I’ve been debating whether or not I should post this letter for a while now. It is essentially saying that I have until Spring 2013 to finish my court reporting classes or I’m screwed, unless they do decide to do the virtual campus thing, then I’m okay (until they decide that it’s not worth paying for a teacher, server space, or whatever, then I’m back to bending over and being at the mercy of my college.) The problems: Number 1 If everything went to according to the original plan, I would be graduating at the end of this summer. This is not the case, as I’m about a semester behind when it comes to my speeds. I should be writing at 140 words per minute, but I just reached 120 wpm. This means I either A) reach my speeds by Fall 2012 and graduate or B) work my ass off and push myself to try to finish my realtime classes by this summer (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, oh dream life, you’re so silly) or C) get stuck on some speed barrier around 180 wpm, waste two semesters, and not make it and get dumped by my school and ruin everything for everyone. Forever. *Note: Even if I did do what my dream life insists, I would still have to wait until fall to graduate, since that’s when they decided to have the court reporting procedures class. If the school didn’t pull this shit, the class would have been this Spring. Number 2 “You can finish the court reporting program in two years. People do it all the time!” That’s what they tell you. They leave out the bit that the people that do finish the program on time are the kids that are fresh out of high school, living with their parents, and have no job. They can spend their entire day on their machine if they so wish.  If you have a job or a kid or any other responsibilities that’s contending with practice time, then you’re looking at finishing the program in three but mostly four years. The school is only going to give me three and that’s it. Number 3 I’m burning out. I really haven’t done anything since I received this letter at the end of October. People are dropping left and right (there’s three people in our class now.) I skipped many classes, including my regular classes not related to court reporting. Every now and then, I try to do homework, but I just practice briefs and controlled writing, and skip the speed building practices.  I let my wonderful 3.87 GPA drop to only-the-gods-know-what because of lack of motivation, unbearable pressure, and yeah, depression doesn’t help this situation at all either. I have my fancy new machine and I don’t want to touch it, or caress it’s keys, adjusting the tension ever so slightly so strokes come out perfectly. I haven’t even signed up for court reporting classes for the Spring semester yet, but it’s not like I have to fight for a spot (and I just found out that they are still making decisions on how they are holding the classes anyway.) This week marks the last week we have classes before finals. Then we have a month long break. I honestly don’t care about anything right now, because it’s all just going to be full of suck. *Note: I lied. I actually care about everything (even stupid small shit that I should just let go of) which leads to extra pressure and then the tears start and before you know it, we’ve just taken a left turn into the wrong side of Melodrama City. So yeah, we’ll be having a not-so-merry fuss-mas and a sobbing new year.
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I’ve been debating whether or not I should post this letter for a while now. It is essentially saying that I have until Spring 2013 to finish my court reporting classes or I’m screwed, unless they do decide to do the virtual campus thing, then I’m okay (until they decide that it’s not worth paying for a teacher, server space, or whatever, then I’m back to bending over and being at the mercy of my college.)

The problems:

Number 1

If everything went to according to the original plan, I would be graduating at the end of this summer. This is not the case, as I’m about a semester behind when it comes to my speeds. I should be writing at 140 words per minute, but I just reached 120 wpm.

This means I either A) reach my speeds by Fall 2012 and graduate or B) work my ass off and push myself to try to finish my realtime classes by this summer (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, oh dream life, you’re so silly) or C) get stuck on some speed barrier around 180 wpm, waste two semesters, and not make it and get dumped by my school and ruin everything for everyone. Forever.

*Note: Even if I did do what my dream life insists, I would still have to wait until fall to graduate, since that’s when they decided to have the court reporting procedures class. If the school didn’t pull this shit, the class would have been this Spring.

Number 2

“You can finish the court reporting program in two years. People do it all the time!”

That’s what they tell you. They leave out the bit that the people that do finish the program on time are the kids that are fresh out of high school, living with their parents, and have no job. They can spend their entire day on their machine if they so wish. 

If you have a job or a kid or any other responsibilities that’s contending with practice time, then you’re looking at finishing the program in three but mostly four years. The school is only going to give me three and that’s it.

