International Women's Day 2017

Today is International Women's Day and I want to tell you what it means to me.


Today is just another day.  Another day of putting the dog outside, kissing hubby goodbye on his way to work where he will bust his butt so we can have things, walking the kids to the bus stop and telling them I love them and hope they can have a wonderful day.  I come back inside, put the dog out again, read some news, have some coffee, crochet items for people, clean the home, do the dishes and laundry.  Tonight I'll make dinner.  We will eat until we are full and we will go to bed to do it all over again.  We're blessed.

Today is just like any other day and I wouldn't change that.

For the media to ask women to take today off and show them what life would be like without women in the workplace is asinine. Don't lose your job to prove your worth.

I am a proud woman. I am a proud mother and wife.  I don't have to march somewhere to say that.

Women in this country and other countries should not have to have a day to march just to say we are important, that we are EQUALS.  Not your race, your religion nor your sex should stand between you and what you want to be in your life.  Give love and inspiration, even when you don't always feel like it.  For those women who are beaten down by life, by others, know that you are loved and there is more for you out there. 

This day shouldn't have to be a thing.  All we ask is equality.  Women shouldn't have to worry every time they leave their home or vehicle about who is going to hit on them, assault them or rape them.  Not in any country, anywhere.  We shouldn't have to worry whether IF we are assaulted, will the government of male majority decide that my body is something they can control. 

I was raised to speak my mind, to be honest.  I love others and expect it in return.  I may be crass and sometimes unbearable but so can everyone else.  Women are amazing creatures, but so are men, so are those that don't consider themselves a gender but as a people, so are children.  We don't have to have a day to point that out.  It just is.

Wot in Tarnation?

This meme broke out recently with random objects and faces having a cowboy hat on them.  From what I've read it really is nothing more than a "What in Tarnation?" or "Wot in Tarnation?" joke.

"What in tarnation?", for those that haven't figured it out, means the same as saying, "What in the name of God?", "What the hell?", "WTH?" or "What in the Wide World of Sports?".  It is a response (usually) to people saying, "Hold my beer" and doing something with such enormous stupidity that you are flabbergasted into saying the first thing that comes to mind.

In the south it's usually along the lines of :

"Wat in tarnation has that boy done got into? Has he lawst his damn mind? What if his mama sees him? Good God what if the preacher sees him? Lord, help my time. We gotta get that boy down from there before he kills his fool self."

This very scenario happens a lot.  I'm sure you can google that these days and find ample amounts of idiocy directly under, "Here, hold my beer".

In the past it's been used in the south by every grandparent ever.  Applejack on My Little Pony Friendship is Magic series says it. Yosemite Sam said it.  Actual origins of the word are unclear.

I figured the new meme's were funny enough and getting weird enough that it was time to share the translation and some of the funniest memes I've found.

Welcoming in 2017

I just did a post on my crochet blog and I thought I'd come on over here and share that magic.
@Home Ninja by Keisha

2016 was crap.

We did have a lot of good things happen.  Hubby has spent a year at a job that gave him a couple of bonuses.  They're awesome when he needs time off.  Best yet, he's not had to leave home for a week, two weeks or a year and a half at a time like construction.  He doesn't get calls from the bosses wife that leaves him upset.  He's relaxed and happy.  Our boys are actually doing pretty well in school. One is in Advanced Choir and loves it.  The younger one is a pain in the butt but he's enjoying band more.  I'm selling hats recently and I love that.  My MIL's health has been steady which is actually awesome because this time last year she'd just had a stroke and we were scared for her.

Down side was political craziness, soul crushing debt (ie. mortgage and bills), dead van(s), I don't make enough money to be an important part of fixing that crushing debt and my dad's health is steadily declining.  BUT that was then.

This is 2017. This year I hope to crochet more.  I hope to figure out a job or company to start.  I want to make money for my family. I'd love to lose 25 or so lbs too, since I'm just throwing things out there to break. What do you have planned?

What's In Your Nugget?

