Mary’s Pad

This is one of those random in-the-moment posts. I am just sitting here doing some work and Mary is transcribing a recorded audio discussion for one of her classes.  She’s using some of my old transcription equipment to make it easier, and from all the groans and under-her-breath cusswords, I am guessing she’s not having a lot of fun.  Even though the transcriber machine slows down the recording to accomodate your typing speed and has foot pedals so you can control the play, rewind, and speed functions so your hands are free to type, transcription is still a pain in the behind job.

I did some transcription for a while and made some good money from it but it just wasn’t worth it.  It’s frustrating, people tend to mumble a lot, and then a lot of times you have two or more people all speaking at the same time, plus if the recording isn’t clear it’s even worse. I never understood why people would choose to hold and tape a conversation  in a coffee shop and then think transcribing it will be easy.

Anyway, Mary’s not having fun, and it doesn’t help that the way their voices sound when the recording plays really slow has me laughing hysterically.  You should hear her say “Huh? Whaaaat?” at slow speed!