36 years ago this week...

Okay...since I was born 36 years ago this week (wow...where did the time go??), I thought I'd find some old pictures to share.  :)  Later in the week, I'll try to post some from past birthday parties.  But for now...here I am with various people, as a newborn...

 with Dad

            with Mom           

                                                                                                     

with Doris Ann...

 with cousins Cathy and Christy

                                   

          with cousin Shauna

            Four Generations...

Me, Mom, Grandma Carlisle-Hawn, and Great-Aunt Amanda   

with Grandma... ha ha...She's reading a book called "Angels".  Awesome.  :)

                            

                                       
            


                                                                                                 

Operation Cookie Box

So...I've come up with a new goal/project for 2012.  Operation Cookie Box.  Yep.  Remembering how much I love to bake cookies...and the smiles they bring to others, especially when they are randomly received...well, that is the inspiration behind Operation Cookie Box.

I have decorated a box....

And I have filled out the names of out of town people from my address book on little cards....

The cards will be folded and put into the box.

The plan is simple.  Once a month, I will bake a batch of cookies.  Different kinds each month, most likely.  After baking, I will pull two names out of the box (after a good shake or two of the box, of course).  Then I'll fix up two packages of the freshly baked cookies...put the address on the box for the randomly chosen names... and mail 'em out!  And then SURPRISE!  The person receiving them, won't know about it until they get them in the mail a couple of days later. 

 I'm really excited about this!  It will be fun!  :)  So make sure I have your current address...because you never know when you might be the one finding a box of cookies at your door...

Captioning

Part of my job is to caption programs.  Lately, I've only been doing some of our live programs..which I prefer.  You know they will start at the time they are scheduled...and end 30 or 60 minutes later (depending on which program it is).  Occasionally I have to caption a taped program...which is okay, depending on which program it is.  ha ha.  Sometimes we have to caption a program that is being filmed right then...but won't be on air until a later date.  Those are the ones that keep you away from your desk for much longer than what's scheduled.  Those tapings don't normally start on time, but you have to stay in the booth...because they could still start at any minute.  And we all know...that just as soon as I'd leave the caption booth....they'd decide they were ready to start. 

 The sound room...with the caption booth on the left.

Here's what captioning involves...  You get in the booth about 10 minutes til the time you're scheduled to start.  You have to open the caption software on the computer...make sure you've got the right in-house channel on the little TV... change the user profile to your own... save the blank template to the name and number of the program you're about to caption... call Master Control and run a test to make sure they can view the captioning on their screens.  Once you've done all that, you can sit back and wait for the program to start.  About 20 seconds before the program begins, you put the headphones on and when the 10-second countdown starts on the screen in front of you, you click the microphone on.

 Ready or not...

The actual captioning part is simple...in theory.  The people on tv say something... then you repeat it into the mic... and the computer software translates what you have just said, into text on the screen for all the world to see.  Yes.  In theory, that seems simple enough.  However...some people talk really fast...some people interrupt others who are talking... some people laugh a lot instead of talking... some people talk really slow and change their train of thought five times before they can complete one sentence.  Oh yes.  It's true.  :)  Try it sometime when you're watching tv.  In your head, try to repeat everything that is being said. 

The translation is something by itself.  Sometimes the computer translates very well and word for word what you have just said.  Sometimes...well, sometimes it most certainly does not.  That is what this blog is about today.  A collection of some of the funny things I've noticed in the past two years.  These are all things that I've had happen to me personally...where I've said one thing...and the computer threw something completely different up on the screen. 

Now...I should also state... Those who need and use the caption option on their televisions would not necessarily find any of these things amusing as they are trying to follow along on a program.  And in that respect, none of this is funny.  However, you have to admit...when you just see the right phrase and wrong phrase side by side like this....you have to laugh.  It's all I can do in the caption booth.  Once it's up on the screen, someone somewhere has seen it and it's too late to take it back.  And I don't care how much you "practice" with the software...it will always have something incorrect somewhere in the text.

Enjoy!