Me: The chicken nuggets are ready. Have at it.

Hubs: (walks into kitchen, puts nuggets on plate and stops in his tracks): Woman, I'm gonna have to teach you the proper condiments to serve with nuggets.

Me: I got the mustard, ketchup, spicy ketchup and BBQ sauce out, Your Holiness. What did I forget. 

Hubs: It's NOT mustard and ketchup, woman. It's BBQ sauce and Honey Mustard.

Me: Wait. We have Honey Mustard? I didn't see that in there.

Hubs: That's because I was hiding it from you. I know how you are. I'd blink and the honey mustard would be gone. Much like the BBQ sauce is.

Me: I can't believe after all these years you don't trust me with the Honey Mustard. Who feeds you? Who scrubs your back in the shower? Who tends to the dogs and makes sure they don't bother you while you're recovering from surgery? Who looks at your Harley and makes sure it's still shiny as all hell? Who, I ask you!?

Hubs: Don't be eyeballing my bike. And next time, it's 9 chicken nuggets - not 8. Dogs have to snack, too.

Me: Leave my presence and never return.

Insta-Gratification

Ok, this isn't as kinky as one might think :)

I love punksmitharmory on Instagram - he has the greatest comic book collection I've seen in a long time.

Check it out - Thor !!!

#thorsday #thor #themightythor #mjolnir #hela #odinson #waltsimonson #marvelcomics #marvel #comic #comics #comicbooks #comicbook #comicbookcollector #comicbookcollection #comiccollection #comiccollector #comicnerd #comicgeek #comicbookart #comicart #comiccovers #comicbookcovers #comiccoveroftheday #igcomicfamily #photography #photoftheday

A photo posted by Punksmith Armory (@punksmitharmory) on Nov 10, 2016 at 9:44am PST

Rev, The Audio / Video Transcription & WAH

In the middle of September one of my marvelous sisters, and my other blog author, told me about Rev.

Rev does general transcription, translation and caption for clients and you listen to audio or watch videos and give them the most accurate account of what you're seeing and hearing.  Some work is verbatim which is exactly what you see and hear, generally they will tell you how they want you to write up what you see into the file.  Other times you are left to ask staff or head to their forums. I've never had a question that wasn't answered by a Revver within minutes.  They pay weekly!  You are independent so you do not have a schedule, you do not always have work, you won't get fired unless you really screw up or unless you contact a client (big no no) and you don't get benefits but you are paid for what you do weekly and via paypal.

You have 3 levels you can choose from:
Transcription
Captioner
Translator

Transcription:  This one is the only one I can tell you about, for fact, because I've tried it and do it almost daily.  According to Rev's Main Freelance Page,Transcriptionists make $0.40-$0.65 per audio minute.  This varies greatly.  When you start out in transcription, you are ... you know what, lets back this up.
*insert rewind noise*
Okay, when you sign up for Rev you have to answer questions, go to a typing site (they give you the link) and find out your typing speed.  Mine is 60+ WPM, which I knew, but you have to do the site link.  Upload a resume and wait.
*back to the present noise*

When you pass your tests they send an email that you've been accepted or rejected.  You don't have to be perfect.  I see transcriptionists typing in the forums and it makes my skin crawl with the error, misspellings and grammar but they work.  You do have to have basic grammar and, if accepted, you will have to go to their site (again they provide the links) and go through training and videos.  I don't know about you but that made me terribly nervous.  What if I forget?  What if I don't have the time to complete this?  It's okay.  You have to complete these to move on.  I did this in a few hours but I had other stuff going on.

