Juvenilia
Tuesday, 24 January, 2006
This morning I thought I really ought to get off my backside and get some exercise so I walked to college with the following objectives in mind:
- Check and clear out our pigeon hole;
- Buy Promoting the Gospel by John Dickson;
- Hand back my keys and get my deposit refunded. (Note to future college students: don't forget to put your deposit on your keys or Robyn will not be happy);
- Pay for the hire of my graduation gown.
It wasn't a very hot day and the sky was all cloudy and grey so I didn't get too hot and sweaty by the time I got to college. It's been two months since I've been back and already there are a few noticeable changes (not including the people who have been moving in and out of Little Queen street). I went to the mail room and there was no pool table and our mail shelf had been moved to a different wall. There was a little note over our name saying, “These people have left—please do not put anything in their pigeon hole.” I thought about leaving a counter note, “Ben hasn't left, just me,” but I suppose it's easier for the administration to treat us as a unit, though why I should take precedence is beyond me.
In Moore Books, they had a sale table set up. I love it when Moore Books has a sale table. You find all sorts of interesting goodies on it for much cheaper than you would usually pay. They must be trying to get rid of old stock. That's how I bought my copy of The New Bible Commentary (which was invaluable throughout the exam period). This time I splurged so I walked out of Moore Books with, not only Promoting the Gospel, but also C.S. Lewis: Collected Letters Volume II (50% off!), The Christian Imagination (ed. Leland Ryken; it has all sorts of interesting essays like, “Beauty and the creative impulse” and “‘Words of Delight’: A Hedonistic Defense of Literature” and “The Gospel as Fairy Tale”. That was 25% off), five copies of the Introducing God Participant's Handbook (Not on sale. Since I'm running it with my friends, I thought I really ought to get them proper copies of the books) and a copy of The Future of Jesus (Peter Jensen's Boyer Lectures 2005. Not on sale). Moore Books gave me a 15% discount off the normal books because our account was in the black, but my spending spree put us right back in the red again. *Sigh*, I love buying books!
Next stop was the office to say hi to Robyn and give her graduation money and keys. I told her I was editing D. Broughton Knox Volume III and she told me that they were in the process of compiling Donald Robinson's works.
I stopped and chatted to some of the guys who were doing maintenance work over the summer and then walked home.
The rest of the day was spent doing transcription. I've been using this nifty program called Express Scribe which is FREE!, which has universal shortcut keys to stop, rewind and play the tape, and which can slow down the speed of the playback for you to aid transcription (but I don't like it because then everyone's voices sound weird). In the first two hours I transcribed 30 min of tape. (Because it's an interview, it takes longer—especially when they talk over each other.) I had a break, watched an episode of The West Wing Season 2, and in the second half of the day, I managed to transcribe 30 min of tape in 1.5 hours (the rest of the interview was done in three hours) because I found the bit in the instructions which said don't worry about the “ums”, “ahs” and repeated words.
The problem with transcription is that you really do need to stop and take a decent break; you can't just sit there and type away for three hours. Well, you could, but your limbs won't thank you for it and you'll start going dotty.
Note to self: when your wireless PCMCIA card isn't working (even though both lights are on, signal strength is at 100% and your husband's computer is talking to the wireless router just fine), unplug the router, wait one minute and plug it back in again and everything will be just fine.
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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For not the first time, I’m going to have to say, I wish blog comments were either audio or in phoenetics.
I’ve been doing some transcription also, for the Orthopaedic Out-patients Clinic at Dubbo Base Hospital. Firstly, I find Orthopaedic a very difficult word to type! Secondly, could doctors be more annoying!! Because they know all the technical words, the just mutter them, so I’d slow my tape down with the doo-hickey, and it always turned out that they were saying what I thought they were! Brerrrerrerre. Not, Bronski’s Test. Or Suprerrrerree instead of Supraspinitus!! Me no likey!
But I’m glad to hear you’re taking proper breaks Karen, my wrists were soo sooo soooo sore by the end of the bit between morning tea and lunch (always the longest part of the day?), and they’re still crackety-crackin!
I’m so sad I can’t make it to your grad!! *sob*sob*