Overdue Post :)

Hello! It's been a while since I've been here! The daily posting thing just isn't working out for me right now. We took a family vacation for the last TWO WEEKS! of July and since returning life has been busy, busy, busy! The kids are back at school and work is crazy. Some day I will return to a regular blogging schedule, I promise.

Our youngest just began her last year of preschool. I can now calculate how much I'll be spending on childcare for the rest of my life! (I hope...I guess stuff could happen.) $7,128 max. My oldest is now 10, and with two kids in daycare at times etc., I estimate I've easily spent $75,000 on daycare. I'm actually not complaining, it was worth it. For many reasons, least of which was my mental health, I needed to work. With one notable exception (with whom we entrusted our child for about 5 weeks), I have loved the daycare providers my kids have had, and they have enriched their lives. I wouldn't complain if there were some better system and childcare were free. But it wasn't, so when I think back on the amount I've spent I relax a little and I think oh, so that's why I haven't managed to build up a true savings. That's why my credit cards don't have a zero balance. Soon, I will be able to make real financial progress.

That said, I've been doing some gig work in my downtime to help bring in just a little more money. I will need to write about mTurk some time, but lately I've been obsessed with transcribing for Transcribe Me! (TM! for short). I've been getting a lot of typing practice while learning about interesting, random topics. It's flexible. Some days I can't even think about checking on available jobs, and other days I can do job after job. They have built a community there that is so kind and understanding.

And if they treat freelancers so well, I can't begin to imagine what it's like to be their client. While I'm transcribing, I think about how useful the services would have been to me when I worked in a program evaluation office. I had so much qualitative research to do, and I spent hours and hours transcribing interview data--hours that our office billed to clients at a very high rate. If only they knew about Transcribe Me!, they could have saved so much money, I could have saved so much time, and they could have had their reports back much sooner than they did. Live and learn, I guess. I know in the future there's no way I would ever consider taking on those kinds of projects as a researcher, not when an accurate, affordable service like TM! exists.

Because I believe in the work I've done with Transcribe Me!, I recommend this service to anyone. So...visit us at www.transcribeme.com !