After a week I received notification that I was accepted and ready to start.
You begin as a Rookie.  That's your title.  Jobs are not much.  There might be 25 jobs at any given time.  My first choice was a nearly 26 minute audio file.  It was an interview with two people.  I made about $0.42 cents per audio minute to start.  I had no idea how long this would take me. It took me FIVE HOURS (certainly not the norm now). BUT I made a 5 out of 5 for accuracy and 5 out of 5 for formatting.  These are important because REV works on a metrics system.  We'll go into that in a bit.  To move up in levels you need to have 60 minutes of work reviewed.  Everything you do is graded (eventually) and sent on to the client.  If they have to re-do your work you receive a poor grade and the amount they pay you is less than what you were promised.  If they tell you that you will make $0.42 per audio minute that is IF you make 5/5 in accuracy and formatting.  They take a few cents off if you do not.  My first audio, with 5/5 I made over $10.

Rookie to Revver
My advice is to choose less minutes in the beginning.  Make sure you ALWAYS listen to the audio before you accept the job.  The less minutes, the more practice you get.  You don't have someone over your shoulder telling you what not to do.  Read their resources, take notes, make a special folder in your favorites just for Rev that you can refer to.  Don't forget if you are stuck to use the forums but be SURE you get the work in on time. If you can't complete the work in a given time, you can get out of it.  Generally, you have one hour to unclaim the work you are in for whatever reason and not receive a penalty.  If you go over that time then they take points off of your on-time submission rate.  That's why it's important to listen to the audio before you take the job.

Moving from Rookie up to a Revver you need to have 60 minute of work reviewed and have at least a 4.2 accuracy, 4.2 formatting, 75% of your work has to be submitted on time and 8 commitment ratio. Meaning the rate you've unclaimed after the hour given.  I did this within a week but I focused a lot of time on it.

Revver to Revver+
You have to have at least 60 days of work in with Rev, 4.6 accuracy rate, 4.6 formatting, 90% on-time submission, 15 commitment ratio AND 400 minutes transcribed.  I'm not here yet but I'm working on it.  I have 40 or so days in, 4.8 accuracy, 4.9 formatting, 100% on-time, 19 Commitment ratio and 226 minutes.  I can access my Metrics at any time and see where I missed something.  I've only had one thing I had to back out of after an hour.  I have 4 jobs that have yet to be graded because we don't always have graders.  Once you reach Revver+, you CAN be demoted if you drop below their required numbers.

Pay :  Pay for a Revver certainly goes up.  I've hardly seen any where I get paid less than $0.50 but as a general rule they are $0.52-$0.65.  Occasionally one comes through with $0.95.  They tell you the range of pay is $0.40-$0.65 but the above is what I have seen in the more than a month I've worked there. They will never pay you more than that because they only charge $1 per audio minute to the clients and they'd not make money.

You can apply to be a Grader once you have everything you need to be a Revver+.  From what I've read on the forums, however, the graders have been far too strict on some, taking points away on accuracy and formatting when it wasn't necessary (you can dispute if you feel you did better) and you don't really make that much more money.  We shall see, I'd like to try that once I get enough minutes.

Captioner and Translator:
I'm afraid I can't give you information on that as I have not applied to those.  I couldn't translate anything unless it's 11 or 16 yr old lingo so I'm out of that one completely.  I was reading today that Caption is different in that you can still be a Transcriptionist and work Captions.  They are the same company but two branches that are separate. I'm considering trying out for that one this week.  You have to apply the same as you would for Transcription and you may or may not be hired, however, you will not lose your job in Transcription if you don't make it or if you are fired.

Pay : I didn't bold this one because I haven't been hired in those so I don't know for certain.
Captioner is said to make $0.40-$0.75 per video minute.
Translator is said to make $0.05-$0.07 per word.

The differences here are audio minute and video minute are not by the word!! I want to make that really clear.  The most I've made in the month+ I've been a Revver is $31.90.  I did 4 jobs that week.  Yesterday I did a 21 minute 21 second transcription and made $16.01.  One week I did 3 jobs, each were 10 m 4 s each (we'll talk about that in a sec) and only 1 was scored (yet).  I made $5.03, $7.55 and $6.54.

