It's Time For White Goodman to Put On His Shiny Shoes

Good morning folks!

I had some caffeine this morning because I'd heard that caffeine helps the brain function slightly more productively, and I had a test, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Of course, I also tried that "studying" thing I've heard so much about, so I can't say which one did the trick, but something helped me breeze through the 60 question quiz in 20 minutes, with a very confident feeling that I only missed 5 questions, at most. Less than a 90% on this quiz would come as quite a shock for me.

So, right before the exam, I literally felt the caffeine rush through my system. Remember, I've been off caffeine for quite a while, (except for very few times like this, when I feel I'll really need the extra energy/brain boost) so a large coffee-like drink is bound to have some pretty profound affects on me.

I'm not looking forward to the crash, but I forgot how fun the up is. I'm soaring at a million miles an hour, ready to take on anything. Sure, it's a false feeling, and actually trying to run that marathon, or do 1,000 jumping jacks would end in abysmal failure, but this is how it feels.

God, I'm glad I never got into drugs. I have enough trouble not justifying adding caffeine back into my diet (especially when I learned that not only does it help a little with brain functions, it also speeds up your metabolism), I can't imagine if I was on some actual illegal substance.

I mean, the problem with drugs is that they usually make you feel good. I can't imagine people would continue with them if they made you feel horrible while you were high; that just wouldn't make sense. They do what they're supposed to do, with very little effort on the part of the druggie. The fact that they're illegal barely matters to people who have nothing good in their lives, nowhere to turn except their next score.

I had an experience with being slipped LSD once, at Woodstock '99 in Rome, NY. Most of my friends know about it, because it makes for hilarious stories afterwards. I mean, imagine me standing in place for hours, literally hours, holding up the sky because it's made of stained glass, and all these people jumping up and down are going to break it if they're not careful.

Just imagine walking by me, my arms up-stretched towards the sky, not moving, staring up, not moving a step, no shirt on, glazed eyes, and then an hour later walking by, seeing me doing the same thing. From what I'm told/remembering, I was there for at least 3 hours, possibly longer, until the sun went down.

It's funny, and thinking about it I remember that I didn't feel bad, just worried. Bad came when I tried to sleep and it felt like all the insects within a 20-mile radius were trying to crawl into my sleeping bag. That wasn't fun, but I knew by then that something was wrong, and was able to convince myself that it was my mind playing tricks on me.

But seriously, good funny stories, not horrible feelings for most of a day, and a lot of weird things happening that I'd never see without acid (like a flying whale); these things aren't bad, and I can see why people get into it.

That's not to say they should.

There's so many other things in life that can be awesome, fun, and a little weird, but you have to expend more energy and will to get them to be fulfilling. And, they're real. You can lock yourself in a room with a few people and have whatever designer drugs are out there now, have a good time, and then come down from it, feeling like you've just been digested and excreted by some giant flying whale, or you can go put a little effort into having fun, and keep feeling good.

I'd rather keep feeling good, personally.

Oh, and pot? Pot should be legal. I still wouldn't smoke it, but that's not the point.

The Life Of A Transcriptionist

The life of a transcriptionist is boring, and would probably cause most people to throw their headphones out the window, followed shortly by the computer and monitor. It's tedious, mind-numbing work that people tend to avoid at all costs, so I've found.

I love it.

I get to listen to people complain about the same things, over and over, without stop. I get to a point where I can predict what people are going to say by their first sentence, or tone of voice. I know by the third word out of a person's mouth whether or not they're going to say "thank you" at the end of their 30 seconds of speaking.

But MAN does it suck for telling stories about my "day at the office," especially since I work from home.

I've gotten to the point during work that I can shut off my part of the brain that handles transcription, type it all out perfectly and quickly, while reading my friends list, or comics, or whatever.

I once planned out an entire D&D campaign strictly while working; within the 5 seconds between files I would jot down quick words to remind me of what I had been thinking of while the person on the recording had been talking.

For a while I was the only person doing this job for my company, and it was extremely stressful since there were very strict deadlines that had to be met, or the company would be fined, and I'd get talked to. I was pushing 12 hours daily, 6 days a week, very often 7 days a week for two to three weeks in a row. It was stressful. I started hating my job, forgetting why I liked it, because it was becoming my life. I had nothing else to think about while transcribing things because I didn't have time to do anything else outside of work.

I had to actually start listening to the calls. That sucked.

Now I'm back on a very easy schedule, having a general quota I'm supposed to meet, five days a week. I'm loving, actually loving, the job again. I have weekends free, nights too; something I thought I would never see once I started working nights, but since our volume has increased ten-fold from what it used to be, my boss had to hire more people to help, and I've been able to take my pick of when I wanted to work.

My job is awesome right now. If I ever again start working 12+ hours a day, someone remind me that I need a life outside of work, deal?

That being said, I want to go do something this weekend. Because I can.