General Transcription: Am I cut out to do it?

So folks, I've gone ahead and taken the plunge into transcription. The only other experience I had was over 10 years ago when I transcribed a few audios of focus group dialogues for a test product. I quite enjoyed the challenge, and am a stickler for detail, so when I saw the ad seeking transcriptionists on Craiglist, I applied.

Transcription is most definitely not for everyone. At this point, after ploughing through over an hour of audio (which has taken me at least 7 hours since I'm so slow, being a perfectionist and all), I'm not sure if I'm cut out to be a transcriptionist either!

I love using my new Infinity Foot Pedal, that's for sure. And I also invested in the Express Scribe Pro, which doesn't work 100% correct on my Mac OS Mountain Lion. (It crashes when I try to type it in, but does fine if I type in another word processing program i.e. Textedit in Mac).

This first job paid 32-1/2 cents per audio minute (my boss keeps half of the 75 cents), so I've made a grand total of $40 for about 8 hours of work. That's a pitiful $5 an hour. Probably less. So once I realized that, I let go of my perfectionsitic tendencies a little bit, and just tried to get the transcriptions done.

Let's see how this goes the next couple weeks. It's nice to have some money coming in, even if it's below minimum wage, but I am pretty sure I could make more by blogging!  At least I've almost recovered the cost of that foot pedal :p

xo Gracie 

p.s. It would be AWESOME if you could click on any ad here - my sponsors give me a few cents per click. Thanks for supporting my blog!

Getting free Itunes music for use in Mac Videos

I'm putting together a video using IMovie (a steep learning curve, but it's pretty awesome), and needed some music to add to it before uploading to Youtube.

Fearing copyright issues (dang those copyright trolls!) I did some googling and found out:

• Yes there is free music available for download on iTunes (iTunes Store > Quick Links > Free on iTunes, read PCworld's article for more info) 
• BUT if you're going to upload on Youtube, it's best to avoid using any of these. Reason being, some copyright troll is going to file a (wrongful) copyright infringement on your royalty-free audio, and you will have the awful hassle of countering that claim. (see Raoul's review)
• Free, royalty-free and downloadable music is available on Jamendo (all music genres) and Musopen (classical music). You can use this music on your Youtube videos, giving proper credit to the artist and for non-commercial purposes - this is a way for new artists to get their music out there.

xo Gracie 

p.s. It would be AWESOME if you could click on any ad here - my sponsors give me a few cents per click. Thanks for supporting my blog!

Capture a Screen Shot with Mac

Capturing a screen shot (an image of my desktop or active window) is easy on the Mac. (On my PC it was Ctrl-Prntscrn). Got these tips from Sue Chastain's article on About.com. On the Mac:

1. To capture the whole desktop, it's Command-Shift-3. Then check the Desktop for the automatically saved PNG file.
2. To copy the whole desktop, it's Command-Control-Shift-3. Then you can paste the automatically saved screen shot from your clipboard to another program. (Note: to copy instead of capture, you'll add Control to the keyboard shortcuts for capture.)
3. To capture only a part of the desktop, it's Command-Shift-4. A magic cursor will appear that you can click, drag and select the area to capture. Releasing the mouse button will automatically save the screen shot on the desktop as a PNG file.
4. To capture a specific application window, it's Command-Shift-4-Spacebar. The cursor becomes a camera and you can move to to the application window (which will become highlighted), then click the mouse button to save the screen shot on your desktop as a PNG file. 
5. Use the Apple bundled utility 'Grab' (in the utilities folder) to include a cursor or menu in your screen shot. First go to the 'Grab' preferences and pick the cursor icon you want appearing in the screen shot. Choose Window mode in Grab, select the window you want to capture, then click 'Choose Window'. The window will be capture together with the mouse cursor at the position you clicked. 

Below, I tried the 'Grab' utility to capture a screenshot of the facebook window showing my nephew Z trying repeatedly to share his new toys with Hammer. The cursor I picked was the pointy finger. Can you find it? :)

xo Gracie 

p.s. It would be AWESOME if you could click on any ad here - my sponsors give me a few cents per click. Thanks for supporting my blog!

Add Share to Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Blog This Buttons on New Blogger Interface

There's no need to mess around with editing html for your blogger template. I spent countless wasted and frustrating hours trying to get the html code taken from Bloggerplugins to work - not realizing that in my tunnel vision I totally overlooked the simplest step to getting those darned Blogger Share Buttons to show up on my blog!

On Bloggerplugin's post (dating 2010), the first method given didn't seem to suit me and was for an older version of Blogger. Since I use the updated newer Blogger interface, I couldn't find 'Design>Page Elements' anywhere, so I didn't how to proceed. So I went to the next step #5 that had me embroiled in the twisted web of html. (To his credit, Bloggerplugin's instructions are clear and they work. Well, they worked for all my other blogs, except this Frugal Girl one! The buttons showed up but when clicked on, I'd get the message 'This page doesn't exist')

If you have the new Blogger Interface this is what you need to do:

1. From your blogspot page, Click on 'Design' (which is sandwiched between 'New Post' and 'Sign Out' on the top right of the page.
2. Click on 'Layout' on the left side bar. 
3. In your layout, you'll see various boxes (e.g., Favicon, Navbar) showing what appears on where, on your blog. Look for 'Blog Posts'.
4. Within the 'Blog Posts' box, click on 'Edit' (found at bottom right in that box). You'll see something like the pic below. 
5. Finally, check the box 'Show Share Buttons', 'Save' and 'View' the miraculous wonderful addition to your blog!

I'm just getting acquainted with my Mac, and learning how to make my blog more functional, attractive and useful for my readers. It's a steep learning curve, but I'm enjoying the ride! I'll post every week on how I did/am doing the little tweaks to my blogs (I have 10!). My next post will describe how to capture a screenshot on the Mac (like the one I pasted above). To receive my posts in your inbox you can subscribe, else check back soon for the goodies!

Are you new to blogging or an accomplished blogger pulling in lots of Adsense revenue. I'd LOVE to hear from you! Leave a comment!

xo Gracie

Free $10 deal bucks from Living Social

I'm such a sucker for freebies and LivingSocial knows it! Having signed up a few months ago but not bought anything, I was reeled in for a second look by a free $10 credit that arrived in my inbox.

A quick scan of available deals showed a 10 ft usb data cable from Widget Love at $10. The normal sale price for this 'High quality' cable at Widget Love is $24.99. Is this cable diamond encrusted or something? Amazon stocks these at $4.73 with free shipping. :\

I redeemed my $10 deal bucks and ordered my free cable. The entire process took less than 2 minutes. Sweet! Thanks Living Social!


xo Gracie

P.S. It would be AWESOME if you could click on any ad here - my sponsors give me a few cents per click. Thanks for supporting my blog!