I keep track of everything in a notebook just for Rev stuff.  At the end of the year I'll have to file and pay taxes on what I've made so I want to know what the job was, what I made and how long it took me.  One was an officer interviewing a guy in a murder case (like reality, not made up show, a real officer interview), another was an interview with two former football players (a couple original guys that went from all black schools and were integrated in the 40-50s) and some other interview.  Two of them took 3 hours each, one took 2 hours.

TIME: This depends.  As I said, you'll see a lot that are 10m 4s.  This is because sometimes audio is uploaded that's 60+ minutes and people try to do it but they can't or no one does it and it sits there.  The client will still want that audio so they break it down into parts.  Then you have 6 audios where you had 1.  The police interrogation took me 3 hours.  The officer was Hispanic and the young man was African American.  I could understand them perfectly for the most part but you will have to pause and go back so many time's it seems crazy.  You'll have phone calls, you'll have the kids text you and need picked up, dishes that need done, laundry needing put in the dryer, dog that needs out, grab a drink or a potty break or even just have to pause and glare at your home phone that won't stop ringing. ("CAN'T YOU SEE I'M WORKING HERE?!!" When clearly, they can't, they're on the phone.  Moron.)

I start work in the mornings, listening to audios and seeing what I can/can not do.  If I accept one I need about 2-3 hours for a short one, 3-5 hours for one that's 20-30 minutes.

I have to weigh what is important for me that day by what job I choose.  I generally like to do shopping for groceries in the mornings so i don't take a project before I shop.  I don't want to not complete it and have to back out.  I have my mother in law that a few times a month needs a lift to town for things.  I never know when she will get up.  I set times but those are relative and don't matter.  I go over and she's not up or she is and after waiting for 5 hours she decides to go another day.  Or, as has happened and did today, one of the kids gets to school and wants to come home with some random illness.

This job is not a long term solution for finances.  This is a job you do if you want to make $100 or so a month extra. (Again, don't forget to set some aside for when you do taxes.  You are now an Independent Contractor.) On my best week, I made almost $32.  The audio I completed came to just over 56 minutes transcribed or an average of $0.57 per audio minute.  Looking at my notes I can tell you the 4 took me a total of 10 hours that week to do.  So even though it took me 10 hours I was paid for 56 minutes.  That's $3.20 per hour.  You do this for the experience and the love of typing...not the pay.

WHAT YOU NEED:
A computer or a laptop that can run their page and their audio files
Typing skills
General understanding of Grammar!
That's it.
It's nice to have a set of headphones that you have a volume control on.  You can use a foot pedal but I do not have one yet and work just fine.

That's about it.
I'm here and available for any questions anyone might have.
REV is a real company. It offers you REAL work at home.  If you have silence, nothing at all to do and nothing but time, you can make some good money with this company.  For my situation I just make peanuts.  I can't work when the teen, preteen or hubby are home because it's time to cook, clean, talk, homework, etc.  Daytime is the only time but even that is limited.

I will try to take some screenshots and add those this week!  Again, if you have questions or comments, we get notified and will respond. :)

Broken Record

I know I come here a lot to vent. It seems like it's all I do is blog about some nonsensical thing the 11 year old does. I suppose I think that somewhere out there will be a reader having the same problem or a parent that says "this might work" instead of the eternal darkness that is the tunnel I'm walking through with this kid.

I know there's an end to it. Occasionally I think I see a speck of light. A morning when he gets up, he's giggly and goes off to play a game or watch a video while he wakes up, he hears me come up the stairs to ask him to get dressed and he leaps up and throws on clothes and when it's time for the bus he's out the door before his older brother and we're there early, no running up the 200+ feet driveway. That happened one day this week. Monday, maybe Tuesday. I don't know, they've all run together and it's only Thursday.

Today, I woke him at 6am as usual. Hubby has been going in early this week, leaving at 6:10-6:15am. The rule was if 11yrold misbehaved we would just let him start going in with dad, get dropped off at 7am on his way to work and he'd just be there an extra hour a day. If he can't get up and go for me then he'll get up and go with dad. That plan is non-existent while he's going in early because no one would be there at 6:20-6:30am at the middle school. Hubby makes a 1/2 hour drive to work and back every day and because he's there early this week it would make going in early not matter if he has to drive home and get 11yrold jerkface and take him 5 miles to prove a point.

