Christmas Tree

Yesterday my roommates and I put up the Christmas tree. My roommate chopped it down, so it's real. In decorating it, I got lots of sap on my hands. So I googled how to get it off, and found out to spray your hands with Pam. It really works!! It came right off. The tree is very holey. My roommates called it the Charley Brown tree.

In other news, I found a job I applied to online called TypeWell. It's a program where a transcriber (me) would sit in a classroom and type what the teacher says in real-time for a deaf student. The deaf student would also have a computer so they could see everything I type (my computer transfers what i type onto their screen.) It's for the BYUI campus. I had to do a typing test where I typed everything on the screen for 5 minutes. They wanted no errors, but I made 4. And they wanted at least 60wpm and I typed it in 67 wpm. Then I took a grammar test which consisted of probably at least 40 questions and I missed only four. Then there was a listening test and I had to type out everything I could remember. I didn't get results on that one, though, because a real person had to grade that later.

So I guess I passed everything, now I'm waiting for my sponsor (my future employer) to give his compliance that he will pay $400 for me to take the course. It's a required course consisting of 29 online lessons that teaches you short hand (like a stenographer) so you don't have to type out everything letter for letter. If you do well in the course (which takes 1-3 months to finish) then I'll be hired on with the campus. It pays $15-30 an hour. I'll probably get around at least 12 hours a week.

The biggest thing, though, is the risk. After the course, I have to pay $300 to own the TypeWell software. And buy a stenographer desk and roller bag to carry both computers in. (but i'm thinking, shouldn't the deaf person already have their own computer that we'd install the software on? I see no reason in me having to hang on to it for them or buy them one). It said that the future employer is usually the one to provide the computer for them, if not then I'd have to and I don't want to do that.

Another bad thing is that I'd be using my own laptop for the job/course training, and I have the worst laptop ever when it comes to typing. I'm having a super hard time just typing this blog post in because it's really hard to do with this computer. My mouse keeps jumping everywhere all the time because it's super sensitive and therefore, it keeps cutting into my previous sentences and erasing them. I'm always making errors. It's not going to cut it on the job or training. So I don't know what I'll do. And it's been two days and I still haven't heard from my sponsor to see if he'll pay the $400 for me. But if he'll pay the fee for me, then I'll start the classes in january and hope to do well. If not, I guess it's no loss because I guess I won't be out the 400. It said nothing about having to pay it back if we don't pass!

Also, I started volunteering this week at the elementary school's library, just around the corner from where I live. I really liked it. She had me get the MARC records from the Library of Congress's database online and save them into the computer. This is the records that tells you what the book's about, the author, subject matter, and a bunch of random numbers and info. She said you use that record to make a bar code to put on the book later so you can scan it when someone checks the book out.

I got to help out with that, and later she said we'll cover the books in plastic. Four classes of 1st graders came in today and the librarian read them a Christmas book while I worked on the records. While the librarian unexpectedly stepped out for a few minutes, the students wanted to check books out. I had watched her do it, so I was able to check them out! The kids even have their own library cards (the librarian keeps them, though, or else they'd lose them.) So I first scan their card, and then the book, and I keep their library cards. So it was pretty fun.

I'm also on the substitute teaching list, but I still haven't gotten to do it yet because teachers won't call you unless they know you. So hopefully with this, teachers will know who I am and I can start subbing soon. I 've already seen several teachers today because they bring their students into the library. That is definitely going to help me out. I'm excited for that, too, because I went in to two classrooms to observe to get an idea if I'd like it or not, and I think I could handle it.

My roommate's the one with the milk (Carrie) and the one behind her with the red shirt (Dakota). Zoe is the one about to take a drink and she is Carrie's sister.