one point, I was laughing so hard my stomach was hurting. I thought I was going to die if I didn't start laughing so hard. So funny!!!

Added by Kyung on May 10, 2009 at 20:59 — 1 Comment

What I knew my first year out - emergencies

One of the most important numbers to get is the after-hours emergency number.



What? What's that?



We've taken those jobs where the attorney says it's only ten more minutes. And yet three hours later you're still going. Or we get a time estimate of three hours. And yet, seven-plus hours later, you're still going. You child is waiting at childcare waiting for someone to pick them up. You're physically wrung out. You're looking at 300-plus pages. Oh, by the way, around hour 5,… Continue

Added by Kyung on May 5, 2009 at 16:12 — No Comments

Mountains and mountains of tapes

So I have a pile of cassette tapes. Right now, I'm at the Jenga stage. But some day, I will be reaching the landfill stage.



What do you guys do with all your cassette tapes?



Back in the day, my girlfriend would make tape mixes. Yes, some of the younger reporters are going tape mixes? What are those? Well, we used to make mixes of different songs that we copied off of our music cassettes and listen to them in the car.



Anyway, nobody does that anymore. It's all… Continue

Added by Kyung on May 3, 2009 at 6:30 — 13 Comments

Mountains and Mountains of Exhibits

Do you ever get scared that you're going to be buried alive under a pile of exhibits? Sometimes I have to take a day just to get all my exhibits in order and get them out to the agency. It's craziness.



Don't you just love it when you have towering stacks of exhbits? Do you ever worry that they will topple over and all your exhibits from your different jobs will get mingle together?



Have you ever had to tear your office apart because you misplaced an exhibit and you know… Continue

Added by Kyung on April 17, 2009 at 17:48 — 2 Comments

Choo!! Choo!! Pity train pulling out. Feel free to jump on!!

I owe a boatload of taxes this year. And if that isn't enough. I've also got to scrounge up enough to pay my quarterlies too. Darn!!

They're due Wed. Postmarked!!

Added by Kyung on April 13, 2009 at 10:00 — 10 Comments

Doctor Depos - first year out

First a few things that are obvious but can be overlooked.



Doctor depos can be amazingly, mind-bogglingly difficult or really, really easy. It's the luck of the draw. If you get an easy one, figure the page rate is going to balance with the days the doctor has an accent so thick he might as well be speaking Klingon and no amount of money is going to compensate you.



That being said EVERYONE can take a doctor's depo. EVERYONE. Of course, the caveat is if the questioning… Continue

Added by Kyung on April 5, 2009 at 6:00 — 2 Comments

Tomorrow my baby is five

Tomorrow my baby is five. She is not a baby anymore. She's a little girl. We're having a birthday party for her, and I know she's looking forward to it.



I, on the other hand, am a little bittersweet. My baby is growing up. She still says that she wants to live with me forever. I'll remind her when she tries to go away for college. Better yet, I'll videotape her saying it.



But really, if you've seen my pics of my daughter. She's lost her baby chubs. She's a little girl,… Continue

Added by Kyung on April 4, 2009 at 21:00 — 2 Comments

First year out - interpreted depositions

This could potentially be the easiest deposition that will leave you with a headache.



Call from the agency.



Agency: We've got you on a really easy interpreted depo.

Me: Okay.



Let's break that down. So many things to consider here. Interpreted depos can be easy, really easy. But they can also be really, really difficult. It depends somewhat on the language being interpreted.



Let's break that down.



Spanish - the deposition will be most… Continue

Added by Kyung on March 31, 2009 at 8:00 — 14 Comments

Caveat emptor

There are thousands of great agencies out there. There are thousands of great reporters out there. And this is a wonderful site for these two groups of people to find each other. Who knows, it might be a match made in heaven.



But (you knew there would be one) there are agencies and reporters out there who aren't quite what they seem to be.



What can you do?



Well, of course, you can post on here and ask for referrals. Hopefully, people will send you an e-mail or… Continue

Added by Kyung on March 24, 2009 at 21:00 — No Comments

Why court reporters should not text

Okay. I finally tried texting. I had a cell phone but I never texted. In fact, I didn't even have that service. Recently I added it on. It's been great. I have more contact with one friend who I can never, ever get ahold of. You call and call and she never returns your calls. (Anyhoo, that's another rant).



Back to our regularly scheduled program.



Do you realize how difficult it is to text when you are used to writing out everything and making sure everything is correct. I… Continue

Added by Kyung on March 20, 2009 at 8:29 — 11 Comments

Feelin' like a hamster spinning her wheel

Lately, I've been feelin' like a hamster on a wheel. I'm trying to work more so I can take up some slack in our financial situation. But the more I make, the more I have to pay out. It's craziness.



I pay quarterly, and yet I still owe taxes. And then on top of it, I'm trying to make more than I did last year because I need to make the ends meet, but then I think I'll end up owing more taxes. Wah!!



The economy is not my friend at the moment.



Well, just venting.… Continue

Added by Kyung on March 14, 2009 at 19:59 — 3 Comments

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