So, back to today. He woke at 6am. I turned on his game, gave him hugs and kisses, his alarm went off, he growled at me and rolled back over. I explained that his game was on and I would be back. I made hubby's coffee, gave him smooches and he was out the door for work. Back up the stairs I go at 6:15, wake up 11yrold, more hugs, speaking calmly, I even got him a drink. The dog came in and gave him kisses so he got up and got to his game. YAY! Winning!

I gave him until 6:45 to get in some wake up time. I went in to ask him to get dressed and it was 20 minutes of hissy time.

11: You don't ever listen to me. I'm sick.
me: You are not sick, you were just playing your game.
11: See, you don't listen to me.
me: I don't have to when you say the same thing 180 days out of the year. You're sick, I don't listen to you, I'm making you go to prison, you hate it there, you want to be home schooled, I hate you because I'm making you go to a prison where you'll grow old and die. Now, honey, what was it that you wanted to say? I'm listening.
11: Well you said what I wanted to say.
me: Exactly. So how is it that I'm not listening when I just knew what you were going to say?
11: You don't listen to me!

All of this was while I was trying to get socks on him because he's not doing it himself. I hurt his leg because I was holding it steady to get the sock on. I get his legs in his pants and the shirt over his head before I walk off to get myself ready to walk them up ... because for whatever reason, he really likes when I walk up with them. Even when he's mad. After all this he gets down the stairs and gets his shoes on. I think I might have sent my 16yrold out in a hoodie for girls, if there's such thing, but he doesn't care because he'll take what he gets and rock'n'roll with it. That's his flow. 11yrold yells at me that he's sick and I won't even give him medicine. I say, really? Because I've said I'll take him to the doctor and medicate whatever is causing all this and he refuses saying it'll just make him angry. So that's not an argument.

I don't know, I don't get it. I wouldn't care to take them to school. Let them sleep a little longer and just drive them in but first, 16yrold has a friend on his bus that he loves to hang out with and second, my van just won't do it every day. I could go pick up the friend and I wouldn't hate that but again, I can't. My old van blew some tube. I'd type it all out but as a general rule it's going to be a mom reading this crappy post, not a mom/mechanic who knows what I mean or cares. The newer van I got was $700. The guy got it as a trade in from a young woman whose name wasn't on the title but she's just bought it and wanted a truck or something. He wouldn't return the money when I realized I had to hunt down the original seller several counties away to get the title signed over to me so after a ton of trouble, a ton of running, the van was mine. Now it's got tons of problems (as you'd expect) and when you start it, if it starts because that's tricky (been stranded until it decides it wants to and the culprit is none of the usual suspects) then you have a loud exhaust from front to back that super stinks. The auto door locks keep you from getting in the side and back doors 98% of the time, the key is bent and will eventually give up the ghost, there's some electrical damage, a recall on an item that sets the vans on fire was never repaired, the gauges go bonkers and I have to use my cell phone as the speedometer and guess at fuel consumption and the back passenger break is stuck on something and keeps making a screeching sound unlike the one it makes when it's worn down. So, yes, driving them every morning isn't even a valid option.

I'll wrap this one up and start working on another, less boo-hoo post about the new work I'm doing. :) If anyone has suggestions or any chest thumping "I feel ya girl!" that you'd like to share, I'd love to read the comments. :)

***Edited to add: Yesterday I received an email that in his SS teacher that his behavior is a problem.  He says inappropriate things, leaves books in class or gets other students books or "does something to a student.  Nothing big, just aggravating."  Today I get a call from the vice principal letting me know he dropped the F bomb in Math class so he'll be in ISS tomorrow.  This evening he came in with a letter from Math saying he has an after school detention on Tuesday for "grade recovery" and one from Science saying basically the same thing.