Number 3

I’m burning out. I really haven’t done anything since I received this letter at the end of October. People are dropping left and right (there’s three people in our class now.) I skipped many classes, including my regular classes not related to court reporting. Every now and then, I try to do homework, but I just practice briefs and controlled writing, and skip the speed building practices. 

I let my wonderful 3.87 GPA drop to only-the-gods-know-what because of lack of motivation, unbearable pressure, and yeah, depression doesn’t help this situation at all either. I have my fancy new machine and I don’t want to touch it, or caress it’s keys, adjusting the tension ever so slightly so strokes come out perfectly. I haven’t even signed up for court reporting classes for the Spring semester yet, but it’s not like I have to fight for a spot (and I just found out that they are still making decisions on how they are holding the classes anyway.)

This week marks the last week we have classes before finals. Then we have a month long break. I honestly don’t care about anything right now, because it’s all just going to be full of suck.

*Note: I lied. I actually care about everything (even stupid small shit that I should just let go of) which leads to extra pressure and then the tears start and before you know it, we’ve just taken a left turn into the wrong side of Melodrama City. So yeah, we’ll be having a not-so-merry fuss-mas and a sobbing new year.

Here’s the movie list that groups of us have to watch for sociology. The ones with strikes though them are ones I recently watched. The ones with a period next to them are ones I have watched, but it was years and years ago.

Antz

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

Borat

Lord of the Flies (Not sure if I should watch the 1990 version, or 1963 one)

A Civil Action

An Inconvenient Truth

Monster .

Nell .

Crash .

Paradise Now

Titanic .

Precious

The Great Debaters

Bowling for Columbine .

Dead Man Walking

Seems like a good list, and hopefully I get to watch them all in time for each group’s speech.

The best part of my day so far, is that my son packed my steno bag for me.  It has almost everything I need for class. Inside the bag, there is: Soda, for energy Water, for hydration Deodorant, because I get nervous before tests and might sweat Hairbrush, so I can look “professional” and not like a slob, even if the hairbrush is meant for a baby and not an adult. Ribbons and crepe paper, in case I get bored before class.  He has since added: A wooden bowl, for snacks Action figures, once again to keep boredom at bay Pencils and pens, to correct homework and testing mistakes. Thanks buddy! All I need to do is fit my machine in there and my books, and I’m ready to go!
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The best part of my day so far, is that my son packed my steno bag for me. 

It has almost everything I need for class. Inside the bag, there is:

  • Soda, for energy
  • Water, for hydration
  • Deodorant, because I get nervous before tests and might sweat
  • Hairbrush, so I can look “professional” and not like a slob, even if the hairbrush is meant for a baby and not an adult.
  • Ribbons and crepe paper, in case I get bored before class. 

He has since added:

  • A wooden bowl, for snacks
  • Action figures, once again to keep boredom at bay
  • Pencils and pens, to correct homework and testing mistakes.

Thanks buddy! All I need to do is fit my machine in there and my books, and I’m ready to go!

Notes from the day

  • Last week was the end to my written business communications course. It’s nice that it’s over, and my professor gave me a note telling me I was very talented with crafting stuff, which is what I gave my 5 minute oral presentation on. He even spelled “purl” correctly in the note, which makes me think he knits or he at least looked it up.
  • My new class is Sociology, which will be fun since it’s my third time around taking this course. The first time I took it, I was in high school, and then again in my second attempt at college. Even though I got an “A”, I didn’t attend an accredited college that time around, so the credits didn’t carry over. 
  • However, my professor for this course reminds me of Woody Allen, so I’m all smiles during the class. He’s so adorable!
  • However, there is a kid in that class that looks identical to an ex-boyfriend. My face paled when he walked into the room, and I thought of dropping the course then and there. Thankfully, he said something to the professor and I overheard, and it was totally not my ex-boyfriend’s voice. It was a much higher pitch, which made me smile even more in that class. 