What I said -- What it was translated as

"Christian" -- "Russian"
"friendship" -- "French Ship"
"Gatlinburg" -- "cat on her"
"belonging to Jesus" -- "belonging to the cheeses"
"Oak Ridge Boys" -- "of your choice"
"Nashville" -- "kid filled"
"God will" -- "gobble"
"also" -- "all soap"
"rubberband" -- "to Iran"
"praise your Father" -- "crazy father"
"Pentecostal" -- "Picasso"
"everyone in the studio" -- "evidence tampering"
"Vikings attack they would climb up in the tower and pull ladder" -- "Vikings attack the root clump in the tower a full bladder"
"Angie" -- "like a banshee"
"was blind but now I see" -- "was blind but now spicy"
"Missouri" -- "misery"
"Oh Lord" -- "oak floors"
"giving away riches...it sounds like you shouldn't have riches at all" -- "giving away britches...it sounds like you shouldn't have britches at all"
"meet Jesus" -- "meats and cheeses"
"that's my buddy" -- "that's my bad knee"

Randomness as of January 5, 2012

A bracelet...baking cookies...eating cookies...a boy and a truck... cats...a candle... and a super hero.  That's what I have for you today.  Any questions?  :)


A bracelet
For Christmas, one of my Sunday School kids (Domanic) gave me a present.  A bracelet.  His mom told me that he put it together himself and picked out what to put on it.  I love it!  I wore it this past Sunday morning, proud to show him I had it on.  He was very excited to tell me himself, that he'd "made" it all by himself.  Here it is...

Baking cookies
I did it.  I finally baked some cookies last weekend.  Woo hoo!!  I opted for oatmeal...since that is what my dad has been asking for.  No lie, he's been asking for them for at least the past 4 or 5 months.  So I made a big bowl of dough, then scooped out some and split it into three more little bowls.  The big bowl, I left plain oatmeal.  The little bowls got additions to the dough.  I added chocolate chips to one... peanut butter chips to one... and toffee bits to the third one.  Preston had come up with the peanut butter chips several years ago.  I can picture it even...we were shopping at Walmart in Franklin TN late one night.  Getting all the stuff I would need to make cookies for my Christmas party.  I asked him what I should add to my oatmeal cookies, to make them different.  He suggested the peanut butter chips.  I thought he was crazy...but they wound up being delicious.  Way to go, Preston!  However...this time with the toffee bits (first time I've tried them in the oatmeal)...I think I have a new favorite!

Eating cookies
The day after I baked the cookies, we had Dakota at our house all day.  So...naturally, I gave him a cookie.  This was his first time eating an Aunt Manda cookie.  Yay!!!!!!!!  He seemed pleased.

A boy and his truck
Later that same day of the cookie eating, I took Dakota outside to play.  It was super cold and windy.  That didn't matter, though.  There was only one place Dakota wanted to go.  The truck.  Any truck, really, would do.  But this particular day, it was Preston's old run-down truck that just sits out there taunting little Dakota. 

Cats
The other night I was sitting on the bed, watching tv, minding my own business.  Usually Lincoln is on the bed with me.  If Abe is in the house, he might be on the bed, too.  But the other night, Scout decided to join us, too.  This is what it looked like.

A candle
I have a candle warmer in my office at work.  Last month I had a pine-scented candle that I used with it.  This week I started using a pear-scented one.  Now...the pine candle melted evenly every day.  This new pear candle... well... it's not exactly doing that.  The first day I used it, I noticed a large hole in the wax on the outside (up against the glass, so I could see it).  When I got in my office this morning and went to turn it on, there was a large hollowed-out hole right in the middle...about an inch in diameter, and maybe 3 inches deep.  It was strange.  This afternoon, after it had been on for a few hours, the hole had disappeared...and the wax had come up out the top of the hole and was beginning to layer.  And then even later, it was completely melted right in the middle...but not around it.  Of course, I had to snap a couple of pictures.

A super hero
I got home today and found an envelope that had come in the mail.  It was from David, my first pretend nephew.  He was the first kid to call me "Aunt Manda".  Now he's 8 years old!  Anyway, there was this totally awesome picture of a new super hero inside... here's what it was...and then a couple of pics of the super hero himself, posing with it.

That's my complete randomness and insanity for the day...  Thanks for reading!  :)