LCCC court reporting students take part in mock rape trial | The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Scranton PA

It may seem a little weird, but these cases, and ones dealing with children, are the most difficult to handle according to our teacher. She has been reading us (while we transcribe) headlines from the Casey Anthony case and transcripts from the Elizabeth Smart trial. “You can’t let the horror stories and victims pain get to you and affect your job.”

thedailywhat: Punctuation Rule of the Day: Who gives a f*ck about an Oxford comma? Not Oxford University’s branding style guide, which instructs its readers thus: As a general rule, do not use the serial/Oxford comma: so write ‘a, b and c’ not ‘a, b, and c’. It should be noted that an exception has been made for sentences where an Oxford comma would “assist in the meaning of the sentence or helps to resolve ambiguity,” such as when “one of the items in the list is already joined by ‘and’.” FWIW, The Oxford Style Manual continues to promote the usage of an Oxford comma in all cases. [mefi / kottke / image: someecards.] So you know: Court reporters must always use an Oxford comma due to ambiguity issues leaving them out may otherwise cause. At least, that’s what they teach us in our class, English for Court Reporters. We also use courier font for transcripts.
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thedailywhat:

Punctuation Rule of the Day: Who gives a f*ck about an Oxford comma? Not Oxford University’s branding style guide, which instructs its readers thus:

As a general rule, do not use the serial/Oxford comma: so write ‘a, b and c’ not ‘a, b, and c’.

It should be noted that an exception has been made for sentences where an Oxford comma would “assist in the meaning of the sentence or helps to resolve ambiguity,” such as when “one of the items in the list is already joined by ‘and’.”

FWIW, The Oxford Style Manual continues to promote the usage of an Oxford comma in all cases.

[mefi / kottke / image: someecards.]

So you know: Court reporters must always use an Oxford comma due to ambiguity issues leaving them out may otherwise cause. At least, that’s what they teach us in our class, English for Court Reporters.

We also use courier font for transcripts.

For our final in Written Business Communications, I have play Energyville, research some of the information on that game, and then write a four page paper about it what some of the energy does and how it scores into the game as well as some real life impacts.  I am not a fan. One of the reasons for this is because of the random events that occur in between the years 2011 - 2015 and between the years 2015 - 2030. You have two random events dealing with the energy that you choose happen to you between each of those year segments. During the first one, you can change out what you use for energy. When the second half of the random events occur, you can not change anything about your game before it is scored. Some of these events are positive and some of them are negative. The game scores by factoring in your economic impact, environmental impact, and security risks. The lower the impact on those areas, the better the score.  One thing to remember is that you can never get away from petroleum in that game, since automobiles and airplanes need it, and because the game is sponsored by Chevron. These are just five (out of six that I counted and kept track of) of the random events that can occur just dealing with petroleum. It can really mess up your game score or have no impact at all. Excuse the fact that some of the random events that I logged happened many times. I just wanted to show that there was no definitive number that the game used to score the impact.  Also excuse my attitude towards this game. I know it is trying to teach us that all energy impacts us in one way or another. But still, the scoring is maddening! 
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For our final in Written Business Communications, I have play Energyville, research some of the information on that game, and then write a four page paper about it what some of the energy does and how it scores into the game as well as some real life impacts. 

I am not a fan. One of the reasons for this is because of the random events that occur in between the years 2011 - 2015 and between the years 2015 - 2030. You have two random events dealing with the energy that you choose happen to you between each of those year segments. During the first one, you can change out what you use for energy. When the second half of the random events occur, you can not change anything about your game before it is scored. Some of these events are positive and some of them are negative.

The game scores by factoring in your economic impact, environmental impact, and security risks. The lower the impact on those areas, the better the score. 

One thing to remember is that you can never get away from petroleum in that game, since automobiles and airplanes need it, and because the game is sponsored by Chevron.

These are just five (out of six that I counted and kept track of) of the random events that can occur just dealing with petroleum. It can really mess up your game score or have no impact at all.

Excuse the fact that some of the random events that I logged happened many times. I just wanted to show that there was no definitive number that the game used to score the impact. 

Also excuse my attitude towards this game. I know it is trying to teach us that all energy impacts us in one way or another. But still, the scoring is maddening!